122 AFRICA SPEAKS 



There were good reasons for Ted's delay. Every- 

 thing had gone along smoothly until the night before 

 he planned to start the return journey. He went out 

 that evening with a double-barreled shotgun to kill a 

 buck for meat. At the edge of a wheat field, quite 

 close to Mike's house — where Ted had complained 

 not so many weeks before of being cheated out of a 

 chance for adventure — he saw two large eyes gleam- 

 ing in the semidarkness, and while swinging the gun 

 into position there was a sudden flash as a huge leopard 

 sprang toward him. In his hurry to turn he fell, but 

 before doing so fired both barrels into the animal's 

 face. Apparently no damage was done to the spotted 

 cat except that one of liis upper fangs was broken off 

 and probably he got a little of the shot into his skin. 

 This treatment didn't improve his disposition, and he 

 rushed toward the boy with a savage growl. Ted 

 held his right arm forward to protect his face, and the 

 leopard bit him through the forearm. Now the three 

 dogs who were with Ted distracted the beast's atten- 

 tion. He left the boy and rushed for the dogs, giving 

 Ted a chance to regain his feet and reload his shotgun, 

 which, however, he didn't have another chance to use, 

 as the animal was not seen again. 



Ted's father has been mauled twice by leopards, so 

 he knew the dangers of infection and going into the 

 house twisted some cotton around a smeJl stick, then 

 dipping this into a bottle of iodine pushed it down 

 into the holes made by the cat's teeth. It was not a 

 pleasant experience, leaving his arm so sore for a few 

 days that it was impossible for liim to drive the heav>' 

 truck over the terrible roads between the farm and the 

 camp, a distance of nearly three hundred miles. He 



