IV 



THE PROWLER OF THE NIGHT 



AUTHOR'S NOTE. The aim of this story is to bring the sports- 

 man and naturalist in more direct contact with the surroundings 

 of the jaguar, in his true haunts, to lead him into the jungle 

 with all its fascinating variety of scene and picturesqueness. 



Through hill and forests where he may make the acquaintance 

 and feel a part of, rather than an intruder upon the creatures 

 that dwell therein. 



At sunset and at dawn, by the light of the moon, silently 

 treading the undisturbed forests, he reads the secrets of the 

 wilderness. 



THE sky gleamed with a cold yet lustrous 

 blue, while across it slowly flitted a few fleecy 

 clouds of palest amber, deepening, as they sailed 

 along, to a tawny orange. The surrounding 

 hills, bathed as they were in the soft pink hue of 

 a sinking tropical sun, were suggestive of things 

 that might lurk in their deepening shadows. 



A cold air came surging upward through a 

 precipitous gully, creaking the bamboos and un- 

 dergrowth, stirring the dry brown leaves that 

 clothed the darkening hill slopes around. A 

 sense of melancholy pervaded the surroundings 



that was intensified by the absolute silence. Not 



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