"Did he bite you?" asked Jack,
"He was dead when he landed on me," said Jim. "It was only the dying struggle. Might have clawed me up a bit, but not much."
In fact the cowboy had several long and deep scratches on his hands and legs, where his heavy trousers had been cut through by the terrible claws. Aside from that he was not hurt.
"Good thing I had a load in my gun," he remarked, as he threw out the empty shell and fired a bullet through the head of the lion to make sure it was dead.
"I guess the other one's done for," said Jack, as he looked toward where the lioness had stood.
"I'd hope so, with three of you firin' at her," spoke Jim as he went over to a little spring and washed some of the dirt and blood from him.
"This isn't half bad," spoke Nat. "I wish some of the fellows at
Washington Hall could see us now."
"Maybe they would think we were some pumpkins," put in Jack.
"Oh we'll do better than this," said John. "We want to get one apiece, instead of a third each."
"That's so," admitted Jack and Nat.