ither man nor beast. I am your
servant, and for you am ready to give my life. I have brought with me two
long bamboos, and with them I shall go and poke in the drain, rouse the
ferocious beast, and as he jumps out you will kill him. If I shall lose
my life, which I am ready to do for you, please think of my wife and
child."

"Very good," said the Englishman, who was getting rather tired of the
discomfort and cold, and who, though he did not say so, also shared the
opinion that the brute had gone.

Thus encouraged, the servant at once proceeded to tie the two bamboos
together, and again reminding his master of the brave act he was going to
accomplish, proceeded with firm step to the drain, about thirty yards
off. When he reached the opening he seemed to hesitate. He stood and
listened. He carefully peeped in and listened again. He heard nothing.
Then, bringing all his courage to bear, he lifted his bamboo and began
poking in the drain. Two or three times, as he thought, he had touched
something soft with the end. He dropped his bamboo as if it had been a
hot iron, and ran full-speed back to his master, imploring his
protection.

"Has got--has got--kill--master--kill--kill!" and he lay by his side,
shivering with fright.

"You are frightened, you coward; there is nothing. Go again."

After a few minutes the faithful valet, who had then made quite sure that
there was no leopard in the drain and that he had shown himself a coward,
unwillingly and slowly returned to the charge and picked up his bamboo.

"I am trembling with cold, not with fear," he had said as he was getting
up again. "I shall enter the drain this time and rouse the animal
myself!"

So he really did. He went in, holding the bamboo in front of him, and
pausing at each step. The farther in he went, the more his
self-confidence failed him. The drain was high enough to allow of his
standing in it with his back and head bent down; wherefore, if an
encounter with the spotted fiend were to take place, the retreat of the
man would not be an easy matter.

"Master must think me very brave," he was soliloquising on his
subterranean march, when he received a sudden shock that nearly stopped
his heart and froze the blood in his veins. He had actually touched
something soft with the end of his bamboo, and not only that, but he
fancied he heard a growl.

He quickly turned round to escape, when a violent push knocked him down,
and he fell almost senseless and bl