88 LLOYD’S NATURAL HISTORY, 
hada most exciting time, by#they were at him like ants. This 
was on the opposite side of the hedge to McG. and myself. __B. 
and J. were the men that side, and the former, on hearing the 
roar and seeing the Leopard come out, stalked up, ready to 
bag him as soon as the villagers had done with him. This 
soon happened. ‘Spots,’ finding things too warm, charged out 
of the mé/ée, and it so happened straight at B., who promptly 
turned and fled. He was about six feet two inches, and legs in 
proportion, and through a gap in the hedge I saw first B. 
flying hard, long legs at their full stride, and the Leopard a 
good second, with ears back and tail curved. It looked such 
a close thing for first place that I thought I had better try and 
handicap ‘Spots,’ so had a snap shot at him as he flew by. I 
did nothithim. B. had fled to where J. was ensconced behind 
a small tree, and when he got there turned at bay and fired 
with his Snider-carbine in the Leopard’s face. He missed 
him, but it apparently had the effect of turning the Leopard 
off, and he flew by B. and J. behind their tree. 
“The moment B. had fired, he turned tc J. and implored to 
be informed as to the mechanism of his intricate weapon, the 
Snider-carbine. Poor J., with ‘how do you open this?’ dinned 
into his ears, said he could have almost kicked the Leopard 
as it went by, but was so put off by B. that he missed. The 
Leopard then disappeared, and we accordingly collected the 
villagers and followed the tracks, which, thanks to open ground 
and mud, we were able to do. We tracked him for two fields, 
a considerable distance from the scene of action; and the 
tracks led into a small hedge of growing bush, which got 
thicker and thicker till it joined two other hedges and formed 
a small clump of bush at the junction. I could plainly smell 
him, and the tracks evidently did not lead out. This time the 
beaters thought they would like a gun with them, and accord- 
ingly I went with them. After scrutiny, we decided ‘Spots’ 
