NIGHT ADVENTURE WITH A LEOPARD 
47 
before me. In another second I was quite close to him. 
He didn t move a muscle, but commenced a low gurgling 
growl. Now, I thought, was the time to act, before he 
charged me. I raised my rifle, but his curiosity was so 
great at seeing such an uncommon object crawling along 
the ground towards him that he never moved. At that 
second a great flash of flame flew out, and amid the shriek- 
ing of the birds as they flew up, terrified by the report of 
my rifle, I heard a low growl of rage. Looking under the 
smoke, I could see nothing in the darkness. I then quickly 
entered the old zareba of the night before, which overlooked 
the dead camel, and could then hear the leopard’s low 
moaning growl in the bushes close at hand. This went on 
for a couple of hours or so until morning began to break, 
and we heard the men coming to let us out of our prison. 
We shouted out to warn them not to approach the bushes, 
so they hurriedly came round to our zareba, and waited 
with us until it was fairly light. I then posted two men 
with rifles to watch, and squatted myself behind the dead 
camel, telling the men to go round and make a noise to 
drive out the leopard. They shouted, yelled, threw stones 
and burning sticks, to no purpose ; the leopard would not 
come out. 
‘ Fire the bush,’ they said. 
But I thought the animal must be dead inside, and 
feared to spoil his skin. Who would crawl in and have a 
look ? Not one of my men volunteered. 
‘ Well, I suppose I must do it myself,’ I said. 
To tell the truth, I didn’t like it at all, but one does 
things in a case like this which one would never dream of 
doing in one’s quiet mpments. I felt like Bill in ‘ Alice in 
Wonderland,’ when he had to go down the chimney. Into 
the thick bushes I stooped and crawled, following the 
tracks in the sand, when, on reaching the thickest part, I 
discovered the leopard all doubled up lying in some grass. 
I cocked my rifle, and prodded his tail with the muzzle of 
it, ready to fire in an instant ; but he lay dead and stiff. 
