pproach.
They steal on with extreme caution, being intensely wary and
suspicious. At a village near where we now were, I had sat up for three
nights for a leopard, but although I knew he was prowling in the
vicinity, I had never got a look at him. We believed this leopard to be
the same brute.

I have already described our mode of beating. The jungle was close, and
there was a great growth of young trees. I was again on the right, and
near the edge of the forest. Beyond was a glade planted with rice. The
incidents of the beat were much as you have just read. There was,
however, unknown or at any rate unnoticed by us, more intense
excitement. We knew that the leopard might at any moment pass before
us. Pat was close to a mighty bhur tree, whose branches, sending down
shoots from the parent stem, had planted round it a colony of vigorous
supports. It was a magnificent tree with dense shade. All was solemn
and still. Pat with his keen eye, his pulse bounding, and every sense
on the alert, was keeping a careful look-out from behind an immense
projecting buttress of the tree. All was deadly quiet. H. and myself
were occupied watching the gambols of some monkeys in our front. The
beaters were yet far off. Suddenly Pat heard a faint crackle on a dried
leaf. He glanced in the direction of the sound, and his quick eye
detected the glossy coats, the beautifully spotted hides of not _one_
leopard, but _two_. In a moment the stillness was broken by the report
of his rifle. Another report followed sharp and quick. We were on the
alert, but to Pat the chief honour and glory belonged. He had shot one
leopard dead through the heart. The female was badly hit and came
bounding along in my direction. Of course we were now on the _qui
vive_. Waiting for an instant, till I could get my aim clear of some
intervening trees, I at length got a fair shot, and brought her down
with a ball through the throat. H. and Pat came running up, and we
congratulated ourselves on our success. By and bye Mehrman Singh and
the rest of the beaters came up, and the joy of the villagers was
gratifying. These were doubtless the two leopards we had heard so much
about, for which I had sat up and watched. It was amusing to see some
villager whose pet goat or valued calf had been carried off, now coming
up, striking the dead body of the leopard, and abusing it in the most
unmeasured terms. Such a crowding round as there was! such a noise, and
such excitement!

Wh