The roar, shaking the solid ground, roused the sleepers in double quick time. Tiny, shaking off his blankets, rose to his feet. Dazzled by the glare and with the echoes of the terrible cry ringing in his ears, he was for a moment unable to realise his surroundings.
Quick as lightning, the lion caught sight of the roused lad. The beast was hungry, and when thoroughly famished a lion will not hesitate to attack human beings, even when protected by fire. His eyes closed ever so slightly, his nostrils quivered. These were infallible signs that the lion contemplated a spring.
Levelling his rifle, Colonel Narfield fired. He was a second or so too late. Already the lithe, ponderous mass was hurtling through the air.
The thud of the criss-cross bullet could be distinctly heard as it struck the lion in the throat. The impetus of the moving mass was retarded, but not stopped. Falling short of his intended distance, the stricken lion pitched heavily into the fire, scattering burning embers far and wide.
Then, with a roar of mingled rage and pain, the lion, with a convulsive movement, leapt from the flames. Partly blinded, the infuriated animal appeared to have no other object in view than to make for Tiny Desmond, who, still partially encumbered with his blankets, was flattening himself against the wall of rock.
Before Herbert Narfield could fire a second time, and McFrazer was unable to fire at all owing to the danger of hitting his master, the lion hurled the former aside.
The colonel staggered backwards for half-a-dozen yards and subsided ungracefully, while his rifle, flying in a different direction, fell almost at Colin Sinclair's feet.
The lion was down again, but rallying for a final spring upon the supposed cause of his wound—the luckless Tiny.
In a trice, and almost automatically, Colin seized the colonel's rifle, and, without waiting to see if there were a cartridge in the breech, pressed the trigger.
Fortunately the weapon was loaded. The bullet, fired at less than ten feet range, hit the lion just behind the left shoulder. With a yelp the lion turned to deal with its latest assailant, and fell quivering upon the ground, shot through the heart.