TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 287 



to stand a little farther off. This I did not care to 

 do. The men were not armed, bar their spears, and 

 it seemed unfair to expose them so without giving 

 them the protection of one's rifle. Cecily was 

 doing the same thing on her side of the brake, where 

 the men were spearing bravely and shouting lustily. 

 We fired into the undergrowth, but it was of no avail ; 

 still the ominous snarling kept up, still the animal 

 would not break cover. I made up my mind I would 

 try and see if I could not get a shot into him somehow, 

 so I took on the silly job of crawling very slowly down 

 the rough trail made through the dense bush by the 

 dragging of the sheep. I came on its remains almost 

 at once. The leopard, where was he ? Then I saw 

 it in one brief second. What a face of rage and fury ! 

 I dare not fire. I backed hurriedly, getting clear of the 

 place, and then fired twice into the very place where 

 I judged the leopard lay up. A rush. Out he came, 

 rather from the side, looking like a fiend let loose. I 

 was glad we were not bang in his path. I could not 

 get a shot in at all, for one of the hunters, in the 

 warmth of his earnest efforts, put himself in my light. 

 There was Cecily, she blazed away ; there was Clarence, 

 whose rifle spoke, but I heard his bullet strike a rock 

 behind. The leopard, with lithe swinging bounds, 

 was up the clefts of the ravine in a moment. I threw 

 up my rifle and had a try for him. No result. He 

 was lost to sight. Four of the men went to the top 

 of the ravine and descended carefully, reporting the 

 leopard to be in a sort of cave between two boulders. 

 We must get there too, of course, which would be a 



