When the lion found he was too late, he started to
limp back to the thicket
;
but by this time I had
seized the carbine from Mahina, and the first shot I
fired from it seemed to give him his quietus, for he
fell over and lay motionless. Rather foolishly, I at
once scrambled downfrom the tree and walked up to-
wards him. To my surprise and no little alarm
he jumped up and attempted another charge. This
time, however, a Martini bullet in the chest and
another in the head finished him for good and all
;
he dropped in his tracks not five yards away from
me, and died gamely, biting savagely at a branch
which had fallen to the ground.

Chapter 9