212 THE EASTERN HUNTERS. 



Do vonr hear, S - ? ' lie continued, as not tlio 

 slightest attention was paid to his orders. Still no 

 reply, or the smallest attempt at stopping in his 

 onward progress. 



" The old fellow was now really alarmed at the 

 boy's temerity, and with angry and vehement gesti- 

 culations threatened all sorts of pains and penalties, 

 and at last there and then placed him in arrest. 



" ' It's as much as your commission is worth, sir, 

 to advance a single step/ he said. ' I place you in 

 arrest now, sir. You are to return here to me, sir, 

 this moment. I, your commanding officer, order 

 you to do so at once. It is breaking your arrest to 

 disobey me/ 



" But no heed whatever was paid to these remon- 

 strances and orders. Indeed, it is doubtful if, in his 

 excited state, the boy fully realised his colonel's 

 threats. However that may be, at that moment the 

 mere trivial fact of being placed in arrest would 

 have been regarded with the greatest unconcern, 

 when weighed with the death of a panther the first 

 he had ever seen. So he continued on, without 

 vouchsafing n reply to his excited commandant; w;>s 

 conducted to a spot whence he obtained a good view 

 of the beast, and there and then shot him dead, to 

 his no small gratification and delight. 



"'It's .'ill right, colonel/ he shouted, in gleeful 



