THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



killing of two of these dangerous beasts by a German set- 

 tler, previously referred to in the chapter on the giraffe. 

 One evening a couple of natives reported that the young 

 giraffe, captured and tamed by the settler, was being de- 

 voured by two leopards, not far from the farmhouse. The 

 fearless young German instantly made for the place, armed 

 only with a double-barreled shotgun and an automatic pis- 

 tol. As soon as the leopards heard his footsteps they both 

 stopped eating. When the hunter appeared from behind 

 the last bush that afforded any cover, and only some forty 

 yards away, both animals, a male and a female, snarled 

 at him for a second. The next moment they made a des- 

 perate attempt to escape by jumping right and left into the 

 jungle, each receiving a load of buckshot in their sides as 

 they ran. The male bounded off into the bush, but the 

 female fell to the ground like dead. While two of the 

 natives kept watching this apparently dead leopard, the 

 settler ran after the fleeing male, which he dispatched with 

 another shot at close quarters. 



Just as he was bending over his trophy, desperate 

 screams rang out from the place where his men were left 

 to watch the other fallen leopard. The big female had 

 only feigned that she was dead, for when she heard the 

 third shot she flung herself upon the two negroes, who 

 had ventured right up to the supposed ** carcass." Both 

 were badly scratched and bitten, and would doubtlessly 

 have been killed had not a well-directed bullet from the 

 splendid Mauser pistol, aimed at the brute's head, and at 

 only three yards' distance, put a quick end to the fight. 



The hunting leopard, or cheetah, as he is often called, 

 differs a great deal from the ordinary leopard. The chee- 



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