62 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



Some three weeks after this occurrence, I was 

 awakened one morning at sunrise by my servant, 

 Tweegah, who excitedly told me that he feared 

 a leopard had made its way into the fowl-house, 

 for there was a great commotion among the poultry. 

 Picking up my 1075 mm. magazine rifle, which 

 I always kept loaded in readiness with three 

 cartridges, I dashed out of my tent in my pyjamas 

 and made for the fowl-house, which was close to 

 the banda (a thatched erection serving as a place 

 of shade against the fierce tropical sun). As I 

 approached the latter, Swasuri and one of my men's 

 wives, wondering what was the matter, came out of 

 their hut and followed Tweegah and me with the 

 inquisitiveness peculiar to every woman. My boy 

 was indeed right in his conjecture, for, on reaching 

 the banda, I saw the leopard slinking away, so 

 taking hasty aim, I fired, striking him in the ribs 

 and roiling him over. A moment afterwards, 

 instead of clearing, he rose and faced me, and as 

 he sprang in my direction, I fired, once more, 

 the bullet smashing his jaw-bone, passing through 

 the right side of his mouth, and inflicting a slight 

 flesh-wound in his shoulder. This stopped him, 

 but only for an instant, and barely giving me time 

 to drive my third and last cartridge into the 

 breech, he came straight at me once more. As 

 he sprang I fired and simultaneously jumped aside, 



