THE HIGHEE NAEBADA. 339 



pudence to kill and drag away a good-sized baggage pony- 

 out of my camp. The night being warm, I was sleeping out- 

 side, for the sake of coolness, and was awakened by the riving 

 gurgling noise close to my bed. It was too dark to see ; so I 

 pulled out the revolver, that in those uncertain times always 

 lay under my pillow, and fired off a couple of shots to scare 

 the intruder. Getting a light, I was relieved to find it was 

 only the pony, instead of a human being, as I had half 

 feared, and we proceeded to investigate the condition of the 

 deceased. 



The brute had seized him by the neck, which was dis- 

 located ; the jugular was also divided, and he had evidently 

 been drinking the blood when my shots, or perhaps the light, 

 scared him off. The night was too dark for any attempt to 

 kill the panther, who moreover had probably been scared com- 

 pletely away from the neighbourhood of the camp. It was, 

 however, very probable that he would return next evening in 

 quest of the pony before it was too dark to shoot, and I was 

 persuaded by the old shikari to sit up on a " machan " and 

 watch for him. A small nala" ran from the river nearly up 

 to the camp, as is always the case when a misadventure like 

 this occurs. This I had overlooked when selecting a site for 

 my tent. We dragged the carcass, without touching it our- 

 selves, to the head of this nala, where there was a con- 

 venient tree. The shikari an old hand at this sort of work 

 strewed the ground for some paces round the pony with 

 fresh white wheat chaff, which he said would not prevent the 

 panther coming to feed, while it certainly rendered the chance 

 of hitting in the dark much greater ; and about sunset he and 

 I took our places on the machan. There was small chance of 

 the panther making his appearance so early in the evening, so 



I commenced a whispered conversation with the old man about 



z 2 



