Mr. Gilchrist snatched up a loaded gun, fired, but with too uncertain an aim, for he could not control the trembling of his nerves at this first and sudden sight of so terrible an animal in his native jungle.
The driver of the gharrie, with a howl, abandoned his seat in front, and crept into the recesses within to hide. The leopard made his spring, and fastened upon the nearest bullock. Ralph uttered a cry as desperate as that of the native, and discharged a pistol full at the creature.
So close upon them as he was, it was impossible to miss hitting it somewhere; the bullet entered its shoulder, and a trickle of blood bore witness to the fact.
The pistol was a revolver, and Ralph shot again and again, for all the chambers were loaded; but his hand shook, and several bullets went wide of the mark, though he hit the leopard in the ear and in the side.
The creature abandoned its work of mangling the poor bullock, when it suffered the first shot, raised its proud head and looked the boy full in the face; crouched again, and, lashing its tail with fury, was on the point of leaping straight into the waggon, when, his arm steadied by the emergency, Mr. Gilchrist discharged his second barrel in its face, and shot it straight through the head.
Osborn at the same moment, having withheld his shot until it was certain to take effect, hit it in the neck, and the animal rolled over in its dying agonies.
The Burmese bullock-driver now emerged from his retirement, very glorious over the defeat of the enemy; he danced round it with joy, and lauded "our courage," "our success," "our bravery," until old Wills was obliged literally to spit out his contempt.
"Shut up!" he growled. "Hold your ridiculous jaw! Much good you were, you coward! Next time we will throw you out for the cat to set his talons in those absurd blue breeches of yourn. Better you than our poor buffalo. Here, hand me that knife, and let me put the poor wretch out of its sufferings."
For the buffalo was not dead, though paralysed by the leopard's teeth and claws in its spine, at the back of its throat. It turned a pathetic eye upon its friends, as it asking for help, but there was nothing to be done but to put it out of its misery.
Ralph shuddered, and felt very sick; Mr. Gilchrist also was faint when the pressure of excitement passed away, and Wills made both of them take some cordial to steady their nerves.