THE LEOPARD 



was then twelve noon, and we had with us a soft-hearted 

 jibbing horse and a light cart, so I at once harnessed the 

 horse, snatched a bite of food, put some champagne and a 

 bottle of brandy in the cart, and, taking out the seat, laid 

 de Winton along the bottom as comfortably as I could. 

 The horse went all right along the flat of the low country 

 road, but gave in at the hill going up from Wellawaya, and 

 without that bottle of brandy I would never have made 

 Koslande that night. The horse got it all, but even then I 

 had to lead and coax it along for the last 10 miles. 



"We got to Koslande at last at about 10 o'clock at 

 night, and, as luck would have it, Dr. Griffin was in a 

 bungalow some little way off, so I sent an urgent message 

 to him, and down he came at once and did all he could for 

 the sufferer. 



" Poor de Winton had a bad time of it, but eventually 

 pulled through all right, though he will bear the marks of 

 the encounter for life. It was just * touch and go ' about 

 getting to Koslande that night, and it might have been a 

 very bad job for him if we had not been able to do it. I 

 left Sinno Appoo in charge of my servant, a good man, 

 Singhalese, and well accustomed to the low country, with 

 instructions to bring him along, but the poor fellow died 

 that night, mainly from the shock, I think, as the bite was 

 not in a vital part and he had lost very little blood. 

 Native-like, however, he gave himself up for lost at 

 once, saying he always knew he was fated to be killed 

 by a leopard, and he just wanted to die quietly. 



"In the middle of the night he gave one shout of 

 ' The leopard has got me ! ' and died. 



" So ended our trip, and, as I had left everything 

 lying about in camp at Kudoya, we lost practically all 

 but our guns and a few odd things." 



267 



