178 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



the village people that one of their calves had been 

 carried away by a panther and they had found the 

 dead animal a very short distance away, and had 

 covered it up with branches to hide it. I went off 

 with them at once and we pulled the branches away 

 to look. No calf ! The panther had been back again, 

 in broad daylight, pulled his calf out from under the 

 leaves and dragged it away. We tracked up and 

 found it half eaten, a hundred yards farther on. 

 This time we moved the calf near to a suitable tree, 

 tied it with many thicknesses of rope, to a stump, 

 and covered it up again with boughs and leaves. 

 We went back quickly to have the tiger beat, and 

 it was a blank. It was very disappointing that my 

 own tigers should fail me, and after I had given them 

 a free dinner too, so I cantered back to be in time 

 for the leopard, though I thought I did not much 

 care whether he came or not. 



We found the kill just as we had left it, so the 

 panther had not had the impudence to take it away 

 again. But he was a bold beast, for very soon 

 after the men had cleared away the branches that 

 hid the calf, and were gone, he came walking along 

 at a good pace through the forest and came up to 

 the place where he had left his dinner. He sniffed 

 about and seemed rather surprised not to find it 

 where he had left it. He then saw where it was, 

 and without any delay came straight up to it. If 

 it had been a small panther I would have waited to 

 watch him eat, but he was a fine one, being over 

 7 ft. 10 in., so I did not give him any time for that. 

 He fell over at the shot and as he struggled I fired 



