"Can't," returned Grosvenor, still struggling with his rifle; "the beastly thing's--" Crack! Dick instantly pressed the trigger; and as he did so the lioness rose into the air with a curious writhing movement, falling short of the spot where Grosvenor stood by about a foot. As she fell she rolled headlong, but instantly recovered herself, standing upon three legs, with the fourth broken close to the shoulder, while Grosvenor, stepping back hurriedly in the long grass to avoid her, was tripped up and fell flat upon his back. Fearing that, despite her broken leg, the lioness might spring upon his prostrate friend and badly maul him, Dick impetuously sprang forward, injecting a new cartridge as he ran, but stopped short, convulsed with laughter, at the sight of his friend, his long legs flourishing in the air, rolling with frantic energy out of the reach of the lioness. Then, as Grosvenor finally scrambled to his feet, minus his rifle, which he had dropped during his hurried retreat--while Jantje had incontinently bolted, carrying Grosvenor's second rifle with him, as the lioness sprang--Dick again levelled his piece and bowled the great tawny brute over with a bullet behind the ear, which penetrated the brain. Thus satisfactorily terminated the adventurers' first experience with big game, each of the sportsmen bagging a lion and lioness, while the cub might be regarded as the joint property of the two. A very satisfactory feature of the day's sport was that nobody had received so much as a scratch, the actual casualties amounting to two Kafir dogs slain. As for the Kafirs, they fell upon the carcasses and with incredible rapidity and skill stripped off the hides and pegged them out preparatory to treating them in the native fashion, afterwards removing the heads and carefully depositing each in the near vicinity of an ants' nest, in order that the insects might remove--as they very speedily would--every atom of flesh from the bones. Then, having rendered this service to the champions who had delivered them from their formidable enemies, they departed, dancing, to the village, singing a triumphant song to the glory of the white men, in which each incident of the recent hunt was graphically described with appropriate gesture. CHAPTER SEVEN. THE MAKOLO COUNTRY.