SHOOT THE LEOPARDS. 357 



branch with my handkerchief, ready to hand, and planted my large pewter 

 tankard, full of cold clear water, in a fork above me. It was refreshing 

 even to look up through its glass bottom and the limpid fluid, the sports- 

 man's safest tipple. One is sometimes kept a long time in a tree if the 

 beaters experience difficulty with the game, and this in a hot Indian May 

 day is unpleasant without water. The tree I was in was shady and com- 

 fortable, but the heat in the air makes the sportsman thirsty. Underneath 

 me was a dry sandy water-course, with a narrow border of bushes on each 

 side. The crisp leaves of deciduous trees lay thickly in its bed, and I 

 knew that even the stealthy tread of a leopard upon them would not be 

 unheard by me, even before it came in sight. My view extended for about 

 fifty yards up the bed of the water-course. 



The distant yells of the beaters soon warned me that the sport had 

 commenced. Some little time passed when I saw my signalman raise both 

 arms, a sign from the beaters that the two leopards were afoot. I was 

 expecting their speedy appearance when an extra storm of yells, and an 

 interchange of abuse amongst the men, followed by a sudden silence, told 

 me that the leopards had broken back, I only hoped without accident. The 

 mem ran back to head them, and they recommenced at the original place and 

 beat up merrily. Presently I heard a rustling in the dry leaves, and saw 

 one leopard sneaking down the sandy ravine. It came on very cau- 

 tiously and hesitatingly, and I amused myself by watching it. Though full 

 grown it was a small animal (few if any leopards exceed five and a half feet 

 in length), and I felt rather ashamed of being in a tree to shoot such a 

 creature. I would have met it on foot with pleasure. It looked as if half 

 inclined to turn back, but each yell of the men appeared to call to its mind 

 some act of spoliation for which it feared retribution, and to make it dread 

 a return more than an advance. On it came, and when directly under me 

 I dropped it dead with a bullet through the neck. It never moved, but lay 

 prone as it fell, with one paw before it in the attitude of advancing. I 

 telegraphed " dead," and the beaters came on with redoubled cries. 



Soon the male leopard approached with slow and stealthy step down 

 the bed of the ravine. He looked very pretty to a sportsman's eye, 

 grinning with mingled fear and anger at being disturbed in his early sleep. 

 His belly almost touched the ground as he crept along. Fortunately the 

 wind was from him to me, so he did not scent his dead spouse, nor did he 

 even observe her as she lay. He seemed to have thoughts of leaving the 

 bed of the ravine before he reached me, and drawing his head level with 

 the bank he peered cautiously through the garden to see if the coast were 

 clear in the line of his meditated departure. He gave me a rather difficult 



