The lion, meanwhile, had seen Nils with his weak eyes and was coming toward him. Nils held up his pistol and took steady aim. He waited until he could quite easily see that the lion did, in fact, lack an ear. And then he pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
This occasionally occurred. The pistols were very intricate mechanisms, designed so that none of the liquid atmosphere could get into them at the same time that the bullet got out. And like all intricate mechanisms, occasionally they went wrong.
The air lion was coming closer, hurtling through the liquid air now with strong beats of his powerful flippers.
Nils pulled the trigger again. And again nothing happened. He could feel the sweat running down his face.
The lion was looming larger now; it was almost upon him. Nils could see the creature's ugly, yellow eyes.
He pulled the trigger a third time. One of the eyes suddenly disappeared, to be replaced by a hole, from which a yellow fluid poured.
But the impact of the bullet had not stopped the momentum of the lion. The body fell into Nils with a sudden jerk.
Nils dropped suddenly, then stopped with a wrenching snap.
"What's the matter?" Petrone said in his earphones.