A FIGHT WITH A PANTHER INDOORS. 203 



him crouched partly hidden in a corner partly behind the 

 low wall on which the water jars are kept. There was 

 nothing but a part of his back showing, at which I fired, 

 more with a view to rousing him than anything else, and it 

 had even more than the desired effect ; he made a great noise 

 and sprang right up to the top of the opposite door. Two 

 or three of my terriers which had followed me meanwhile, 

 having smelt him, had slipped in, and with a view to saving 

 them, and also giving the beast a little fair play, I opened 

 the door. Seeing me standing there he immediately made 

 for me, and before I could fire knocked the rifle out of my 

 hand, and it went off on falling on the floor. The report 

 made him recoil a bit, but the next moment with a roar that 

 made me feel very uncomfortable, and with one spring across 

 the room, the brute had me pinned against the w T all with one 

 paw on my left cheek and the other on my head, and then 

 he made a tremendous bite at my face. Luckily I had not 

 turned my back on him, and as he bit I caught it by the 

 throat and managed to hold him off enough to save my face, 

 but not my hat, which was a very big " sola topee," the brim 

 of which he bit clean off in front. I forgot to tell you that 

 some of the natives who had collected in and around the 

 house, on seeing me opening the bath-room door to let the 

 leopard out, shut the door of the room into which it led, so 

 that I was boxed up with him when I let him out. This 

 door was a little to the right of where he held me, so that 

 while I kept him off with my left hand I managed to open 

 the door with my right, and slipped out through the north 

 room. There were three doors to this, and I took the 

 west one, the leopard shot through the middle one after me, 

 and an unfortunate native, the only one who had remained, 

 ran through that on the east and down the steps just in time 

 to be met and pounced upon by the beast, and when I looked 

 back, I saw them rolling over together, the poor fellow 

 getting horribly mauled. I ran in for my knife, but when I 

 came out again the man had got away and the leopard was 

 crouching under the steps. I sat down within a few feet of 



