62 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
Some three weeks after this occurrence, I was 
awakened one morning at sunrise by my servant, 
Tweegah, who excitedly told me that he feared 
a leopard had made its way into the fowl-house, 
for there was a great commotion among the poultry. 
Picking up my 1075 mm * magazine rifle, which 
I always kept loaded in readiness with three 
cartridges, I dashed out of my tent in my pyjamas 
and made for the fowl-house, which was close to 
the banda (a thatched erection serving as a place 
of shade against the fierce tropical sun). As I 
approached the latter, Swasuri and one of my men’s 
wives, wondering what was the matter, came out of 
their hut and followed Tweegah and me with the 
inquisitiveness peculiar to every woman. My boy 
was indeed right in his conjecture, for, on reaching 
the banda, I saw the leopard slinking away, so 
taking hasty aim, I fired, striking him in the ribs 
and rolling him over. A moment afterwards, 
instead of clearing, he rose and faced me, and as 
he sprang in my direction, I fired once more, 
the bullet smashing his jaw-bone, passing through 
the right side of his mouth, and inflicting a slight 
flesh-wound in his shoulder. This stopped him, 
but only for an instant, and barely giving me time 
to drive my third and last cartridge into the 
breech, he came straight at me once more. As 
he sprang I fired and simultaneously jumped aside, 
