For a few strokes it swam straight for the canoe. Max carried his rifle to the shoulder and fired. The beast was hit, for it shivered from head to tail, and then turned round and swam back to the bank whence it had come. As it crawled forth, dripping, with its head hanging low between its fore-legs, the great snout of a crocodile uprose from out of the water, and the huge jaws snapped together.
Crouch, who was steering, ran the canoe into the bank, and a moment later both he and Max, their rifles in their hands, had set out into the semi-darkness of the jungle.
They had no difficulty in following the leopard's spoor. The beast was badly wounded and very sick. Every hundred yards or so it lay down to rest, and when it heard them approaching, rose and went on with a growl.
Presently it led them into a marsh--which Edward Harden afterwards called Leopard Marsh--where they sank knee-deep in the mud. There were no trees here. In the middle of the marsh, lying in a few inches of water, was the wounded leopard, wholly unable to rise.
"He's yours," said Crouch. "I'll stand by in case you miss."
Max lifted his rifle, took careful aim, and fired. On the instant, with a savage screech, the leopard rose with a jerk. For a moment it stood upon its hind-legs, rampant, its fore-feet fighting in the air. Then it came down, as a stone drops, and lay quite still.
Max felt the flush of triumph that every hunter knows. His blood tingled in his veins. He was about to rush forward, to gloat upon his prize, when from somewhere near in the forest a shot rang out, and a bullet splashed into the moist ground at Max's feet.
[CHAPTER X--THE BACK-WATER]
Crouch's voice was lifted in a shout. "Run for your life!" he cried.
Together they went floundering through the mire. They had to run the gauntlet for a distance of little more than a hundred paces; but, by reason of the nature of the ground, their progress was necessarily slow, and before they had gained the cover afforded by the jungle, several bullets had whistled past them, and Crouch was limping badly.