LEOPARDS AND RHINOS fey 
her with my knees. To my surprise I felt a rib go. 
I did it again. I felt her relax, a sort of letting go, 
although she was still struggling. At the same time 
I felt myself weakening similarly, and then it became 
a question as to which would give up first. Little 
by little her struggling ceased. My strength had out- 
lasted hers. 
After what seemed an interminable passage of | 
time I let go and tried to stand, calling to the pony 
boy that it was finished. He now screwed up his 
courage sufficiently to approach. Then the leopard 
began to gasp, and I saw that she might recover; so 
I asked the boy for his knife. He had thrown it 
away fin his fear, but quickly found it, and [ at last 
made certain that the beast was dead. As I looked 
at her later I came to the conclusion that what had 
saved me was the first shot I had fired when she went 
into the bush. It had hit her right hind foot. I 
think it was this broken foot which threw out the aim 
of her spring and made her get my arm instead of my 
throat. With the excitement of the battle still on 
me I did not realize how badly used up I was. I 
tried to shoulder the leopard to carry it to camp, but 
was very soon satisfied to confine my efforts to getting 
myself to camp. | 
When I came inside the zareba, my companions were 
at dinner before one of the tents. They had heard 
the shots and had speculated on the probabilities. 
They had decided that I was in a mix-up with a lion 
or with natives, but that I would have the enemy or 
the enemy would have me before they could get to 
