The trail turned sharply to the left through some thick bushes. Now we came to a spot where the thief had evidently rested with his spoil; then the tracks led sharply to the right and went straight forward without a pause.
We had been creeping forward on the sunlit sand like stealthy cats, with every nerve and muscle taut, my people close behind me, I with my rifle raised and ready to fire—when, suddenly, with a weird sort of growl it leapt up right in front of us and was over the hard sand and away. It is astonishing how the stampede of a lion reverberates even in the far distance!
C. G. Schillings, phot.
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT A DISTANCE OF ABOUT FIVE PACES OF A LION WHICH I CAPTURED ALIVE AND BROUGHT BACK TO CAMP—A SPECIMEN OF THE MANELESS LIONS OF THE MASAI VELT. SOME OF THE VERY OLD LIONS DEVELOP MANES EVEN IN THIS REGION, BUT NEVER TO THE EXTENT USUAL WITH LIONS IN CAPTIVITY, OR WITH THE ALMOST EXTINCT SPECIES OF THE ATLAS COUNTRY OR OF SOUTH AFRICA.
MY PLUCKY TAXIDERMIST MANAGED TO GET THIS CAPTURED HYENA UNHARMED INTO CAMP, PROTECTING HIMSELF WITH A BIG CUDGEL.
A few steps further I came upon the remains of the ass. The lion had gained the open when I got out of the brushwood. It was useless to follow the tracks, for they led only to stony ground, where they would be lost. Discouraged, I gave up the pursuit for the time, but only to return a few hours later. Approaching very cautiously to the place where I had left the remains of the donkey, we found they were no longer there. The lion had fetched them away. We followed again, but to my unspeakable disappointment with the same result as in the morning. I managed this time, however, to get near the lion through the brushwood, but he immediately took to flight again—when only a few yards from me, though hidden by bushes. Perhaps he is still at large in this same locality!
Lions—generally several of them together—killed my decoys on several occasions without themselves getting caught. I once surprised a lion and two lionesses at such a meal in the Njiri marshes, in June 1903. Unfortunately the animals became aware of my approach, and now began just such a chase as I had already successfully undertaken on January 25, 1897.[8]
I was able by degrees to gain on the satiated animals. A wonderful memory that! Clear morning light, a sharp breeze from over the swamps, the yellowish velt with its whitish incrustation of salt—a few bushes and groups of trees—and ever before me the lions, beating their reluctant retreat, now clearly visible, now almost out of sight.