azing of the herd. The next instant I caught the merest glimpse
through the shortened herbage of a moving something that I knew could
only be the back of a crouching animal of some sort sneaking toward the
now fully awakened herd; and throwing up my rifle, I tried to imagine
the entire animal from the little of it that I saw, aimed for the spot
among the grass which I pictured as being just behind the shoulder, and
pulled the trigger. The sharp crack of the rifle broke in upon the
stillness of the night with startling effect. I heard the thud of the
bullet, instantly followed by a savage snarl that ended in a moan, and
as the smoke drifted away I caught a momentary glimpse of a great,
tawny, black-spotted form writhing convulsively in the air from its
death spring and then collapsing inertly where it fell. Jan and the
Basuto, uttering yells of delight, instantly started to run in upon the
fallen leopard; but I stopped them with the reminder that the beast
might not yet be dead, and, exchanging weapons with the Hottentot,
proceeded to approach, with all due caution, the spot where it lay. But
we need not have been under any apprehension, for when we came to it we
saw that the animal--which, by the way, was the biggest leopard that I
had ever seen--had been shot clean through the heart, and was
stone-dead.

CHAPTER FIVE.

MAFUTA, THE BASUTO WITCH DOCTOR.

On the following morning, when I turned out and walked down to the river
to bathe, I debouched a little from the direct road in order to take a
peep at the dead leopard by daylight, the carcass having been left where
it had fallen. As I approached the place I saw that Piet and Jan, my
two Hottentots, were already busily engaged upon the task of removing
the skin; and I observed that both were looking, as I thought, very much
annoyed, and a little apprehensive. I was not long in discovering what
was the matter, for as I halted beside them Piet held up first the two
front paws and then the two hind paws of the beast, when I instantly
saw, to my intense annoyance, that every one of the claws had been
removed, and that therefore, as a trophy, the skin was quite useless.
Of course I knew that this was a common practice among the Kafirs, the
claws of the lion and the leopard being either worn by them as potent
amulets, or converted into muti, that is to say, medicine, which is
implicitly believed by them to impart the quality of courage to the one
who takes it; b