88 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



I don't think my husband was ever taken unawares ; at 

 least when the crucial moment came he could always face 

 it, sometimes did so literally, as in this case ! He told me 

 that he was thinking hard, all through that stern chase, 

 of everything he had ever heard or read of the same kind, 

 and suddenly remembered the hat-trick being employed 

 by an Indian trapper in a story by Fenimore Cooper — one 

 of the books of his own boyhood — and thought it worth 

 trying ; for lungs and legs were threatening to give out, 

 the bear was manifestly gaining on him, and there would 

 not be much more time. ' Who hesitates is lost ' is true 

 in so many crises, while, as has so often been proved, a 

 little daring and craft will easily get the better of brute 

 strength. 



For myself, if ever in my wanderings round about our 

 camp it seemed getting too solitary and strange, or if I 

 found that I was beyond earshot of the familiar sounds 

 of our people, dogs, and other camp noises, I turned and 

 made my way back speedily, having no fancy for an awk- 

 ward rencontre ; yet within the distance of a stone's throw 

 from the camp such an adventure befell me twice. 



We were in the cardamom forests, where much of my 

 husband's work lay, and near our camp was a small 

 mountain pool by which I loved to sit. One day, for a 

 wonder, the dogs were not with me ; they had started, 

 but something attracted them back, and I went on 

 alone — very fortunately as it chanced ; for as I sat by 

 the pool, looking into the still, dark water and at the 

 pretty shifting lights falling between the boughs overhead, 

 I descried the reflection of a panther's face, much too near 

 me as I thought, the animal being on my bank of the pool. 

 At such times one's instinct is to keep quiet, holding one's 

 breath, unless one be of the screaming order. Turning 

 only my eyes, I saw the beautiful, sleek body lying almost 

 flat as he drank. Meanwhile he had caught sight of my 



