CLARKE S THEORY CORRECT. 233 



like a squirrel, and bounding down disappeared in the jungle 

 in less time than I can write it. All my hopes vanished when 

 I saw the mark of my shot on the branch. I was so afraid of 

 firing over, that, alas ! I aimed a trifle too low. Francis had 

 not seen the animal until it moved from the spot. I re-loaded, 

 and while we moved a few paces towards the stream, was 

 discussing with Francis the possibility of the ball having gone 

 through the leopard's jaw, when I fancied I saw a movement 

 in a branch near the top of a tree under which we had been 

 standing. By Jove, it was another leopard ! the brute stopped 

 for a moment, but was so hidden by leaves and branches that 

 I waited for a better chance, but alas, that never came ; it ran 

 down the branch like lightning, never showing but an inch or 

 two of its back. I got one glimpse of its head and neck and 

 fired. The next moment it had bounded on the high bank 

 and disappeared in the thicket. As I expected we could find 

 no signs of either having been touched ; Francis said the 

 second was a "butcha," it looked small — and so did I, uncom- 

 monly, to see a brace of leopards getting away from me with 

 whole skins, for I would much rather have bagged one of 

 these than the two bison. The recollection of the two hares 

 in the morning suddenly flashed across me, and then I knew 

 how it was my bullet went crooked. Tom Clarke is right; 

 blow the hares ! But perhaps it was for the best, for if I had 

 bagged these two leopards under the circumstances I should 

 have been an unbearably conceited beast ever afterwards ; but 

 it would have been a great thing "to have killed these cattle- 

 destroying brutes, to say nothing of my limited bag in this line. 

 It was getting dusk, so had only time to look into the bush 

 where we had seen the calf. It was not there ; oh, if I had 

 come down to watch at once, I must have got one of them. 



