Pelts 



Once he raised my hopes by a plaintive bleat, 

 but he took good care to keep it very plaintive. 



We had agreed to sit until g-30 and then give it 

 up. That meant nearly five hours in that machan 

 in company with a silent goat. I threw every- 

 thing I had on me at the brute, without avail. 



Punctually to the minute I crawled down 

 from my very cold perch, all my extremities 

 being numbed. The goat met me with a friendly 

 bleat of welcome and stood up ready to be taken 

 home. Almost would I have said that the animal 

 was ' in it,' with the villager and the panther, 

 and that the whole was a put up thing ! 



Leaving the goat at the village, I went down 

 the road, and soon saw a dark figure approaching, 

 cursing volubly. 'Twas the doctor and his goat ! 

 The latter, tied with a piece of rope, was being 

 dragged along bleating and most reluctant by 

 the doctor, who was in a vile temper. His 

 goat apparently had been picketed amongst some 

 succulent grass on a fire-line in the forest, and 

 had not once opened its mouth until it was 

 hurried from its tempting feeding-ground by the 

 enraged doctor. 



Have you ever had the luck to watch a leopard 

 au naturel in the jungle without his being aware 

 that you are watching him ? Of course, the only 

 way to see any wild animal is to see him without 

 his knowing you are watching him. Once he knows 

 this, you no longer see the real animal as he is. 

 T ^ 273 



