Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1909-08-26

Winchester" then, or the leopard
would not have served me as he did.
The weapon l was using was q con.
verted Enfield carbine, which, though
. splendid shooter, only took one shell
and required Gaping. l could not get
the cap on before he was upon me.
and over we both went Ia heap-I
undermost. He got my left arm be-
tween his teeth. and / could feel his
fangs crunching, but I seized my long
hunting knife. and managed to get it
under his chin and gave a frantic
cash which almost cut his head of.
In the meantime my dog had re-
gained his composure; since he had
seen two of his comrades fattened
out by leopards he had often turned
tail, but he was very useful in track
ing them. l had rolled the skin I'D
and was just about starting back for
camp, when the dog again attracted
my attention, acting as though he had
picked up 4 fresh emit; and although
l felt pretty sick, still l could not re-
sist the temptation and followed him,
first of all hanging up the skin on .
thorn bush. The dog held on and I
followed as well as I could for per-
haps another mile, fortunately along
the time, so that was shaded to some
extent from the burning sunbeams
which un1er ordinary circumstances
would have caused me no inconven-
tence, but now almost Frustrated me.
l doubtless had lost considerably more
blood than | imagined, but the sudden
renewed barking of the dog put new
life into me and I hurried on. The
leopard had hurried on to some rocky
ground, where he had evidently 10
Gated himself, as he would not prob.
ably leave his stronghold for any dog,
l sat down and rested a while. | also
examined the breech Of my carbine
and arranged things as well as could,
SO that no repetition Of the last con
tretemps" should occur. The dog
was working at crevice in the rocks
in which l had calculated the leopard
was ensconced, and 1 cautiously ap-
preached to investigate. l could, how
ever, neither hear nor see anything 1T
first, but after while, as my eye
sight got accustomed to the gloom, I
made out two balls of fire. They
might have been, one yard, they might
have been so yards away, could not
tell-that did not signify-and taking
steady aim between them, l let go.
The report was so deafeping that l
could not have heard any other sound
had there been one, but the "eyes"
had gone out when the smoke cleared
away and all was still. After waiting
a while, cut limb or two as straight
as l could find, and splicing them into
one long one, pushed the pole up into
the recesses of the aperture, and with
drawing it, after twisting it around
against some soft substance, found,
sure enough, leopard's fur on the end.
| now felt no hesitation about going
in, though this was more easily said
than done. | could with difficulty
squeeze myself through the narrow
opening, and to do so caused me ex-
cruciating pain. Once through, how
ever, l had more room, and soon
reached my quarry, which / got at
last into the daylight, not little glad
to be out of the business so well. I
then had to skin her-a female, and
doubtless mate to the one I had killed
in the morning. Then returning to
where ] had left the other skin l made
tracks for the wagon.
BY permission of Longmans. Green &
Co, New York.
Copyright, 1909, by Benz B. Hampton.)