Closer and closer Means approached. Then all at once she charged.
Means wheeled and spurred his horse to escape. For the first
thirty yards of the race the lioness gained rapidly. Then the bay
began to gather headway and slowly forged ahead.
With a quick change of front the lioness turned and charged the
Colonel, who was sitting on his horse nearby. Again the lioness
gained at first and again the horse drew away from her, and so,
giving up the charge, she returned to another thorn bush, where
she crouched down low and snarled and growled as before. And all
the while Kearton, on foot with his tripod, was busy taking
pictures of the show.
This second position of hers gave the horsemen a better chance.
There was now more room in which to get near her by a quick dash
past the bush. While Means edged around on the northern side, the
Colonel moved to the south, and by tossing his rope about and
shouting he managed to attract and hold her attention. In fact,
he nearly succeeded too well, for once she rose to the first
spring of the charge and the Colonel half wheeled his horse for
flight, but the beast sank back again and glared at him.
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