ection I indicated. In no time he
was hurrying up to join me, and we hastily formed a plan of campaign.
The lions had now disappeared over the brow of the hill. I looked at my
watch and the hour was not yet nine o'clock. We were still in sight of
the distant house-tops of Nairobi. It seemed unbelievable.

We crossed the nullah and the carriage jolted down and across a few
minutes later. We took our seats and studied the plains with our
glasses. The lions were not in sight. Then we studied the herds of game
and saw that many of them were looking in a certain direction. We drove
in that direction and whipped up the mules to a lively trot. In a few
minutes Stephenson picked up the three lions far to the left, where they
were slowly making their way toward another ravine a mile or so beyond.

Then began one of the strangest lion hunts ever recorded in African
sporting annals.

You may have read of the practice of "riding" lions. Doctor Rainsford,
in his splendid book on lion hunting, describes this thrilling sport in
such vivid words that you shiver as you read them. Mounted men gallop
after the lion, bring it to bay, and then hold it there until the white
hunter comes up to a close range and shoots it. In the meantime the
cornered beast is charging savagely at the horsemen, who trust to the
speed and quickness of their mounts to elude the angry rushes of the
infuriated animal. It is a most spectacular method of lion hunting and
is only eclipsed in danger and daring by the native method of
surrounding a lion and spearing it to death.

[Photograph: A Kikuyu Woman Uses Her Head]

[Photograph: On the Athi Plains]

[Photograph: It Was a Rakish Craft]

To my knowledge, no one has ever "galloped" a lion in a carriage drawn
by two mules, and probably few hunters have ever galloped three lions at
one time under any conditions.

It was a memorable chase. The mules were lashed into a gallop and the
carriage rocked like a Channel steamer. We were gaining rapidly and the
distance separating us from the lions was quickly diminishing. It seemed
as if the three lions were not especially eager to escape, for they
moved away slowly, as if half-inclined to turn upon us.

[Drawing: _It Rocked Like a Channel Steamer_]

We hoped to overtake them before they reached the ravine or such uneven
ground as would compel us to abandon the carriage.

Five hundred yards! Then four hundred yards, and soon three hundred
yards. The mules were d