grass I could not find him.

"At last I worked up to the head of the kloof, which made a
_cul-de-sac_. It was formed of a wall of rock about fifty feet high.
Down this rock trickled a little waterfall, and in front of it, some
seventy feet from its face, was a great piled-up mass of boulders, in
the crevices and on the top of which grew ferns, grasses, and stunted
bushes. This mass was about twenty-five feet high. The sides of the
kloof here were also very steep. Well, I came to the top of the nullah
and looked all round. No signs of the lion. Evidently I had either
overlooked him further down, or he had escaped right away. It was very
vexatious; but still three lions were not a bad bag for one gun before
dinner, and I was fain to be content. Accordingly I departed back again,
making my way round the isolated pillar of boulders, beginning to feel,
as I did so, that I was pretty well done up with excitement and fatigue,
and should be more so before I had skinned those three lions. When I had
got, as nearly as I could judge, about eighteen yards past the pillar or
mass of boulders, I turned to have another look round. I have a pretty
sharp eye, but I could see nothing at all.

"Then, on a sudden, I saw something sufficiently alarming. On the top
of the mass of boulders, opposite to me, standing out clear against
the rocks beyond, was the huge black-maned lion. He had been crouching
there, and now arose as though by magic. There he stood lashing his
tail, just like a living reproduction of the animal on the gateway of
Northumberland House that I have seen in a picture. But he did not stand
long. Before I could fire--before I could do more than get the gun to my
shoulder--he sprang straight up and out from the rock, and driven by the
impetus of that one mighty bound came hurtling through the air towards
me.