United States or Andorra ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Skag's ears were wide open; and he heard grief and hate. "How did you know where I was?" he asked quietly. "I heard the first cheetah's death cry; and I knew he was not far from you, Sahib." "I thought he was pretty far, one little while." Skag had spoken, thinking of Nels. Bhanah searched his face while the look of a frightened child grew in his own.
The next instant the buck was on its back, and the cheetah's fangs were fixed like an iron vice upon its throat. The course run was about 600 yards, and it was worth a special voyage to India only to see that hunt. The cheetah was panting to an extent that made it difficult to retain its hold.
I had no idea, however, that it could make so prodigious a bound as it at that moment did; for scarcely had I seen it, when it sprang out of its ambush, and alighted on the unfortunate buck, which it struck down with one tremendous blow. Seizing my rifle, and throwing myself on my knee, I took a steady aim, and the ball entered the cheetah's head.
The keeper now arranged the hood upon the cheetah's head, thus masking the eyes, which were gleaming with wild excitement, but it in no way relaxed its grip. Taking a strong cord, the keeper now passed it several times around the neck of the buck, while it was still held in the jaws of the cheetah, and drawing the cord tight, he carefully cut the throat close to the teeth of the tenacious animal.
"Always wise, of course; but I consider it less imperative just now, because the animals are not what we call fighting. They are waiting for the great monsoon. So you might take your dog up into the cheetah hills " "I don't see how a dog " "He'll break the cheetah's back and cut his throat, before the real start is made at you. But Bhanah will tell you whatever; and he is entirely reliable.
Nels had risen full stretch, his head low between his shoulders; the cheetah's wide-spread arms went round him, but his entire length closed upon the cheetah's entire length like a jack-knife folding it backward. Skag heard a dull sound, the same instant with a keen cat-scream cut short as the two bodies struck the earth.
The moment that the cheetah saw its opportunity, it sprang forward; we saw the blow of the paw, delivered as quick as lightning upon the right haunch, and the gallant little buck was on its back, with its throat hopelessly throttled in the cheetah's jaws. We were sorry for this termination, as I should like to have witnessed the result, had we not disturbed the fight by our presence.
It would not be a good thing for my master to hear, nor for his servant to tell the cheetah's ways with a body from which life is gone out." "You've made a strong argument for the cheetah as a fighter, Bhanah, but you don't seem to stand much for his character." "Who faces the hunting cheetah, Sahib, faces death.
"Because Nels was not come to full strength, since his hurt." "I'd hate to have him meet an accident." "To-morrow he will go safe. He rose up last night and listened to a hunting cheetah's cry." "Are they close as that?" "Not to a European Sahib's ear; but to Nels, yes." "Deal Sahib said you would tell me about the cheetahs."
There were a few drops of blood issuing from a prick through the skin of the right haunch, where the cheetah's nails had inflicted a trifling wound when it delivered the usual telling blow of the fore paw, that felled the buck to the ground when going at full speed; beyond this there was no blood, until the keeper cut the throat in the customary manner, and the cheetah, much exhausted, was led to its cage.
Word Of The Day