THE CHASE OF THE PANTHER. 77 



times was felled into the ravine, by the fire of my gun ; and it was 

 only at the third ball that was fired directly in his eye, that 

 the desperate beast fell over on his back dead. 



With the first report of my gun, and the roar of the lion 

 that accompanied it, I heard behind me, as though she been 

 a delighted spectator of the conflict, the wild yell of a pan- 

 ther. At the second roar of the lion, following my second 

 shot, another screamed from the left bank of the Ouled Cherf, 

 and then another answered from further up the ford, and so 

 through all the continuance of this drama, three or four pan- 

 thers, whose presence I had never suspected in these regions, 

 and whom I had never encountered before or since, held an 

 infernal jubilee over the fate of a foe they had feared to attack 

 themselves ; and their sharper cry mingled with the thunder 

 of the lion, and the report of my gun, to make the peopled 

 forest like the theatre of a mysterious tragedy. 



With one moment of pause after my last shot, to listen to 

 the lessening echoes that died in the hollow gorges of the 

 mountain, and to be certain that the lion was completely 

 dead, I descended into the gully to look at my prey. It was 

 an animal about three years of age, large, and full in flesh, 

 and graced with teeth and mane that would have done honor 

 to one of the patriarchs of his race ; and I was well assured 

 that he was worth my four charges of powder, and that the 

 Arabs would hail his demise with a paean of joy. 



I then thought of the signal fire that the. Sheik had pre- 

 pared for me, and applied a match to the pile of dry wood, 

 and sat down the while by the side of my royal game to 

 await the result. Slowly the flames climbed from branch to 



