ld had no
relish for sport and kept no guns, so the simple villagers, when they
saw my boat with its familiar flag, looked for no help from that
quarter. However, I might still win renown off that wounded "bag," if it
was not a myth; but, to tell the truth, I was sceptical. The tiger and
the panther are not nomads on rocky plains, like the antelope. I landed,
notwithstanding, promptly and visited the scene. Sure enough, there was
a young heifer lying on its side, with the unmistakable deep pits where
the jaws of the panther had gripped its throat, and a gory cavity where
it had selected a gigot for its dinner.

Round the corpse the villagers had arranged a circular fence of thorns,
with one opening, across which they had stretched a cord, attached at
the other end to the trigger of an old shooting iron of some sort,
charged with slugs and looking hard at the opening. The gun had gone off
during the night, and the ground was soaked with blood. A few yards off
there was another great swamp of blood. The beast had staggered away and
lain down for a while, faint and sick. Then it had got up and crawled
home, still dripping with blood, by which we tracked it for a good
distance, but the trace grew gradually fainter and at last ceased
altogether.

"It has gone to the fort," said the men--"bags always go to the fort." I
pointed out that, if it had meant to go to the fort, it would have gone
towards the fort, instead of in another direction; but the argument did
not move them. "The fort is a jungle, and where else should a 'bag' take
refuge but in a jungle?" However, I was obstinate, and pursued the
original direction until we arrived at the brow of the hill, where it
sloped steeply down to the sea. The whole slope, for half a mile, was
covered with a dense scrub of Lantana bushes. This is another plant
introduced in some by-gone century from South America, and planted first
in gardens for its profuse clusters of red and pink verbena-like
blossoms (it is a near relation of the garden verbena), whence it has
spread like the rabbit in New Zealand, and become a nuisance. "There," I
cried, pointing at the scrub, "there, without doubt, your wounded 'bag'
is lying."

Some of the men, unbelieving still, were amusing themselves by rolling
large stones down the slope, when suddenly there was a sound of
scrambling, and across an opening in the scrub, in sight of us all, a
huge hyaena scurried away "on three legs." I sent a man post-ha