276 AFRICA SPEAKS 



touch of the sun, which I received the day before 

 when my hehnet was lost for a short time during a 

 race with giraffe. Not feeUng very well, I only gave 

 this apparition a casual glance, thinking it to be a 

 hyena, but a second look disclosed a large and very 

 fine leopard. I told Mike to stop the truck, and 

 without moving from the seat, attempted to get a 

 bead on the snarhng cat, but when Mike saw what 

 it was, he hopped out of the truck in order to secure 

 a shot. The members of the Cottar clan had sworn 

 vengeance against all leopards, because of the serious 

 maulings Mike's father had twice experienced from 

 these bloodthirsty brutes and the more recent attack 

 upon Ted. His jumping from the truck upset my 

 aim, and before I could draw another bead on the 

 animal, it disappeared in the grass, and although we 

 hunted around for a long time and got three more 

 glimpses of it, neither of us had a chance to fire a shot. 

 I think Maniki was more put out than anyone else, 

 because he told me in Swahili that it was an excep- 

 tionally big leopard and would have made the bwana 

 a nice rug. 



Being unable to find the leopard, we continued 

 onward, keeping a sharp lookout for spotted animals, 

 and had only gone a short distance when we encoun- 

 tered one of the httle tragedies of the veldt. Africa 

 is pristine country where the law of survival deals 

 death to the weak ; where the strong have no sympathy 

 for the unfortunate. We found an old wildebeest 

 bull who was sick almost unto death. His companions 

 had left him behind, and here he was, deserted, stand- 

 ing on unsteady legs, watching through dimmed eyes 

 a circle of hungry hyenas waiting for him to lie down 



