THE FIRST PANTHER n 



the hill, so they told me afterwards, and get away 

 over the top, but was driven back by shouts and 

 showers of stones. 



When I first saw him, he was some distance below 

 me, galloping round a slope, off towards his cave 

 again. I waited for a space clear from undulating 

 ground and rocks and took my shot. He spoke, 

 but galloped on, untouched as I thought. I was 

 on the point of turning round on the shikari and 

 telling him that his bandobast was rotten, for how 

 could I hit a thing travelling at that pace so far away ? 

 Then it struck me that I was still more rotten not 

 to fire again. During this small space of time the 

 panther had done another twenty yards or so. I 

 raised my rifle, but before I could fire again over he 

 went, head over heels, rolling down the hill, stone 

 dead. 



I was never, I think, so pleased at anything before. 

 And what a fluke ! We measured and found that 

 he was over 120 yards away, and I might have 

 shot another forty times and never have hit him 

 once. 



The shikari and Bhils salaamed to the ground and 

 laid their heads on my feet. Then, as I tried to walk 

 down, they lifted and moved my feet for me, which 

 made progression rather difficult. Several of them 

 ran on ahead up to the panther, not staying to throw 

 stones at him from a distance to make sure that he 

 was really dead. I told them how well they had 

 beaten so they had and what a good bandobast 

 it was to have managed to beat an animal over that 

 difficult lie of country anywhere near me. We 



