I had dismounted and was going with Czar round a block of granite, when a large stag dashed past me from the end of the gorge, hardly fifty yards off, and I distinctly saw another darker-coloured animal bounding after it through the tall grass. In an instant the flying stag, with its broad antlers thrown back, was twenty yards from me, and bounded over a rock close by, while at the same moment a panther of enormous size covered the track of the deer with its gigantic paws. It had scarce touched the ground, however, ere the bullet from my rifle crashed through its shoulder-blade, and the crack, echoing through the gorge, thundered in its ears. The panther ran its head into the grass, while its hind quarters flew up in the air, but at the next instant it rose furiously in the grass, showing its dazzlingly white teeth and stretching out its claws to leap on me. I held my rifle firmly to my shoulder, and as the animal rose, fired at the white stripe under the throat. The bullet passed through its breast, and rising on its hind legs it turned a somersault and died with a furious kick. It was very old, and had probably inhabited this tempting spot for many years, to surprise the game that came here to drink at the spring, and enjoy the fresh green pasturage. Eight feet long from the snout to the tail, the prince of the valley lay stretched out before me, and round it the bones of its victims were bleaching in the grass. I found above a dozen skulls of deer and antelopes, all of which had a hole an inch wide in the top. In addition to them, the skeletons of two buffaloes and an elk, and countless bones of other animals glistened in the grass. I went up to Czar who, probably recognising his foe, had run some hundred yards down the valley, and was looking after me with his head up. I led him up to the slain panther, but it needed much persuasion ere he would draw quite close to this arch foe of his race. After making Czar stand by the panther awhile, which I dragged about to remove his natural fear of the creature, I led him to the end of the ravine where the ground was covered with young tender grass, unsaddled him, and laid my traps under the evergreen oaks, in order to prepare my camp. [Illustration: FACE TO FACE. _p. 67._] As the darkness had greatly increased I ran back to the panther, fastened the lasso round its neck, and dragged it to my camping-place, intending to skin it in the morning. I lit the fire, prepared supper, and lay down on my horse-rug, every now and then turning the spit or piling up the sticks round the coffee pot. The fire flared brightly, and produced a peculiarly beautiful illumination on the thick foliage of the oaks and the projecting shadow of the high reddish rocks, whose fissures and crevices appeared all the blacker in consequence. The russet moon was still low on the very dark sky, it peered into the ravine from the east, and did not spread sufficient light to overpower my fire.