We had fastened up our horses, and had fallen into a deep sleep, when the sharp crack of a rifle aroused us, and we all leapt up, arms in hand. At the same moment a second shot was fired below us on the water. We were only a few yards from the edge of the crack, and on hurrying there saw an enormous panther slowly walking among the low bushes on the opposite bank, and looking over at us. We showered bullets upon it, and induced it to hasten its pace till it disappeared like a shadow in the mist. Now John ran up to us with his baggage, and told us he had accidentally waked up. He fancied he heard a growling; rose on his arm, and recognised the moonlit shape of a panther walking towards him hesitatingly, with lashing tail, round the basin. He quickly seized his rifle--fired one barrel at it, and gave it the second in the water, into which it leapt. Providence had aroused him, for before we could have hurried to his help from above the brute would probably have killed him, and we might very easily have known nothing of it till we found our comrade's lacerated body on the next morning. However, we soon forgot this incident, and slept till dawn woke us and showed us the grass around wet as if from a shower, while a thick fog brooded over the flat country. We led our horses out to graze, put our breakfast to cook, and then I went with John and Tiger, accompanied by Trusty, to the spot on the opposite bank, where the panther had been standing when we fired at it. We found here a quantity of hair, and soon after blood, which increased with every step, and presently came to a spot where the jaguar had halted and covered a large space with its blood. We went about a hundred yards farther when Trusty stopped, looked round at me, and then into the bushes with his tail erect. I called him to me, and crept cautiously to the spot, when I saw the panther lying under the roots of an old poplar, with its head turned towards me, and showing its teeth. I shot it through the skull, and Owl took off its fine coat to prepare it for John, who wished to preserve it in memory of the danger to which he had been exposed during this night. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XXVI. THE COMANCHES.