A LEOPARD STORY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") the recently published "Lumsden of the Guides" there is an interesting story, at p. 124, of the rescue by Lieutenant Peyton, of H.M. 87th, of a young Pathan, who had fallen into the Cabul River. The lad's father in his gratitude came down from his home in Independent Territory, and as a thankoffering presented Peyton with two young leopard cubs. Peyton being an executive engineer and constantly on the move, could make no home for them, and gave them to Lumsden, who himself told me what follows, and it seems to me worth preserving, as leopards seldom have an opportunity of assisting in a criminal investigation. The animals were too young to be dangerous and were allowed their liberty.
One day Lumsden was holding his Court in Yusufzai when, in the middle of a case, there was an uproar, and the two sides in an affray case poured into the Court, and (as always happened) each side accused the other of being entirely in fault One party to improve its case brought a dying man on a native bed ; a bloodstained sheet was removed, showing a much belaboured man who appeared to be at the last gasp. Lumsden had the bed put down in Court and went on with the interrupted case. Just then the young leopards sauntered in, probably attracted by the scent of blood, and moving gently round the Court, approached the bed and began sniffing at 'the wounded man, who, miraculously recovering, jumped from the bed and fled rapidly.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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