CHAPTER LXXXII. 



THE KING OF THE JUNGLE. 



|ROMPTLY at midnight Bob Marshall awakened his friend Jack, and the lattei 

 assumed his place as sentinel. He did not take the trouble to learn the 

 nature of the animal shot some time before, since, as he said, it would 

 "keep" until morning. 



The shot had produced a salutary effect upon the other marauders that may have 

 contemplated a venture of the kind, for, though there were a number of them in the 

 vicinity, none approached nigh enough to draw a shot from the Texan. 



With the coming of daylight, the visitor that had paid such a dear price for his 

 temerity was found to be a large leopard, resembling in appearance the cheetah or 

 famed hunting leopard of India. Our friends bestowed little attention on him, for 

 they had seen too many of his kind to feel any special interest in the brute. 



Following the plan agreed upon the previous day, Jack Harvey and Bob Mar 

 shall, after their simple morning meal, separated. They had fixed quite clearly in 

 their minds the course to pursue, it being one which, if adhered to, would hold them 

 within easy signaling distance of each other. 



It fell to the lot of one speedily to come upon an interesting scene, and to the 

 other to be involved in a most stirring experience. 



It need not be said that, after the two days' vain hunt for the gorilla, our friends 

 used all the care possible. No veterans of the jungle could have stolen through the 

 tangled vegetation with more noiselessness than they. 



Thus it was that Jack had not gone far, when he caught sight of an animal 

 which with all its extreme watchfulness had no suspicion of his proximity. 



On the massive branch of a fallen tree sat a female leopard, calmly gazing at 

 some point in the jungle. Since it was not in the direction of the hunter, the latter 

 knew he was undiscovered. 



With the same skill he had shown from the first, the Texan crept closer until he 

 observed that the leopard was the mother of a litter of kittens that were in a partial 

 cavity just below the limb on which she was sitting. 



There were three pretty spotted creatures. One was holding another down 

 with playful vigor, while the third lay near, apparently looking up at its parent with 

 an affection that was fully reciprocated. 



It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Jack to shoot the mother, 

 sitting so proudly on the old bough above, but, even had he no fear of alarming the 

 gorillas in the neighborhood, he would not have done so. They had obtained a 

 couple of young leopards weeks before in South Africa, and there was no call to 

 burden themselves with more. So the hunter stole away as cautiously as he had 



475 



