Every time the animal stirred, they'd back away
again. Once the leopard stood up and pulled against the rope and rubbed his
paw over his face, and gee whiz, you should have seen that bunch scatter.
Dorry Benton went scooting into the well house.
But pretty soon they all saw that there wasn't any fight left in that wild
beast. He wasn't suffering, but he was blind and all exhausted. Even still
none of us exactly liked to touch him and we didn't get too near; even I
didn't, I have to admit it.
Harry Donnelle held the lantern over toward the animal and looked at him
ever so long, as if he just couldn't believe his eyes. "He's a magnificent
specimen," he said; "I'd give a good deal to know how he happened in these
parts."
"Oh," I said, "the woods are full of them, they were prowling all around
here when I came through. One of them was about twice as big as that." Oh
boy, you should have seen those fellows look around through the woods. Will
Dawson went into the spring house to get a drink of water; he was thirsty
all of a sudden.
All the while Harry Donnelle was kind of pondering and then he said, "A
couple of you kids go into the village and get a wheelbarrow or a cart or
something.
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