ntly asserted
that it was not, that it was something very much nearer that was
disturbing them; and presently, while the elders of the party were
discussing the matter, and intently watching the gazelles through their
binoculars, Ida cried out--

"Oh, look, mamma; look, Colonel; what is that great thing like a spotted
cat that is crouching behind that long ledge of rock to the left of
where the gazelles are standing? Is it a leopard? Surely it must be!
And, oh dear, I believe it is trying to get near enough to the gazelles
to spring upon one of them! Please, _please_ don't let him do it; shoot
him, somebody, quick!"

"Where is this leopard of yours, Ida? Show him to me," said Lethbridge,
coming over to the child's side, and kneeling down beside her.

"There," answered Ida, pointing. "Don't you see him? Oh, please be
quick--there, now he is standing up and looking over--"

"I see him, sweetheart," answered Lethbridge, springing to his feet and
reaching for his rifle. "Six hundred yards," he muttered, adjusting the
sight of the weapon and raising it to his shoulder.

The head of the animal was now in plain view, showing dark against the
brightly illuminated background of rock, while the rest of its body was
almost invisible in the deep shadow of the ledge behind which it had
been stalking its prey, and it was only by the merest chance that the
child's quick eye had caught sight of the yellow, spotted form crouching
low in the deep shadow and stealing almost imperceptibly toward the
gazelles.

There was a faint, almost inaudible click as Lethbridge pulled the
trigger of his weapon, an equally faint little wreath of diaphanous
vapour leapt from its muzzle, and the leopard sprang high into the air--
startling the gazelles and putting them to instant flight--ere it fell
back, rolled over, and lay motionless on the rocky platform along which
it had been stealing.

"Good shot!" shouted Sir Reginald, from the open windows of the
pilot-house, through which he had been watching the scene. "We had
better drop to earth at once, if you wish to secure the skin. Vultures
have a trick of appearing from nowhere in an incredibly short time, you
know; and if we leave the skinning until we come back, there may be no
skin left worth the taking."

"Quite so; we must make sure of that skin at once, if we intend to have
it at all. And we certainly must, for not only is it our first trophy
this cruise, but it belongs to Ida b