HISTORY AND COUNTRY 19 



is very light nowadays. Suddenly the doorway 

 was blocked up by a wild-looking figure, a man from 

 my shikari who was after a panther twenty-five 

 miles away in these hills. Kurera had marked the 

 panther down at dawn, and the man had run in 

 nine miles and driven the rest in a dak garri to bring 

 us the news. 



I was doing some accounts at the time. Hastily 

 consigning them and the pay-sergeant to the devil, 

 Norton and I were in the swimming-bath within 

 five minutes, and after a hurried lunch were in the 

 motor within half an hour, full speed ahead for our 

 friend. 



We motored sixteen miles to a tehsil, the head- 

 quarters of a tehsildar, where we found a couple 

 of village ponies waiting for us. We cantered out 

 the nine miles with our feet almost touching the 

 ground, and reached the Kadir edge, where we found 

 old Kurera and his gang waiting. A walk of half a 

 mile took us to the patch where the panther was 

 lying up in the hills, in a little valley filled with 

 grass and scrub. 



Norton and I took post on foot between the 

 cover and the Kadir, and the beat came towards us. 

 The first beat was a blank, but Kurera was so certain 

 the panther had not gone out that he beat it again. 

 I was on a low hillock, and this time caught a glimpse 

 of the panther as he passed forward. I shouted to 

 Norton, but the warning was not needed, for the 

 panther collared one of the beaters and the uproar 

 showed what was happening. I ran down towards 

 the beat, and as I did so the panther galloped out 

 of the cover towards Norton. He was galloping 

 hard, but gave me a fair shot in the open at about 

 fifty yards. The bullet caught him where the neck 



