102 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



narrow confines of the lane. He kicked, bucked, 

 reared, turned round and round every way but 

 the one I wanted him ; and whilst all this was 

 going on, in less time than it takes to write it, 

 some of the rest of the party found their way 

 into the lane, and came riding down shouting to 

 me to point out the whereabouts of the animal. 

 This, of course, I was unable to do in the excited 

 state my steed was in, and I could only yell out 

 vague directions. The beaters were now close 

 up, and making an awful din, when, with a crash 

 of the bushes and an angry, 'wough-wough !' the 

 panther charged straight out at them. There was 

 a shout of fear arid warning as they all scattered, 

 and then above all rose a terrified scream, fol- 

 lowed for one instant by a muffled, worrying 

 sound. This was too much for me, so, jumping 

 off the c caster,' and leaving him to his own sweet 

 devices, I scrambled over the fence into the field. 

 There was the crowd some distance off, massed 

 together and shouting, but, nigger-like, doing 

 nothing to assist the prostrate form of a stricken 

 man whom the panther was standing over, and 

 shaking by the shoulder savagely, as a terrier 

 would a rat. 



As I ran up, she let go, and retreated into a 

 high field of ' bajree,' which was adjacent. Like 

 a young ass that I was, I promptly followed her. 



