Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-05-11
ALONE WITH A LEOPARD,
ny DAVID KER.

"Can that be thunder? If it is, II
better look sharp; this is an awkward
place to be caught by storm"
So spoke an English traveller whC
was riding homeward after a day.
shooting on one of the highest trib
utaries of the Amazon, looking
anxiously up at the vast black cloud
overhanging the distant hills, along
which rolled at that moment the same
deep, booming sound that had
startled him more than once already
1t was an awkward place to be
caught in by a storm. He was half
away along a dry water-course, shut
in between steep, rocky banks. 1.-THE
floods were to come down from the
mountains before he could get clea1
of it-and this was just the time fol
their coming-hc would find himself
right in the track of a torrent which
could sweep away the tallest tree like
a straw. The only thing to be done
was to get out on the open plain as
quickly as possible; but this, amid
slippery pebbles and great powders
several feet in height, was no easy
matter
He had Just succeeded in picking
his way out of the gully on to the
open ground when a binding flash OF
lightning tore through the darkening|
sky from cast to west Then followed
a clap of thunder that seemed to|
shake the very earth, and down came
the rain like a watcrfall---such rain as
falls only in the tropics
But above all the din of the storm
was heard, far in the distance, a deep,
hoarse roar, growing louder and near
er every moment.
Instantly the whole country round,
Gar as eye could reach, was one leap
ing, foaming sea. The floods had
come down, and he was right in the
track of them.
Harry Ellerby was a bold and prac-
ticed rider, and his horse was one of
the best in the whole district, but
against that tremendous rush Sam
son himself would have had mo-
chance. In a twinkling he was torn
from his saddle and whirled away
like a reed in one direction, while his
terrified horse went struggling and
snorting in another.
Heavier and heavier poured down
the lashing rain, while the wind
roared and the thunder crashed over
head. Looking round over the wild
waters that were sweeping him along,
Ellerby could see floating on every
side of him uprooted trees, shattered
timbers, broken canoes upside down,
twigs, leaves, rushes and the bodies OF
drowned men and beasts.
All at once he was dashed against
something hard and solid with force
that well-nigh beat out of him what
little breath he had left, and in an
other moment he found himself
crouching among the huge, twisted
roots of an uptorn tree, which the
rush of the current had jammed be-
tween two projecting powders.
Meanwhile the food, being now
Swallowed and spread over so vast
space of level ground, had begun to
abate in violence; but the storm con-
tinued to rage as furiously as ever.
Everything was dark as night, but for
the constant flashes Of lightning, by
the glare Of which Henry Ellerby
suddenly saw, or thought he saw, o
sight that made his blood ruin cold.
Crouching at the other end of the
rocking and wave-lashed tree, which
was his only refuge from certain
death, was huge, dim, shapeless
something, in the midst of which
CLEANED two fiery eyes, which seemed
to be looking straight at him.
Hardly daring to own to himself
what he feared that this strange OBJ
ject might be, Ellerby waited anxious
ly for the next flash.
1t came at last in blaze that set
the whole sky on fire, and by its light
his worst fears were confirmed
The creature that shared his ark
of refuge with him-which sat hud-
died together barely 20 feet away,
with its hungry yellow eyes turned on
him, in glare Of mingled terror and
rage-was an enormous jaguar, the
aiercest beast of prey in South Africa
half leopard and half tiger.
Here was a dilemmal
But all this was nothing to what
was still to come Little by little the
storm spent its rage. The rain slack
ened; the thunder grew fainter; the