To their surprise, another axis now showed itself upon the ground, but
this one was of such small dimensions that they saw at once it was the
young of the first. It was a tiny little fawn, but a few days old, and
speckled all over with similar snow-white spots.

The deer, unconscious of the presence of the travellers, walked several
paces out upon the meadow, and commenced browsing upon the grass. The
little fawn knew not, as yet, how to eat grass; and occupied itself by
skipping and playing about its mother, like a kid.

The hunters, all speaking in whispers, now counselled among themselves
as to what they should do. Ossaroo would have liked a bit of venison
for supper, and, certainly, the fawn was a tempting _morceau_. Caspar
voted to kill; but Karl, of gentler nature, opposed this design.

"A pity!" he said. "Look, brother, how gentle they appear? Remember
how we felt after killing the savage bear, and this would be far worse."

While engaged in this undertone discussion, a new party made his
appearance upon the scene, which drove all thoughts of killing the deer
out of the minds both of Caspar and Ossaroo.

This intruder was an animal quite as large as the axis, but of an
entirely different form. Its ground-colour was not unlike that of the
deer, with a deeper tinge of yellow, and it, too, was spotted all over
the body. Herein, however, a striking contrast existed between the two.
As already stated, the spots upon the axis were snow-white; while those
upon the new comer were just the reverse--black as jet. Spots they
could hardly be termed, though, at a distance, they presented that
appearance. When closely viewed, however, it would have been seen that
they were rather rosettes, or rings; the centre part being of the same
yellowish ground-colour as the rest of the body.

The animal had a stout, low body; short, but strong limbs; a long,
tapering tail, and a cat-like head. The last is not to be wondered at,
since it was in reality a cat. It was the _panther_.

The attention of the hunters was at once taken away from the axis, and
became fixed on the great spotted cat, which all three knew to be a
panther; next to the lion and tiger, the most formidable of Asiatic
_felida_.

All knew that the Indian panther often attacks man; and it was,
therefore, with no very comfortable feelings that they hailed his
appearance. The boys grasped their guns more firmly, and Ossaroo his
bow, ready to give the