In volume. The swine has stopped; he's going to take them He started

running again and almost immediately heard the first dog scream. He kept

running. He found the dog lying where the leopard had flung it, the old

bitch with white ears, her stomach was stripped out. Sean went on.

The tan ridgeback next, disemboweled, still alive and crawling to meet

him. He ran on; always the hunt was out of sight ahead of him but he

kept after it. He no longer stopped to help the dogs that had been

mauled. Most of them were dead before he reached them. The saliva

thickened in his mouth, his heart jumped against his ribs and he reeled

as he ran.

Suddenly he was in the open and the hunt was spread out before him.

There were three dogs left. One of them was Thief. They were circling

the leopard, belting him, darting in at his back legs, snapping, then

jumping back as the leopard spun snarling. The grass was short and

green in the clearing. The sun was directly overhead: it threw no

shadow, it lit everything with a flat, even lightt.

Sean tried to shout but his throat wouldn't let the sound out. The

leopard dropped onto its back and lay with the sprawled grace of a

sleeping cat, its legs open and its belly exposed. The dogs hung back,

hesitating. Sean shouted again but his voice still would not carry.

That creamy yellow belly, soft and fluffy, was too much temptation.

One of the dogs went for it, dipping its head, its mouth open. The

leopard closed on it like a spring trap. it caught and held the dog

with its front paws and its back legs worked quickly. The dog yammered

at the swift surgeon strokes and then it was thrown aside, its bowels

hanging out. The leopard relaxed again to show the yellow bait of its

belly. Sean was close now and this time the two dogs heard his shout.

The leopard heard it also. It flashed to its feet and tried to break

but the instant it turned Thief was at it, slashing at its back legs

forcing it to swing and crouch. Here, boy, leave him! Here, Thief,

come here!

Thief took Sean's shout as encouragement. He danced just out of reach

of the flicking paws, shrilly taunting the leopard. The hunt was finely

balanced now. Sean knew if he could get the dogs to slacken their

attack the leopard would run. He went forward a pace, stooped to pick

up a stone to throw at Thief and his movement tipped the balance. When

he straightened up the leopard was watching him and he felt the eel of

fear move in his stomach. It was going to come for him. He knew it by

the way its ears flattened against its head and its shoulders bunched

like loaded springs. Sean dropped the stone and reached for the knife

on his belt.

The leopard's lips peeled back. Its teeth were yellow, its head with

the ears flattened was like a snake's. It came fast and low against the

ground, brushing the dogs aside.

its run was long-reaching, smoothly beautiful. It snaked towards him,

fast over the short grass. It came into the air, lifting high, very

fast and very smoothly. Sean felt the shock and the pain together. The

shock threw him backwards and the pain sucked the breath from his lungs.

Its claws hooked into his chest, he felt them scrape his ribs. He held

its mouth from his face, his forearm against its throat and he smelt the

overripe grave smell of its breath. They rolled together in the grass,

its front claws still holding in the flesh of his chest, and he felt its

back legs coming up to rake his stomach. He twisted desperately to keep

clear of them, using his knife at the same time, slipping the blade into

its back. The leopard screamed, its back legs came up again; he felt

the claws go into his hip and tear down his thigh. The pain was deep

and strong and he knew he was badly hurt. The legs came up again. This

time they would kill him.

Thief locked his teeth in the leopard's leg before the claws could catch

in Sean's flesh, he dragged back, digging in with his front feet,

holding the leopard stretched out across Sean's body. Sean's vision was

dissolving into blackness and bright lights. He pushed the knife into

the leopard's back, close to the spine and pulled it down between the

ribs the way a butcher cuts a chop. The leopard screamed again with its

body shuddering and its claws curling in Sean's flesh. Sean cut again,

deep and long, and again, then again. Tearing at it, mad with the pain,

its blood gushed out and mixed with his and he rolled away from it. The

dogs were worrying it, growling.

It was dead. Sean let the knife slip out of his hand and touched the

tears in his leg. The blood was dark red, pouring with the thickness of

treacle, much blood. He was looking down a funnel of darkness. The leg

was far away, not his, not his leg. Garry, he whispered. Garry, oh

God! I'm sorry. I slipped, I didn't mean it, I slipped. The funnel

closed and there was no leg, only darkness. Time was a liquid thing,

all the world was liquid, moving in darkness. The sun was dark and only

the pain was steady, steady as a rock in the dark moving sea. He saw

Katrina's face indistinct in the darkness. He tried to tell her how

sorry he was. He tried to tell her it was an accident, but the pain

stopped him. She was crying. He knew she would understand so he went

back into the dark sea. Then the surface of the sea boiled and he choked