Fully prepared for a quick shot, I stealthily crept on.

A tremendous roar in the dense thorns within a few feet of me suddenly brought my rifle to the shoulder.

Almost in the same instant I observed the three-quarter figure of either a lion or a lioness within three yards of me, on the other side of the bush under which I had been creeping.

The foliage concealed the head, but I could almost have touched the shoulder with my rifle.

Much depended upon the bullet, and I fired exactly through the shoulder.