CH. XXVIII 
TWO LEOPARD STORIES 
249 
the district abounded with leopards. For greater 
safety, I used to pen the birds at night in a large 
box, which I kept quite close to my tent ; but in 
spite of all my precautions, I discovered, one morning, 
that they had all disappeared. Having heard no 
noise during the night, I came to the conclusion that 
the birds had managed to find a way out of their 
pen and strayed, and immediately sent out my boy in 
search of them. He returned shortly afterwards, 
saying that he had discovered them all dead in a 
patch of bush, not far from my camp, and following 
him to the spot, I found his story correct in every 
detail. The whole thirteen were there, nearly every 
one minus its head, while on the soft, damp ground 
between my camp and the patch of bush, we could 
clearly see the spoor of a leopard. It was evident 
from the impressions of his feet that he had made a 
separate journey for each duck, and there is little 
doubt that he had seized the birds by the head to 
prevent them creating the slightest noise. 
I laid all sorts of traps to entice that leopard 
back to my camp, but he was a wily brute, and never 
gave me the chance of putting a bullet into him. 
At this time, I had a bull-terrier, called Brandy, 
whom I had reared from a puppy. He was a perfect 
specimen of his breed, and on one occasion, at 
Blantyre Dog Show, carried off the first prize for his 
class against all British Central Africa. I was ex- 
