AN UNWELCOME INTRUDER. 336 



question the guides about the animals ! During the time we were preparing 

 a cup of tea the panthers frequently grunted out their peculiar harsh cry, 

 wliich half delighted, half frightened me ; and I remember that before I 

 followed my friend's example of falHng asleep on a mattress on the floor, I 

 frequently glanced at the small open doorway which led through the side of 

 the building, and which appeared to me to be peculiarly adapted to admitting 

 the pantliers to the reservoir, to slake their thirst thereat in case they felt 

 so inclined. I hardly thought, however, that they really used this means 

 of reaching the water, or I certainly should not have fallen asleep. 



I had not been unconscious long when I was awakened by a low growl 

 - from my dog " Spot," which slept at my feet on the mattress. I raised 

 myself instantly. Horrors ! there was a panther within a few feet of my 

 toes, its head and shoulders clearly outlined against the sheet of silvery 

 water outside the open building ! I should say that the floor of the build- 

 ino- was divided into two levels, one half beino- raised some three feet above 

 the other, like a stage. The door through which the panther had found 

 ingress opened on to the lower level, and coming through this with the 

 intention of drinking, ignorant of the presence of two sleepers on the raised 

 portion, the animal had smelt us, or the dog, and when I started up was 

 standing on its hind-legs and peering at us ! Had I not awoke it would 

 doubtless have carried off the dog. But this was not to be Spot's fate at 

 that time, though he fell a victim to a leopard two or three years later, 

 having been carried off from the verandah of a house in Hoonsoor. 



The panther withdrew almost before I had time to shout. ]\Iy friend 

 took all this very coolly when I aroused him, and beyond anathematising 

 the panther and turning over, paid no heed to the occurrence. I naturally 

 conjured up visions of being pounced upon when asleep, exaggerating, like 

 all novices, the danger connected with unwounded wild animals, and my 

 further slumbers were not of the most tranquil description. Next morning, 

 whilst my friend busied himself about his photography, I took my gun, and 

 with several natives clambered over the rocks, expecting, I do believe, to 

 fall in with the panthers ! I was informed that they not uufrequently 

 basked upon the rocks for an hour or two in the early morning sunshine, 

 but of course it was not likely such wary animals would be surprised by a 

 party such as I headed. I have since shot panthers and leopards by mark- 

 ing them from below when basking, and then stalking them alone ; but it 

 requires intimate knowledge of the locahty, and of the animal, to make a 

 successful advance upon such watchful creatures. 



In the evening I watched with two natives over the entrance of one of 

 the panther's caves, hoping they might show themselves ; but though we 



