d white men leading the way, came
along with renewed enthusiasm. That grass was something terrible. One
would hardly care to go through it if he knew that a bag of gold or a
fairy princess awaited him beyond; with a lion there, the delight of the
job became immeasurably less. We could not see three feet ahead. From
time to time we were floundering down into channels of water hidden by
the density of the grass. Some of these channels were two feet deep. And
with each yard of advance came the realization that we were coming to an
inevitable show-down with that lion. Akeley and I were in with the
beaters, Stephenson was beyond the patch of grass to intercept the lion
should it break forth, from cover.

It was not until we had nearly traversed the entire patch of reeds that
the lion was found. It evidently lay silently ahead of us until we were
almost upon it. Then, almost beneath my feet, came the angry and ominous
growl, and my Somali gunbearer leaped in terror, falling as he did so. I
expected to see a long, lean flash of yellow body and to experience the
sensation of being mauled by a lion. All was breathlessly silent for a
moment. Then a shot from Stephenson's rifle said that the lion had burst
from the reeds and into view.

We pushed our way out to see what had happened.

The lion had come out, then turned suddenly back into the cover of
reeds, working its way along the front of the beaters. For an instant
Stephenson saw it and fired into the grass ahead of it without result.

The track of the lion was followed, but the animal had succeeded in
getting around the beaters and back into the swamp. Fires were lighted,
but the reeds were too green to burn except in occasional spots.

A few minutes later the saises, posted like sentinels high on the hills
that flanked the swamp, saw the lion again and galloped down to head it
off. It left the swamp and continued on down the rush-lined banks of a
stream, zigzagging its way back and forth. After a pursuit of a couple
of miles it was cornered in a small patch of reeds. Further retreat was
impossible and it knew that it had to fight.

The moving-picture machine was set up on one side and I was detailed to
guard that side. If the lion came out it was to be allowed to charge a
certain distance, within forty feet, before I was to fire. If it didn't
charge at us, but attempted to escape, it was to be allowed to run
across the strip of open ground in front of the camera before