For some unknown reason, the lion didn't seem to want to get close to the cave.....but he wasn't letting Apil out of his sight. Apil didn't want to leave the cave for just that reason, so he just stood there in the entrance....his legs inside, his body outside. As he stood there, the lion crouched down further into the grass. That was odd.....maybe he heard something Apiladey couldn't.....hmmmm.

Just then a horse and rider came out from the trees loping straight in his direction. Apiladey screamed LOOK OUT!!!

I'M NOT A BIG LOUT, YOU'RE THE BIG LOUT! Louisa answered back. By then, she had already come too far, she was closer to the cave than she was to the trees. And Apiladey had no idea if the lion would have let her go had she made it to the trees. The lion was now chasing her and her panicked horse straight for him, so Apil looked around for something, anything to make himself look bigger. There was a branch on the ground, so he picked it up and held it over his head. He started waving it around and shouting, as he ran towards Louisa and the horse. Fat chance that a lion which is already chasing a horse and rider would stop because a man with a branch was running at him. Just as Apiladey got there, the reaking asa-foetida hit the horses snout, causing him to rear up. The combination of a man and a rearing horse did manage to shake the big cat up some. Louisa fell to the ground, the horse ran off, and Apil was left standing alone as a not very scarey person again. He helped Louisa to her feet, and they both scrambled back to the cave.

This time, the lion wasn't satisfied away from the opening, he was trying to get his claws on two fairly helpless people. Apiladey had to keep jabbing the stick through the fairly small opening at the lion. Eventually, the lion calmed down and laid on the ground just outside.