The Washington times., 1922-12-17
(continued frona, Preceding Page.

airily, and turned to immediate
matters.
That had been at Ell Obeid on
the day before they cut off from
even that remote and slender ten
tacle of civilization, and disap-
peared southward with their train
Of guide shikarris, porters. gun
bearers, camel-men and all such
people. They purposed pushing as
s quickly as possible southwest
through Sungakai to Gereif, and
there hunt within an immense
triangular area, having Gereif for
Its apex and the Kir River for its
base.
Here, they were told, they
could not fail of sport, and with
reasonable good fortune they
need run no dangerous risk of any
lack of water - nor, added a
young officer stationed at Ell
;Obeid, himself tanned to the hue
OF brown leather, of mosquitoes.
TsI"You will find down there
great forests of gum thorns,
water-holes galore = most dry =
PAOhty vi dlffG dtlu ilUItc III WCh
-bououcts," he told them.
bouquets will be ample"
laughed Marchurst- - and so they
went in search of. them. ..t
q But they never reached Gereif.
Their journey ended in a group of
hills slightly north of that place.
From the very moment: of the
start of the expedition Dick
Marchurst had impressed upon
their headman, one Ell Addar, q
Negro of huge physique, and,
thanks to a liberal dash of Arab
blood, unusual intelligence, his de-
sire to obtain above all things a
leopard skin that should be some
thing in the nature of record.
He promised heavy reward.
q And it worked its usual magic.
1T was one evening, a little after
they camped at the end of long
days march on the last few stages
5ofthe long journey to Gereif that
the headman came to their tent,
his eyes cleaning with excitement,
. to- tell them that one of the. por-
ters, cutting brushwood for the
night fires round the camp, had
caught sight of two of the largest
1eopards they hadsever seen.
!: The beasts were entering
rocky gorge leading into the hills.
Scoring marks with his foot in
the sandy floor the big headman
excilcdly, in a queer jumble of
Arabic, French, and English, its
complexity made yet more COM
plex with scraps of many dialects,
conveyed to them the news that
the male could not be less than
nine feet from tail-tip to nose,
and that his hide was perfect.
The leopardess matched her
mate in size but her skin was
pa;chy.
: sect the men together to beat
along the gorge, man., said
Earchurst, reaching hastily tor
;ths heavy boots he had kicked off.
I But Hoodless was less excited.
"'Just a minute, Dick" he said,
;yi.,wly. "What about, the light?
sTi;is is the wrong end of the day
10. follow a couple, of laOparda.s
into the hills. It will be dark In
half an hour" He waved q hand
to the open tent flap. Already,
outside, the sky was full of the
fading geld of the sunset.
They'll feed and lay up till
/. dawn, Dick. We can go out the
first thing and-help ourselves,
old chap. It would be folly to 60
In after them now"
so He wheeled abruptly on Ell
.Addar.
a"What the devil are you think
ing about to come here at this
Sur with your internal fairy
.tSles of nine-foot leopards, you
fool?" he said, harsh1y. 'They
told me in; khartum that you were
q good shikari-"
"Oh, leave him out of it, Crich-
ton," said Dick, laughing, as he
tugged at his boots. "He's willing
To- take as big a risk for the re-
ward as am for the leopard. Get
on, Ell Addar, and pick out your
MEN, Lord, Crichton, if we
hold straight, what is it but q
couple of sbots--and all over. One
doesn't come across record leop-
! ard every day--or every year, for
that matter. Come on, manr'
He snatched up his heavy .ou-
ble-barrelled .450, crammed in a
couple Of cartridges and dropped