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PROLOGUE

DEATH WASon the cards that day, but would it be ours or the panther’s?

Black panthers are really leopards If you look closely, you can see faint spots blended into their fur But trust me - unless it’s in a zoo, you don’t ever want to be that close to a panther! They’re one of nature’s greatest killers They ht they’ll almost always come out on top You can’t outrun them, since they’re faster than you, and you can’t out-cli is to stay out of their way coa a rifle

Harkat and I had never hunted a panther before, and our best weapons were a few stone knives and a long, round-ended stick that served as a club Yet there ere, on the edge of a pit which we’d dug the day before, watching a deer we’d captured and were using as bait, waiting for a panther

We’d been there for hours, hidden in a bush, clutching our hu and black through the cover of the surrounding trees A whiskered nose stuck out froly - the panther I nudged Harkat gently and atched it, holding our breath, stiff with fright After a few seconds the panther turned and padded away, back into the gloole

Harkat and I discussed the panther’s retreat in whispers I thought the panther had sensed a trap and wouldn’t return Harkat disagreed He said it would coht advance fully the next ti until ere al stretch of bush Frouely see the deer

A couple of hours passed We said nothing I was about to break the silence and suggest asting our ti around wildly There was a throaty growl It careat - if the panther attacked the deer froht into our trap and be killed in the pit Then ouldn’t have to fight it at all!

I heard twigs snap as the panther crept up on the deer Then there was a loud snapping sound as a heavy body crashed through the covering over the pit and landed heavily on the stakes we’d set in the bottom There was a ferocious howl, followed by silence

Harkat slowly got to his feet and stared over the bush at the pit I stood and stared with hilanced at each other I said uncertainly, "It worked"

"You sound like you didn’t - expect it to," Harkat grinned

"I didn’t," I laughed, and started towards the pit

"Careful," Harkat warned "It could still be alive"

Stepping in front of ht Raising my knife, I circled away from Harkat, then we slowly closed on the pit from opposite directions

Harkat was a few steps ahead of me, so he saw into the pit first He stopped, confused A couple of seconds later, I sahy A body lay i from its many puncture wounds But it wasn’t the body of a panther - it was a red baboon

"I don’t understand," I said "That was a panther’s growl, not a monkey’s"

"But how did ?" Harkat stopped and gasped "The monkey’s throat! It’s been ripped open! The panther ot no further There was a blur of move, I caught a very brief glih the air with outstretched claws and gaping jaws - then the panther was upontriumphantly

Death was on the cards that day