WILD DOGS 165 



shikari said none of them had known a panther 

 as bold as this before, and they were all very anxious 

 to have him killed. 



I had my machan put up in a tree directly over the 

 house, in High Street, which was the one and only 

 road through the village. The people said the pan- 

 ther would never be daring enough to come to the 

 house again, and wanted me to sit somewhere out- 

 side the village, but that was because they did not 

 like the idea of another visit from him, I fancy. 

 The goat was tied up in the road near the house, and 

 I did not go to my tree till ten o'clock at night, 

 and then expected to wait a long time. The village 

 was all excitement and the people would not quiet 

 down, but shouted and talked till I called to them to 

 be still and make no more noise. There was peace 

 for a short time, and then one or two of them were 

 so much terrified of the panther coming again that 

 they lit a fire close to me and threw on great bundles 

 of dry sticks, so that it was soon a blazing fire. That 

 had to be put out, of course, and it took some time 

 and a good deal of water before it was altogether 

 extinguished. I did not expect any panther would 

 come for hours after all this, but he was not to be 

 put off. A dog began to bark outside the village, 

 and quite soon there was a rush and a scuffle and the 

 panther seized the goat. There was no moon, and 

 I had a lantern to shine on the goat, so could see the 

 sights of the rifle. The panther sank quietly down 

 at my shot, as if he was just lying down to eat, 

 but he let go the goat, who jumped up, ran to the 

 end of its tether and stood looking on, a much 



