The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-06-02

was all, When we did arrive, the
fight was over.
Meanwhile an unexpected dig OF
the things claws caught him over the
eyebrow, and the gush Of blood that
followed half-blinded and thoroughly
reused him; so that now he began to
struggle not only for life, but for re-
venge. Still wrestling with the beast,
he managed to get up on his feet, and
with a Herculean effort he tore 1t
from him and hurled it to the ground.
Before he could jump on it, however,
and crush it. under his heavy weld
schoen, the leopard had sprung away.
1t came back Immediately, with
high vault into the air toward Piet's
face. He met it with two powerful
swings of his fists on its bullet head
that would have stunned an OK; for
you must remember that he was a
large boy, even for his eighteen years,
and had the muscles of heavy
weight prize-fighter. But the blows
caused the leopard simply to drop on
it's feet a yard from him, when with
incredible swiftness of rebound ii
leaped again at him, this time catch
ing him with its jaws high up on the
right shoulder. 4
Fortunately the thick double seams
of his khaki jacket turned the ami
mails teeth, so that the bite was
hardly more than skin-deep; other
wise it might have proved the end
of the doughty Boer. AS it was, Pet,
with something hot and sticky blind
ing his eyes and wetting his shirt,
and making him feel that the leopard
had got the better of him at last, was
maddened to desperation, and put all
of his great strength into one last
furious attempt to tear the vise-like
jaws loose. He gripped the neck, and
squeezing hard, jerked savagely away
from him
The beast held on with deadly per-
tinacity, until the checking OF its
wind caused it to gasp little, when,
with sickening tear of clothes and
flesh, it came away SO suddenly that
it was propelled far out of Piet's
grasp and the recoil sent the boy fiat
on his back.
He was up again in an instant, rag
ing by now with the fury of the con-
fiict. Wiping his eyes on his sleeve,
he looked for his antagonist, and was
all the more exasperated when he
found that it had totally disappeared
He was still blindly and frenziedly
hunting it, when John Gebers and the
rest of us appeared; and overwrougl.t
as he was from the awful struggle,
he turned his mad fury upon us.
When he had finished his narrative,
David Saalfield peered apprehensive-
ly over the hill, and asked what had
become of the animal.
"Isnot know dot, !" replied PET, N
his dialect. MAYBE he gone pack to
der cave
II don't believe that" broke in
John Gebers, who was the oldest and
most experienced of our crowd, "not
after fighting the way it did. 1t
doesn't usually attack man, but
when it does Which way were
you facing, Piet, when you pulled the
thing from you?"
Il not know" said the Boer, nurs-
ing his eyebrow.
well" declared John, Il believe
you must have been facing the preci-
pice near the edge, and you threw it
clean over into the valley" +
why, dots so! / not drinks of
dot" gasped Pet.
We all threw ourselves fiat and
craned over the edge Of the cliff,
Only few feet below was fissure
in the rock that made narrow ledge
on the sheer wall, and seemed to lead
into natural cave. A few days later
armed with borrowed rifle, we ex
plored that crevice; but how we came
and saw and conquered the mate OF
Piet's leopard is another story. The
proof of the Beers tale, however, was
before our astonished eyes, as we
stared into the rocky valley far be.
low. There, caught upon a jagged
boulder, was bunch of dark-spotted
brown fur. which, even at that dis.
lance, we recognized as the body of q
leopard. From the Youths Com
panion.