THE MAN-EATER OF BELKHERA 145 



disappeared ; and then I heard a soft thud at the foot of 

 the tree. Bang ! bang ! went both barrels of my gun into 

 the air, and I raised a tremendous shouting, instinctively 

 grasping the situation. Before I could reload, something 

 simply rushed up the tree and fell across my legs into the 

 machdn, right across the muzzle of the gun. It was the 

 Pathan ! Had I been reloaded, nothing could have saved 

 him I had snapped both triggers against his chest, 

 making sure it was the panther ! 



The poor fellow was trembling in every limb as well 

 he might. For a few moments we were both too dazed to 

 speak, but I had reloaded the gun, shoved my loaded rifle 

 into his hands, and we sat facing the only accessible side 

 of the machdn. Behind us the hillside descended so steeply 

 that no living creature could invade us from that direction. 



After a while we heard the crackle of leaves at a consider- 

 able distance in the jungle ; and then a barking deer or 

 khdkar set up a sudden and incessant barking that became 

 fainter and fainter as the little creature retreated down the 

 glen probably before the panther, which was apparently 

 going off that way. 



We now took a couple of the poles forming the flooring 

 of the machdn and tied them with the orderly's pagri so 

 as to form a slight barrier to any second attack on our 

 exposed side. 



I then held a whispered consultation with him. He had 

 escaped without a scratch ! His story was that he was 

 nodding drowsily, when something struck and caught both 

 his legs below the knee, and dragged him out of his perch ! 

 As he fell, he turned, and gripped a limb of the tree, but 

 was slipping down, with an immense weight on his legs, 

 till his hands came to a fork of the trunk. Here he held on 

 with all his strength ; his right gaiter was ripped clean off, 

 the beast let go its clutch, he heard its claws tearing the 

 soft bark, and then it dropped to the ground. Next instant 

 he had somehow regained our shelter ! 

 L 



