Page:Hunting and trapping stories; a book for boys (IA huntingtrappings00pric).pdf/51

 huntsman with him, he went to the place where the body had been left, and found that it had vanished. The ground all about was covered with the foot-prints of a lion. They followed the tracks until they came to a cave with a narrow opening. They crawled in on hands and knees, pushing their rifles in front of them. As they could smell flesh they correctly surmised that they were literally in a den of lions. Suddenly they found themselves face to face with a magnificent lion. The animal glanced at them in surprise, and with a deafening roar vanished. The hunters found that there was a second outlet to the cave. The half eaten body of the deer was found inside the cave, and they cut the head off and carried it back as a trophy won from a lion in its lair. The tiger would never have been frightened off in that fashion, but would have stood its ground and attacked its enemies at once.

Perhaps the greatest battles lions ever engage in are with the great Cape buffalos,

On one occasion a hunter who was lying in wait for game heard far off sounds of lions in mighty combat. The hunter ran in the direction from which the noise came and beheld two lions and a lioness trying to pull down a tough old buffalo. They fought over a couple of acres, and the stones and clods of earth flew in all directions. At first the lions would appear to be getting the best of it, when the buffalo would shake off one of its enemies only to have it attack from another quarter. After a while the buffalo badly injured the lioness and trampled her under foot. At this the two lions became furious, and succeeded in bringing their prey to its knees. The old buffalo fought desperately, but its enemies were too powerful. With one frantic effort to get away it sank on its knees and then on its side, while the lions tore at it until the last spark of life had vanished. The lions soon fell to quarreling over the body, and the hunter taking good aim stretched the largest one out stone dead. The second lion bounded away into the tall bushes. The hunter found the lioness with a broken back, so torn and battered that he shot her to put her out of misery. The lion which he had first killed was also badly mangled. The ground around was trampled out of all recognition, and large pieces of fur and hide were found in places. The poor old buffalo had weakened from the loss of blood, for its shoulders were torn into ribbons.

The same hunter a few months later saw a pair of lions attack a much larger buffalo. The lioness sprang upon the buffalo's head and an instant later was crushed to the ground. The buffalo then turned its attention to the lion, a splendid full grown fellow and they battled for an hour or more.