Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-08-02
ADVENTURES WITH A LEOPARD.


with my life during my hunting trips
was with leopard, says a writer in
tho American Field. and never wish
to be in the same situation again. 1t
was while hunting across the u ambese.
There were Burns. George Holmes.
and !. with about thirty Kaffirs in the
party. We had been searching about
for two days without finding any
! spoor Of elephants, when all at once
about the middle OF the third day
we came upon the spoor of five ele-
plants.
We followed the spoor to wood of
wait a-bit' bushes, etc. and it was
while going through the wood that a
large leopard sprang up in front of us
and made off in another direction.
Burns, who was in the lead, made
shot at him, but scored clean miss
on account of his horse rearing to one
side. l noticed the brute made for
bush to the right OF us, so Burns and
I started after him on foot, leaving
George to look after the horses. We
thought the rest would do them good
before hunting the elephants. The
bush that the leopard made for was
about one hundred yards from us, but
when we reached it the leopard had
vanished We hunted around for
minute or so, when up jumped the
leopard about twenty yards from us.
We both fired together and the brute
made leap as If hard hit and sprang
behind bush to the left We were
both creeping on toward the bush.
Burns was about six yards to the right
of me. when all at once he cried out:
Look out kidr' But before l had
time to look or do anything the leopard
sprang at me ana foored me like ten
pins. knocking my rifle from my hand
at the same time. He sprang at me
from the left side. so in that way my
eight arm was free. How got Off as
lucky as l did can not tell; but rs
luck would have it, my knife was OH
he right side of my belt Drawing it,
[ let the savage brute have its point
clean in its snout, just rs he was in the
act of grabbing at my throat l sup
pose the sting was more than he had
anticipated, and gave him time TO
think. Lucky for me he did. for just
then Burns who had fixed his bayonet,
came to my assistance. The brute
seeing another pointer coming toward
him, thought it best to clear out, VIII ch
he did pretty quick ly; in fact, before
Burns could get dig at him he had
disappeared into the bush.
The whole affair had been so sudden
that | hardly knew where l was unit
old Burns said:
'.Are you hurt kidP"
Then | jumped up prett quickly and
felt all over me to find outfit any bones
were broken, blessing the leopard and
his race at the same time. My left arm
was stunned from the elbow. and did
not know but what the left side of my
person had gone for walk, it was so
numbed Anyhow, l soon felt all right
again, and with the exception of
lump of skin hanging from my first
finger on the left hand, done by tue
brute's claw, no other damage had oc-
Cured. l took piece of linen and
bound the finger up with the lump of
skin in its place. and tho whole affair
grew together again; but the mark l
shall carry to my dying day.
1t has been motto of mine never to
forgive an enemy. and / certainly con-
sidered this leopard one, so made up
my mind to have his skin if | had to
have the skin of all my fingers clawed
of. This | told Burns. and he said:
That's right, kid; revenge is sweet
That's my motto"
SO off we started to hunt the leopard
again. This time he seemed to have
gone quite distance; but all along
the spoor were spots of blood, cause
40 doubt by the bullets he had received
when we both fired together. All 1T
once Burns raised his gun and fired at
bush about fifty yards in front of us,
and in another moment l saw the leo
lpard creeping to another bush short
distance ahead. Burns had seen the
animal through the bush. but the bull
lets must have hit some branch or
other, for the leopard did not seem to
notice anything except being surprised
by the report from the gun. Burns
now whispered to 60 cautiously. as the
brute was very savage now that it was
wounded and would show good fight
for liberty.
After creeping about fifteen yards
Burns pointed to the bush the leopard
had gone to. and there saw the old
fellow lying down, evidently in great
pain. He would keep getting up aud
lying down. all the time licking his
side, where no doubt the wounds were.
This time we decided 10 have a good
| broadsid at him, so we crept to the