324 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



choice) he will select the narrowest part of an open 

 space for his crossing. This was demonstrated in a 

 convincing way by a leopard one morning. He had 

 been tracked into a triangular patch of heavy grass 

 jungle at the junction of two paths, both of very 

 irregular width, and I took my stand behind a bush 

 to command the two. The men had come so close 

 that I had concluded the leopard must have slipped 

 quietly back through the line, when there was a 

 stealthy momentary rustle at the edge of the grass, 

 and a spotted body shot across the path within six 

 feet of my bush. That I, warned by the quivering 

 grass tops, got in my shot and wounded the beast as 

 he flashed over the path, is a detail to be regretted 

 by myself as well as the leopard. We saw no more 

 of him, and I listened with all humility to the 

 shikari while he pointed out that, inasmuch as the 

 undergrowth bellied out to within arm's length of 

 the grass at that spot, it was exactly the place where 

 the leopard might be expected to cross if he crossed 

 at all, since nowhere else did the jungle come within 

 seven paces of the cover out of which he had been 

 driven. A leopard does not throw away chances 

 under these circumstances ; he makes his way with 

 extraordinarily little noise or disturbance through 

 the densest cover until the last moment. Then 

 lightning speed replaces deliberation. I had nearly 

 written " replaces caution," but the animal's natural 

 shrewdness never deserts him while he has a whole 

 skin on his body. 



The fact that you never know what is going 



