a is a ticklish
matter. I had some advantage in that the beast was not charging; its
head was held low and its back exposed; and so at forty yards I took
careful aim at its spine at the junction of neck and shoulders. But at
the same instant, as though sensing my intention, the great creature
lifted its head and leaped forward in full charge. To fire at that
sloping forehead I knew would be worse than useless, and so I quickly
shifted my aim and pulled the trigger, hoping against hope that the
soft-nosed bullet and the heavy charge of powder would have sufficient
stopping effect to give me time to place a second shot.

In answer to the report of the rifle I had the satisfaction of seeing
the brute spring into the air, turning a complete somersault; but it
was up again almost instantly, though in the brief second that it took
it to scramble to its feet and get its bearings, it exposed its left
side fully toward me, and a second bullet went crashing through its
heart. Down it went for the second time--and then up and at me. The
vitality of these creatures of Caspak is one of the marvelous features
of this strange world and bespeaks the low nervous organization of the
old paleolithic life which has been so long extinct in other portions
of the world.

I put a third bullet into the beast at three paces, and then I thought
that I was done for; but it rolled over and stopped at my feet, stone
dead. I found that my second bullet had torn its heart almost
completely away, and yet it had lived to charge ferociously upon me,
and but for my third shot would doubtless have slain me before it
finally expired--or as Bowen Tyler so quaintly puts it, before it knew
that it was dead.

With the panther quite evidently conscious of the fact that dissolution
had overtaken it, I turned toward the girl, who was regarding me with
evident admiration and not a little awe, though I must admit that my
rifle claimed quite as much of her attention as did I. She was quite
the most wonderful animal that I have ever looked upon, and what few of
her charms her apparel hid, it quite effectively succeeded in
accentuating. A bit of soft, undressed leather was caught over her
left shoulder and beneath her right breast, falling upon her left side
to her hip and upon the right to a metal band which encircled her leg
above the knee and to which the lowest point of the hide was attached.
About her waist was a loose leather belt, to the center of whi