The Red-Blooded Heroes of the FrontierBronson, Edgar Beecher
History
The Red-Blooded Heroes of the Frontier
Bronson, Edgar Beecher
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); West (U.S.) -- Social life and customs
But all the time a firm hand and a true eye held the bead of the rifle
sight to close pursuit of the lion's every move, so held it till only a
narrow sixteen yards separated man and beast. Then the _Sahib's_ rifle
cracked; and, with marvellous nerve, Brown snapped his camera a second
later and caught the picture of the kill. Hitting the beast squarely
in the forehead just at the take-on of a bound, the heavy .577 bullet
cleaned out the lion's brain pan and killed him instantly, his body
turning in mid-air and hitting the ground inert. A better rifle-shot
would be impossible, and as good a camera snapshot has certainly never
been made in the very face of instant, impending, deadly peril.
A half-hour later Lion Number Two, slower of resolution than his mate,
fell to the _Sahib's_ first shot, with a broken neck, while lashing
himself into fit fury for a charge. This was more even than a royal
kill; each of the lions was, in size, a record among Jig-Jigga hunters,
the first measuring eleven feet one inch from tip of nose to tip of
tail, the second eleven feet.
And then the party marched back to camp with the trophies, Djama Aout,
the head _shikari_, chanting paeans to his Sahib's prowess, while his
mates roared a hoarse Somali chorus, and all night long, by ancient law
of _shikari_, the camp feasted, chanted, and danced, one sable
saga-maker after another chanting his pride to serve so valiant a
_Sahib_.
THE END
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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