"How could you be sure that this 'kill' was done by this particular
leopard, and not by another?" was my frequent question, variously
answered, according to circumstances. It had a style of its own, one
seemed to feel, after hearing a few of its exploits. There were
instances of men hunting it, who were killed instead of killing; but,
curiously enough, its most peculiar feat was a failure, from the
leopard's point of view.
It went into a big village one day, between four and five o'clock in
the afternoon, and in broad daylight strode through three-quarters of
it, passing between two rows of houses. Swiftly as it seemed to sweep
past, it must have been going slower than usual, for it looked right
and left as it went, sending piercing looks into many screaming
interiors. Near the farther end it turned and walked straight through
the open doorway into an old man's house, without pausing, as if it
had come by appointment. The old man was alone inside, and lay dozing.
It took him from his bed, and carried him away, and, strangest of all,
instead of going to the outside of the village near that end, retraced
its steps by the way it had come.
Men's shouts now mingled with piercing screams and the old man's cries
for help, and the leopard saw in front of him, blocking his path, nine
or ten men with big sticks. "By the grace of God" they had found it in
their hearts to face the monster, with no better weapons than these.
Give honour where honour is due! There was courage needed for that.
With the dexterity of a Boer commander, who had ambuscaded a
detachment but found an unexpected hostile force in his rear, the
leopard grasped the situation, and changed his plans. Turning aside
and passing between two houses, he escaped unhurt, but dropped the old
man, who was also unhurt in body, though badly shaken in nerves.
The long evening hours did not drag so much as usual that night in the
village, but by three or four o'clock in the morning there perhaps was
nobody living there who had not forgotten his excitement and fallen
asleep; and now the hour was at hand when the cocks would waken the
world; but there was a ruder awakening than usual that morning there.
From the old man's house there rang out piercing yells. In a few
minutes every man within hearing had come to it, with whatever weapons
were at hand, and as many as could enter crowded in to hear the old
man's story.
"I was sound asleep," he said. "I seemed to dream of a rat gnawing
something beside me, and, gradually, between asleep and awake, I began
to hear a kind of scrape-scrape-scraping. It was so strange that I
grew broad awake, trying to make out what it was. Then I knew it was
some beast on the mud-roof above me. I lay and lay and listened, and
wondered what it could be. It sounded like dogs at first, but I
concluded it was something else. No dog could scrape like that. I
thought of going outside and looking, but I felt too tired to be
bothered. I lay and lay and looked at the inside of the roof, where
the scraping was. I did not expect to see anything. I looked there,
just because the scraping was there. The place was there, right above
my face as I lay on my back. Just as I was taking a kind of last look,
before falling asleep altogether, I saw the leopard's two eyes shining
at me through a big hole in the roof. There's the hole!" ...
There was indeed a hole, and some of the villagers said that in
running up they saw the form of the leopard disappearing in the
moonlight, and the roof outside showed marks. "Nightmare," I
suggested, but Bingham would not allow that. The marks showed that a
leopard had come; and I had to admit that, though there was no direct
proof that it was the identical leopard, the odds were about a million
to one that it was, if, as the Privy Council Judges have suggested, as
a good rule in doubtful cases, we pay regard to the likelihoods
arising from known habits and undisputed facts. (I have simplified
their verbiage, but that is their meaning.)