CHAPTER IX.
A TERRIBLE FIGHT.
Just at the instant when Philip Garland believed his career as a trader in wild animals was to be ended by death the panther turned his head slightly and began to paw up the leaves, his tail moving angrily from side to side, much as if an adversary was approaching from the opposite direction. At the same moment was heard a fierce growling and snarling from the left, a short distance away, followed immediately by the sound of claws raking the bark as this new-comer evidently sprang into a tree.
There was now an opportunity for the shipwrecked youth to make his escape; but the fascination of the scene held him spell-bound.
The panther, who had been standing guard over the deer, crouched for an instant with every muscle quivering, and then leaped high in the air as a huge body shot from out the foliage with the force and velocity of a cannon-ball, the two animals coming together with a shock several feet from the ground.
The combatants rolled over and over, snarling like cats, full twenty paces from where the revolver hung suspended, and Philip moved cautiously forward without being observed by either of the participants in the deadly strife.
A moment later he had secured the weapon, and made his way with considerable difficulty up the side of the cliff until he arrived at a stout but not tall tree, within view of the animals. To ascend the trunk of this was but the work of a moment, and he seated himself among the branches to await the result of the sanguinary battle.
Over and over the two panthers rolled, snarling and tearing at each other’s throats as they uttered from time to time such roars as seemingly caused the very air to tremble.
During fully fifteen minutes these huge cats tore and slashed, each gripping his adversary’s neck, and at the expiration of that time one arose to his feet with a mighty roar. The other lay dead, his glossy coat cut into ribbons, and his life-blood staining the foliage for a dozen feet on either side.
Whether the victor was the one who had first confronted him Philip could not decide; but he came directly toward the carcass, after licking his wounds; and now the question arose as to whether the hungry man should see his dinner devoured when, possibly, he had the means of preventing it.