LEOPARDS AND RHINOS 99 
the leopard was intent on finishing. While peering 
about I detected the beast crossing the tug about 
twenty yards above me. [I again began shooting, 
although I could not see to aim. However, I could 
see where the bullets struck as the sand spurted up 
beyond the leopard. The first two shots went above 
her, but the third scored. The leopard stopped and 
I thought she was killed. The pony boy broke into 
a song of triumph which was promptly cut short by 
another song such as only a thoroughly angry leopard 
is capable of making as it charges. For just a flash 
I was paralyzed with fear, then came power for action. 
I worked the bolt of my rifle and became conscious 
that the magazine was empty. At the same instant 
I realized that a solid point cartridge rested in the 
palm of my left hand, one that I had intended, as I 
came up to the dead hyena, to replace with a soft 
nose. If I could but escape the leopard until I could 
get the cartridge into the chamber! 
As she came up the bank on one side of the point 
of the island, I dropped down the other side and ran 
about to the point from which she had charged, by 
which time the cartridge was in place, and I wheeled 
—to face the leopard in mid-air. The rifle was 
knocked flying and in its place was eighty pounds of 
frantic cat. Her intention was to sink her teeth into 
my throat and with this grip and her forepaws hang to 
me while with her hind claws she dug out my stomach, 
for this pleasant practice is the way of leopards. 
However, happily for me, she missed her aim. In- 
stead of getting my throat she was to one side. She 
