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stroked his beautiful white belly, soft as a hare’s, and squeezed his broad pugs to bring out the claws,
and pulled back his black lips to examine the fangs. Presently two of the beaters cut down a tall
bamboo and slung the leopard upon it by his paws, with his long tail trailing down, and then they
marched back to the village in triumph. There was no talk of further shooting, though the light still
held. They were all, including the Europeans, too anxious to get home and boast of what they had
done.
Flory and Elizabeth walked side by side across the stubble field. The others were thirty yards
ahead with the guns and the leopard, and Flo was slinking after them a long way in the rear. The sun
was going down beyond the Irrawaddy. The light shone level across the field, gilding the stubble
stalks, and striking into their faces with a yellow, gentle beam. Elizabeth’s shoulder was almost
touching Flory’s as they walked. The sweat that had drenched their shirts had dried again. They did
not talk much. They were happy with that inordinate happiness that comes of exhaustion and
achievement, and with which nothing else in life–no joy of either the body or the mind–is even able to
be compared.
‘The leopard skin is yours,’ Flory said as they approached the village.
‘Oh, but you shot him!’
‘Never mind, you stick to the skin. By Jove, I wonder how many of the women in this country
would have kept their heads like you did! I can just see them screaming and fainting. I’ll get the skin
cured for you in Kyauktada jail. There’s a convict there who can cure skins as soft as velvet. He’s
doing a seven-year sentence, so he’s had time to learn the job.’
‘Oh well, thanks awfully.’
No more was said for the present. Later, when they had washed off the sweat and dirt, and were
fed and rested, they would meet again at the Club. They made no rendezvous, but it was understood
between them that they would meet. Also, it was understood that Flory would ask Elizabeth to marry
him, though nothing was said about this either.
At the village Flory paid the beaters eight annas each, superintended the skinning of the leopard,
and gave the headman a bottle of beer and two of the imperial pigeons. The skin and skull were
packed into one of the canoes. All the whiskers had been stolen, in spite of Ko S’la’s efforts to guard
them. Some young men of the village carried off the carcase in order to eat the heart and various other
organs, the eating of which they believed would make them strong and swift like the leopard.