Page:In brightest Africa.djvu/122

 The dotted line indicates Mr. Akeley's movement during his encounter with the leopard. The dashes show the route taken by the leopard. At position (1), Mr. Akeley fired into the bush. Of the three shots fired at position (2), two went above the leopard and the third inflicted only a skin wound. The hand-to-hand combat took place at position (3).

fixed on fight, and if a leopard ever gets hold, it claws and bites until its victim is in shreds. All this was in my mind, and I began looking about for the best way out of it, for I had no desire to try conclusions with a possibly wounded leopard when it was so late in the day that I could not see the sights of my rifle. My intention was to leave it until morning and if it had been wounded, there might then be a chance of finding it. I turned to the left to cross to the opposite bank of a deep, narrow tug and when there I found that I was on an island where the tug forked, and by going along a short distance to the point of the island I would be in position to see behind the bush where the leopard had stopped. But what I had started