“I never shot a monkey in my life, and never will, Nie; it appears to me almost as bad as shooting a human being.
“‘We’ll go back to the lake-side now, Friday,’ I said, ‘and have dinner.’
“Alas! I had no dinner that day, Nie, nor for many a long day to come.
“There is no fiercer wild beast in all the forests or jungles than the cougar or puma, and none more treacherous. I have an idea myself that the darker in colour the more courageous and bloodthirsty they are; however that may be, I would any day as soon fight hand-to-hand with a man-eating tiger as I would with some of the monstrous pumas I have seen in South America. And yet I have heard sportsmen despise them, probably because they have never met one face to face as I have done, and as I did on the day in question.
“We were quietly returning, Friday and I, to the place where we had left our provisions and bags, when he suddenly cried, ‘Look, massa! look dere!’ We had disturbed one of the largest boa-constrictors I had ever seen, and it was moving off, strange to say, instead of boldly attacking us, but hissing and blowing with rage as it did so. It looked to me like the trunk of some mighty palm-tree in motion along the ground.
“‘Fire!’ I cried; ‘fire! Friday.’
“The crack of both of our rifles followed in a second, but though wounded, the terrible creature made good its escape.
“I hurried after him, loading as I went, and thus got parted for a short time from my faithful servant and body-guard.
“I soon discovered, to my sorrow, the reason why the boa had not attacked us.
“In these dense forest lands, the wildest animals prey upon each other. Thus the boa often seizes and throttles the life out of even the puma, agile and fierce though it be. This particular boa had been watching a puma, evidently, when we came up. The brute gave me not a moment to consider, nor to finish my loading.