v THE BLACK PANTHER 127 



feeling, no panther was to be seen. Thinking I might 

 see him prowling in the glen, I proceeded to stalk it 

 forthwith with the most extreme care. Suddenly 

 Francis started back and pointed above us, and there, 

 on a rock not 8 yards from us and about 9 feet 

 above my head, crouched the black panther. As 1 

 raised the old rifle his ears lay back, his green eyes 

 twinkled with rage, his beautiful white teeth shone like 

 diamonds, his glossy back curved, and in one instant he 

 would have been on us, but it was otherwise decreed. 

 The deadly ball entered that savage eye and crashed 

 through his brain. Over he rolled, and oh ! imagine, 

 for indeed I cannot describe my most inexpressible joy 

 oh ! how I looked and looked at him. You can form 

 no idea of his beauty till you see that most exquisite 

 skin, glossy black ; but if you hold it to the light you 

 see the beautiful spots of the panther showing through 

 it. He was a very large old male, and a most powerful 

 brute too. It was a ticklish moment that pulling the 

 trigger, but I did not feel it till all was over. My room 

 is quite a showroom I having the black panther, which 

 no one ever saw, the largest tiger, wild boar, ibex, and 

 stags' heads in Ootacamund." 



LETTER TO HIS COUSIN, CHARLES OKEOVER. 

 " BLACKWOOD COTTAGE, OOTACAMUND. 



Don't expect any apologies, etc., from me for not 

 writing to the old sportsman before. When I left you, 

 with your old beard flapping about in the wind, at 

 Southampton, I fully intended to keep you au fait with 

 my bad and good luck ; but at first I had so much of 

 the former, that it would only have sickened me to 

 write and you to read. The luck turned long ago, and 

 for the last five months I have had some very good and 



