the water shallowed on a bank to the depth of about fifteen inches, and
presently the first of them--it was the lioness--got on to it, shook
herself, and roared. At that moment Leo fired, the bullet went right
down her open mouth and out at the back of her neck, and down she
dropped, with a splash, dead. The other lion--a full-grown male--was
some two paces behind her. At this second he got his forepaws on to the
bank, when a strange thing happened. There was a rush and disturbance
of the water, such as one sees in a pond in England when a pike takes a
little fish, only a thousand times fiercer and larger, and suddenly the
lion gave a most terrific snarling roar and sprang forward on to the
bank, dragging something black with him.

"Allah!" shouted Mahomed, "a crocodile has got him by the leg!" and sure
enough he had. We could see the long snout with its gleaming lines of
teeth and the reptile body behind it.

And then followed an extraordinary scene indeed. The lion managed to
get well on to the bank, the crocodile half standing and half swimming,
still nipping his hind leg. He roared till the air quivered with the
sound, and then, with a savage, shrieking snarl, turned round and clawed
hold of the crocodile's head. The crocodile shifted his grip, having,
as we afterwards discovered, had one of his eyes torn out, and slightly
turned over; instantly the lion got him by the throat and held on, and
then over and over they rolled upon the bank struggling hideously. It
was impossible to follow their movements, but when next we got a clear
view the tables had turned, for the crocodile, whose head seemed to be
a mass of gore, had got the lion's body in his iron jaws just above the
hips, and was squeezing him and shaking him to and fro. For his part,
the tortured brute, roaring in agony, was clawing and biting madly
at his enemy's scaly head, and fixing his great hind claws in the