They had guns lying beside them, and a fire was burning close by.

He guessed that the animal had sprung from a tree, one of whose boughs extended almost as far as the centre of the opening.

Probably it had killed one of the men in its spring for, at the moment when he saw the animal, it was licking the blood from the shoulder of the man on whom its right paw rested.

The other was, as far as Stanley could see, unhurt.
Illustration: Stanley gave a sudden spring, and buried his knife in the leopard.
His tread in the light Burmese shoes had been almost noiseless; and the leopard, which was keeping up a low growling, and whose back was towards him, had apparently not noticed it.

He hesitated for a moment, and then decided to endeavour to save the man who was still alive.