appearance, but, scared by the smell of the blood, they soon made off.

At length the lions seemed satisfied. They all walked about with their
heads up, and seemed to be thinking about the water, and in two
minutes one of them turned his face towards me, and came on; he was
immediately followed by the second lion, and in half a minute by the
other four. It was a decided and general move, they were all coming to
drink right bang in my face, within fifteen yards of me.

I charged the unfortunate, pale, and panting Kleinboy to convert
himself into a stone, and knowing, from old spoor, exactly where they
would drink, I cocked my left barrel, and placed myself and gun in
position. The six lions came steadily on along the ridge, until within
sixty yards of me, when they halted for a minute to reconnoitre. One
of them stretched out his massive arms on the rock and lay down; the
others then came on, and he rose and brought up the rear. They walked,
as I had anticipated, to the old drinking place, and three of them had
put down their heads and were lapping the water loudly, when Kleinboy
thought it necessary to show his ugly head. I turned my head slowly to
rebuke him, and again taming to the lions I found myself discovered.

An old lioness, who seemed to take the lead, had detected me, and,
with her head high and her eyes fixed full upon me, she was coming
slowly round the corner of the little vley to cultivate further my
acquaintance! This unfortunate proceeding put a stop at once to all
further contemplation. I thought, in my haste, that it was perhaps
most prudent to shoot this lioness, especially as none of the others
had noticed me. I accordingly moved my arm and covered her: she saw me
move and halted, exposing a full broadside, I fired; the ball entered
one shoulder and passed out behind the other. She bounded forward with