VENGEANCE OF JHAPOO THE GOND 281 



are grouped in a neat circle about the size of the half- 

 opened hand. So I watched the silent approach of the 

 panther as he walked slowly but confidently forward. 



Twenty yards became fifteen, fifteen became ten. Still 

 the brute moved gradually on. Leopards have many 

 curious ways of seizing their prey, of perambulating it in a 

 critical manner, of playing round it, even of bearing it 

 down unhurt and rolling over it in an ecstasy of skittish- 

 ness before the fatal clutch that puts an end to the long- 

 drawn terror of their unwilling playmate. Yet it seemed 

 hard that the little goat should be sacrificed any longer to 

 a ghastly suspense. I raised my weapon slowly. The 

 white card of the night-sight rested full on the muscular 

 neck ; the forefinger gently closed on the trigger ; next 

 instant it would swiftly contract, and but I had never 

 seen such curious behaviour on the part of any of my 

 spotted friends before ! The leopard had passed by the 

 trembling bait, in fact he entirely ignored its presence, and 

 was now heard purring gently to himself as his tail by 

 degrees rose in air. Then he halted, glancing sidewise 

 with lowered head, sleek, handsome, a perfect picture of 

 feline grace and lissomness. One would almost have 

 expected him to rub his smooth and glossy side against 

 the nearest object ; and there was a sensation as of some 

 well-fed tabby approaching to draw her coat luxuriously 

 across one's trouser-leg. 



And then I suddenly remembered the box ! 



The excitement and interest of watching the movements 

 of this wild denizen of the jungle had temporarily driven 

 all other thoughts away, but now all at once there re- 

 turned the knowledge of dead Jhapoo sitting there ; and 

 instantly there passed along my spine that strange feeling 

 of repulsion that accompanies the uncanny realisation of 

 something that one half believes in, but has rejected as 

 outside the bounds of possibility. It was deathly still in 

 that starlit, moonlit place. The long black shadows 



