A LEOPARD HUNT 
118 
ch. y] 
back Kermit hit him again, crippling him in the hips. 
The wounds were fatal, and they would have knocked 
the fight out of any animal less plucky and savage than 
the leopard ; but not even in Africa is there a beast of 
more unflinching courage than this spotted cat. The 
beaters were much excited by the sight of the charge 
and the way in which it was stopped, and they pressed 
jubilantly forward—too heedlessly. One of them, who 
was on McMillan’s side of the thicket, went too near it, 
and out came the wounded leopard at him. It was 
badly crippled, or it would have got the beater at once ; 
as it was, it was slowly overtaking him as he ran 
through the tall grass, when McMillan, standing on an 
ant-heap, shot it again. Yet, in spite of having this 
third bullet in it, it ran down the beater and seized 
him, worrying him with teeth and claws. But it was 
weak because of its wounds, and the powerful savage 
wrenched himself free, while McMillan fired into the 
beast again, and back it went through the long grass 
into the thicket. There was a pause, and the wounded 
beater was removed to a place of safety, while a 
messenger was sent on to us to bring up the Boer 
dogs. But while they were waiting, the leopard, on 
its own initiative, brought matters to a crisis ; for out it 
came again straight at Kermit, and this time it dropped 
dead to Kermit’s bullet. No animal could have shown 
a more fearless and resolute temper. It was an old 
female, but small, its weight being a little short of 
seventy pounds. The smallest female cougar I ever 
killed was heavier than this, and one very big male cougar 
which I killed in Colorado was three times the weight. 
Yet I have never heard of any cougar which displayed 
anything like the spirit and ferocity of this little leopard, 
or which in any way approached it as a dangerous foe. 
8 
