142 THE PANTHER I DID NOT SHOOT 



with the intelligence that on the previous evening 

 two panthers had been seen sitting on the brow of 

 the hill and gazing at the beauties of the fading 

 sunset, as wild beasts are so fond of doing. A night 

 or two later a cow was attacked in a neighbouring 

 field, and, staggering into the village, fell down and 

 died in a narrow alley between two houses. The 

 panther followed and prowled about all night, but 

 the villagers, hammering at their doors with sticks, 

 scared it from its meal. 



I at once had a nest put up in a small tree, and 

 took my position in it at sunset. The common 

 people in India do not waste much money on lamp 

 oil, preferring to sleep during the hours appointed 

 by Nature for the purpose, so it was not long before 

 all doors were securely barred and quietness reigned. 

 Then the mosquitoes awoke and came to inquire 

 for me, the little bats (how I blessed them !) wheeled 

 about my head, the night-jar called to his fellow, 

 and the little owls sat on a branch together and 

 talked to each other about me. Hour after hour 

 passed, and it became too dark in that narrow alley 

 to see a panther if it had come. So I came down 

 and got to my boat. The panther was engaged a 

 mile away dining on another cow! On further 

 inquiry I learned that there was some good forest 

 a day's journey distant, and it was quite the fashion 

 among the panthers of that place to spend a week- 

 end occasionally at a spot so full of all delights as 

 this dark, jungle-smothered fort. 



