Page 157 - Adventures in Africa

As I spoke, the leopard, for such it was, notwith­
standing our cries,— Harry, 1 should have said, had
begun to bawl away as loudly as I was doing*,— made

a furious spring- towards him ; but though he was
shouting lustily, he remained as cool as a cucumber,

holding his rifle ready.
W e fired, and both our balls took effect, when the
leopard literally turned, with its feet uppermost, and

fell right down into the centre of the fire, where it
lay struggling convulsively,, utterly unable to rise.
Directly afterwards I heard the report of a pistol, and,

while hastily reloading, I saw that Hans had shot the
other leopard through the head.
As we did not wish to lose the skin of the one we

had shot, Harry again filing gave it its quietus ; we
then seizing it by its hind legs dragged it out of the

lire, and Jan's knife soon finished the other.
W e thus gained two magnificent leopards' skins :
the fire had but slightly injured the one we had

killed.
“ There is some use in keeping watch at night,

Hans/' observed Harry; “ what would have become
of us if I had not been awake ? Those brutes would
have been in our midst before we were able to lift a

hand in our defence. As it was, I caught sight of
only one of them stealing towards us, and liad barely

time to rouse up the rest of you, so that if Fred
hadn't been very quick, the brute would have been
down upon us.”

“ All right,3 answered Hans, " such a thing is not
likely to happen a second time in a night, so I

suppose we may now go to sleep In quiet,”