CHAPTER XVI 



AN ADVENTURE WITH A LEOPARD 



An afternoon tryst in the Siwaliks Proceed to the savannah A herd of 

 chital leaving the forest Deer plentiful in the United Provinces in 

 old days Not so plentiful now Sit and watch the deer Sambhar 

 appear Youngsters engage in sparring match A big stag appears 

 Night coming on A dilemma A new actor appears on the 

 scene Leopard stalks a hind Kills her The havildah misses a 

 stag I fire at leopard and wound it Leopard bolts into forest 

 An anxious journey back to camp Search for the leopard next 

 morning. 



I CANNOT count the occasions when I have had the 

 opportunity of watching a leopard on " his own " in 

 the jungle on both hands. In fact they are limited to 

 three, and one of them I have already described 

 elsewhere.- One of the others was certainly not the least 

 interesting of the encounters however, and I propose to 

 narrate it here. 



I was out in the jungles in the south of the Siwaliks early 

 in April, and the weather, though commencing to get a 

 trifle hot perhaps in the daytime, was still ideal for my 

 purposes. 



Before leaving the camp one morning early on some 

 work, I gave the havildah orders to meet me 

 at four o'clock in the afternoon near a big 

 banyan tree at the edge of the forest, about 

 a mile away. 



" The cook wants some meat and we'll 

 see if we can stalk something before sun- 

 down, so bring the rifle and shot-gun." 

 " Very good, huzur." 



I was up to time and found the havildah 

 duly awaiting me, squatted under the banyan : 

 tree. I took the rifle and we set off down 

 a narrow path through the forest, which led 

 to an open savannah-like grassy tract of considerable 

 extent and completely encircled by green forest, tongues 



o J9 



