We'd been playing tennis matches against a neighbouring tea estate all day. It was almost time to stop, the light was fading.
Out on the tennis court, with the sun beating down we were all tanned, hot and tired. To one side of the wire fenced court, we had a high,steep hill covered with thick jungle. Now the wind began to pick up and there was already a nip in the air.
We collected our rackets and jackets and headed towards the light shining through the entrance to our little plantation club. Steaming hot mugs of tea, and omelettes and pakoras beckoned.
Just then one of the planters hollered: "LEOPARD!"
He pointed up at the hilltop behind the court. Out on a jutting boulder, and just discernable against the sky sat the most beautiful feline I've ever seen. He was jet black, still as if carved of the same stone as the boulder he sat on! Majestic, and master of the view he surveyed.......
All of us watched him in awestruck silence. "Wonder how long he's been sitting there?" one of us remarked.
Next moment he was gone into the secure depths of his jungle.
I often looked out for him after that, but never caught another glimpse of him, though many people told us they'd seen him often at dusk on the same rock!
Out on the tennis court, with the sun beating down we were all tanned, hot and tired. To one side of the wire fenced court, we had a high,steep hill covered with thick jungle. Now the wind began to pick up and there was already a nip in the air.
We collected our rackets and jackets and headed towards the light shining through the entrance to our little plantation club. Steaming hot mugs of tea, and omelettes and pakoras beckoned.
Just then one of the planters hollered: "LEOPARD!"
He pointed up at the hilltop behind the court. Out on a jutting boulder, and just discernable against the sky sat the most beautiful feline I've ever seen. He was jet black, still as if carved of the same stone as the boulder he sat on! Majestic, and master of the view he surveyed.......
All of us watched him in awestruck silence. "Wonder how long he's been sitting there?" one of us remarked.
Next moment he was gone into the secure depths of his jungle.
I often looked out for him after that, but never caught another glimpse of him, though many people told us they'd seen him often at dusk on the same rock!
Comments