which were evidently those of distress.

As breakfast was being prepared, and the cattle laden for a start,
Willem and Hendrik strolled towards the grove from whence the cries
came. They were now more frightful than ever, and translated from the
monkey language seemed to say "Murder!"

In a tree where there were between fifteen and twenty of those
quadrumana, each about the size of an ordinary cat, was seen a young
leopard, trying to capture a black monkey for his breakfast. To avoid
this enemy, the apes had crawled out on the small slender branches,
where the leopard dared not follow them, knowing that his weight would
precipitate him to the ground.

For some time our adventurers amused themselves by watching the abortive
efforts of the leopard to procure the means of breaking its fast. He
would pursue a monkey along the limb until the branch became too small
to be trusted any farther.

He would get within two or three feet of the screaming ape, and then
stretch out one of his paws, while displaying his white teeth in a
smile, as though desirous of shaking hands with the creature he was
intending to destroy.

Finding his efforts to reach that particular monkey useless, he would
then leave it, to go through the same game with another.

One of the apes was at length chased out upon a large dead limb that
extended horizontally from the trunk. The top had been broken off, and
there being no slender twigs on which the monkey could take refuge,
there was nothing to prevent the leopard from following it to the
extremity of the branch and seizing it at leisure. There was no other
branch to which the monkey could spring; and it was fairly in a dilemma.
On perceiving this, it turned to the hunters who stood below, and gazed
at them with an expression that seemed to say, "Save me! save me!"

The leopard was so intent on obtaining his breakfast that he did not
notice the arrival of the two hunters until they were within twenty
yards of the tree, and until he was close pursuing the monkey along the
dead limb.

At this point, however, he paused. He had caught sight of "the human
face divine," and instinct told him that danger was near. He gazed upon
the intruders with flaming eyes, as if very little would induce him to
change the nature of his intended repast.

"Reserve your fire, Hendrik!" exclaimed Willem as he brought the roer to
his shoulder; "it may be needed."

The leopard answered the report of the gun by