Result: the ball was turned and, departing at an angle, just cut the skin of the lion's neck deeply enough to hurt it very much and to make it madder than all the hatters in the world.
Dropping the ox, with a most terrific roar it came over the wall at me--I remember that there seemed to be yards of it--I mean of the lion--in front of which appeared a cavernous mouth full of gleaming teeth.
I skipped back with much agility, also a little to one side, because there was nothing else to do, reflecting in a kind of inconsequent way, that after all Zikali's Great Medicine was not worth a curse.

The lion landed on my side of the wall and reared itself upon its hind legs before getting to business, towering high above me but slightly to my left.
Then I saw a strange thing.

A shadow thrown by the moon flitted past me--all I noted of it was the distorted shape of a great, lifted axe, probably because the axe came first.

The shadow fell and with it another shadow, that of a lion's paw dropping to the ground.

Next there was a most awful noise of roaring, and wheeling round I saw such a fray as never I shall see again.