298 LARGE GAME. chap. vi. 



opponents, and seriously injured several of them before 

 dying. On the first I was staying in a village in Zulu- 

 land, from which a goat had been taken the previous 

 night, and as I happened to see its owner while on his 

 way to search for the carcase, I told him that if he found it 

 he was not to touch it but to bring me word, and accord- 

 ingly he returned towards afternoon to take me to the 

 spot. It was nearly a quarter of a mile off, and the car- 

 case was lying in the open in the shade of a tree on the 

 edge of a jungle, in which, no doubt, the leopard had 

 made its lair. It was a difficult spot in which to conceal 

 one's-self, and I found that if I remained I must do so by 

 standing behind the trunk of a tree, and must necessarily 

 be alone ; but as it is so rare to get a shot at leopards, 

 and the wind at least favoured me, I determined to wait 

 for its coming, and sent the man home. 



I was forced to stand straight upright and not to 

 move for fear of exposing myself, the trunk of the tree 

 being of no great size ; and as the scorching afternoon 

 sun was shining direct on the back of my head, my posi- 

 tion was an exceedingly irksome and disagreeable one, 

 and was not improved as the sun went down by the 

 advent of clouds of mosquitoes. My patience was not, 

 however, tried long. Just as it became dusk I heard a 

 rustle in the grass, and on cautiously looking round I 

 saw the leopard itself standing over the carcase. It had 

 not seen me, but some faint sound must have caught its 

 ears, for it was standing motionless, listening. It did not 

 see me even when I raised my gun, and fell dead a second 

 afterwards, shot through the brain. 



The next time that I lay in wait for one was on the 



