Long Odds | Page 8

out; for it was clearly impossible to think of going in after them unless
one was quite determined to commit suicide. Now there was a strong
wind blowing from the direction of the waggon, across the reedy pan
towards the bush-clad kloof or donga, and this first gave me the idea of
firing the reeds, which, as I think I told you, were pretty dry.
Accordingly Tom took some matches and began starting little fires to
the left, and I did the same to the right. But the reeds were still green at

the bottom, and we should never have got them well alight had it not
been for the wind, which grew stronger and stronger as the sun climbed
higher, and forced the fire into them. At last, after half-an-hour's
trouble, the flames got a hold, and began to spread out like a fan,
whereupon I went round to the further side of the pan to wait for the
lions, standing well out in the open, as we stood at the copse to-day
where you shot the woodcock. It was a rather risky thing to do, but I
used to be so sure of my shooting in those days that I did not so much
mind the risk. Scarcely had I got round when I heard the reeds parting
before the onward rush of some animal. 'Now for it,' said I. On it came.
I could see that it was yellow, and prepared for action, when instead of
a lion out bounded a beautiful reit bok which had been lying in the
shelter of the pan. It must, by the way, have been a reit bok of a
peculiarly confiding nature to lay itself down with the lion, like the
lamb of prophesy, but I suppose the reeds were thick, and that it kept a
long way off.
"Well, I let the reit bok go, and it went like the wind, and kept my eyes
fixed upon the reeds. The fire was burning like a furnace now; the
flames crackling and roaring as they bit into the reeds, sending spouts
of fire twenty feet and more into the air, and making the hot air dance
above in a way that was perfectly dazzling. But the reeds were still half
green, and created an enormous quantity of smoke, which came rolling
towards me like a curtain, lying very low on account of the wind.
Presently, above the crackling of the fire, I heard a startled roar, then
another and another. So the lions were at home.
"I was beginning to get excited now, for, as you fellows know, there is
nothing in experience to warm up your nerves like a lion at close
quarters, unless it is a wounded buffalo; and I became still more so
when I made out through the smoke that the lions were all moving
about on the extreme edge of the reeds. Occasionally they would pop
their heads out like rabbits from a burrow, and then, catching sight of
me standing about fifty yards away, draw them back again. I knew that
it must be getting pretty warm behind them, and that they could not
keep the game up for long; and I was not mistaken, for suddenly all
four of them broke cover together, the old black-maned lion leading by
a few yards. I never saw a more splendid sight in all my hunting
experience than those four lions bounding across the veldt,

overshadowed by the dense pall of smoke and backed by the fiery
furnace of the burning reeds.
"I reckoned that they would pass, on their way to the bushy kloof,
within about five and twenty yards of me, so, taking a long breath, I got
my gun well on to the lion's shoulder--the black-maned one--so as to
allow for an inch or two of motion, and catch him through the heart. I
was on, dead on, and my finger was just beginning to tighten on the
trigger, when suddenly I went blind--a bit of reed-ash had drifted into
my right eye. I danced and rubbed, and succeeded in clearing it more or
less just in time to see the tail of the last lion vanishing round the
bushes up the kloof.
"If ever a man was mad I was that man. It was too bad; and such a shot
in the open! However, I was not going to be beaten, so I just turned and
marched for the kloof. Tom, the driver, begged and implored me not to
go, but though as a general rule I never pretend to be very brave (which
I am not), I was determined that I would either kill those lions or they
should kill me. So I told Tom that he need not come unless he liked,