A PANTHER IN A CAVE. 175 



Lying in the snow, however, was anything but agreeable ; 

 at first, when I was warm with running, I thought no- 

 thing of it, but by degrees I became colder and colder, 

 till my teeth chattered. I could not venture to lay 

 aside the rifle to make a fire, for fear the panther 

 should escape. I managed to keep up a little warmth, 

 by running and jumping, but was very glad when my 

 old friend returned and made a good fire. 



As soon as we were well warmed, we made torches, 

 and entered the cave as cautiously as possible, each with 

 a burning torch in his left hand, and a rifle in the right. 

 I went first, but the cave was soon roomy enough to 

 admit c^f our walking upright, beside each other. Some 

 distance in, it took a turn to the left, and about two 

 hundred paces in advance, wo saw the fiery eyeballs of 

 the beast, who kept shutting them from time to time. 

 Conwell, taking my torch, stepped behind me, while I 

 took aim and fired. We heard a noise after the shot, 

 but could not make out the result ; I reloaded as fast as 

 possible, while Conwell went in advance, but we could 

 see nothing more of the animal's eyes. We went on 

 with cocked rifles on our left arm. Moving silently and 

 cautiously forward, we suddenly discovered the panther 

 in a little hollow close to our feet, a beautiful but alarm- 

 ing sight, his ears laid back, his teeth gnashing in wild 

 rage, and his glowing eyes so wide open, that they 

 seemed half out of their sockets. Inspired by one im- 

 pulse, we both fired so exactly together, that neither 

 knew that the other had done so. Our eneiry was hit, 

 but whether mortally or not was more than we could 

 tell. Dropping our rifles like lightning, we drew cur 



