09 Lion Adventure Read Online Free PDF

were better than rifles for a close-range job like this one.
    In pyjamas and bare feet, they burst out of the tent. The torch revealed the scattered fragments of the pillow. But there was no lion.
    A scream came from the next tent. Hal turned his torch upon it in time to see the lion rush out dragging the struggling body of a man. His entire head was locked between the animal’s jaws.
    Wrestling with his victim, the lion paid no attention to Hal and Roger. They fired. The light was poor. But they did see the lion fall.
    Men who had been roused by the beast’s roars and the screams of his victim poured from the other tents.
    Some carried torches, others waved pangas, the long heavy knives that are used to cut brush or kill enemies. They found Hal on the ground bending over the man’s bloody body with his ear against the chest. He rose slowly and spoke. Since the British had so long ruled Kenya these black workers knew enough English to understand Hal when he said simply, ‘He’s gone.’ They looked at the lion, its face still white. ‘You see,’ said one. ‘Ghost… devil… it pretends to be dead … these lions that kill us … you cannot kill them.’
    Hal walked over to the lion and wiped some of the white from its face. ‘No ghost,’ he said. ‘Just a lion - and very dead.’ There was a job to be done - a body to be buried. He played bis torch over the ground, looking for the lion’s victim. It had disappeared. ‘Where is it?’ he demanded. A man answered, Tt all right - you no worry.’ ‘Did you bury it?’ ‘We take care. You never mind.’ ‘l want to know - are you going to dig a grave?’ ‘Grave too much hard work. We railway men. We
    work much all day. No spend night digging grave’.’
    ‘Then what did you do?’
    ‘Him over there,’ pointing to some bushes.
    ‘Don’t you know that’s the worst thing you can do?’ Hal said.
    He strode over to the bushes. An angry snarl greeted him. The body was half hidden under the head and shoulders of a large lioness. Beside the lioness was a little cub, its paws up on the dead man’s chest.
    It was the same old story over again. The mother was giving her cub his first lesson in man-eating.
    The lioness looked up, growled, and braced herself for a spring. She had two reasons to be annoyed. She had been disturbed before she could begin her dinner. And she feared for the safety of her cub.
    The railway men, armed only with pangas, scattered like leaves before a storm and left Hal and Roger alone to face the queen of beasts.
    What should they do? To kill a female with cubs was against all the rules of sportsmanship. And yet, if this old lady were not done away with no railway worker would be safe.
    Hal did not have to decide. The lioness decided for him. Flexing her muscles to turn them into steel springs, she left the ground and the great bulk of her came flying through the air straight for Hal’s throat.
    He dodged, tripped over a root, and fell flat in the bushes.
    The lioness was on him in a flash, tearing at his pyjamas.
    Roger danced around, trying to get in a shot, but fearing he would hit his brother-instead of the beast. He tore off his pyjama coat and clamped it against the animal’s eyes. The lioness backed up to free herself of the blindfold, then turned her attention to Roger. Her sledgehammer paw struck him on the hip, spilling him into the grass, but in the split second before he fell his bullet caught her between the eyes.
    Hearing the shot, some men came running and saw a spectacle that amused them no end. The two bold hunters were both on the ground, one on top of the other, and on top of both was a dead lioness.
    They helped disentangle the heap of hunters and hunted and got the boys on their feet. Now there were more scratches to be attended to, deeper ones than before. The boys wobbled towards their tent. Hal turned his flashlight on the spot where Black Mane had fallen. There was no lion - only some blood and pancake flour on