ATTACK OF A PANTHER. 209 



commander of the expedition I won't stand it," 

 interposed Mackenzie. 



" If you had only said won't lear it, Mac ; or 

 that it was unbearable, or asked us to forbear" said 

 Norman, "you would have immortalised yourself. 

 Come, it's your turn now for another story." 



" Well, to turn from fiction to fact. You re- 

 member poor L , Norman. He died, Hawkes, 



long before you joined the regiment. He was Very 

 keen for sport in his young days, and I remember 

 was out once when I was quite a youngster, before 

 I was out of my griffinage even. He was rather a 

 careless sportsman, and didn't think much of 

 caution. On the occasion I refer to, he had 

 wounded a panther ; and deuced awkward customers 

 they are sometimes. I think, as a rule, they charge 

 more home, and are more difficult to stop or turn, 

 than tigers. However, rather foolishly he allowed the 

 beaters to go into the jungle, in twos and threes, to 

 beat the beast up, instead of keeping them in a 

 compact body. And he himself, with a couple of 

 men, also advanced in the direction of where lie 

 believed the beast to be lying. Presently, there 

 was a tremendous roar ; a few bounds towards a 

 little party of two or three beaters ; a spring ; an 

 impression left on the beholders of a spotted mass 

 cleaving through the air ; a gun shot ; and a heavy 



