Free 08 Safari Adventure by Willard Price

tightly back into the corner. The super-dog’s head towered above his own and the open jaws with their great jagged teeth were within an inch of his forehead. His lungs were pushed in by the animal’s weight. He gasped for breath,
    His arms were free and he could have punched the beast or struggled to get away. Something told him that it was better to stand still and let Nature take its course. He had to admit to himself that he was terrified. The hair stood up on his neck as it had on the cheetah’s. Prickles ran down his backbone.
    Two gold lamps were peering through his head like X-rays. The beast lowered its head and opened its jaws wide. Roger had never looked anybody or anything in the teeth at such close range. It seemed to him those canines were as big as a hippo’s. They appeared to be about to do to him what he had thought of doing to the cheetah - bite off his nose. The animal’s hot breath flooded his face.
    Then it came - the long tongue licking his cheeks, dog fashion. But unlike a dog’s tongue, this one was quite evidently made of coarse sandpaper. It would take the skin off his face in no time.
    ‘Now, Fido,’ he said, trying to keep his trembling voice low and calm. ‘Down, Fido, down.’ He slowly raised his hand and scratched the animal’s neck. Dogs liked that and so did cats. He wasn’t so sure about birds.
    The cheetah turned its head and seized his wrist in its jaws. Those terrible teeth could cut off his hand as easily as they could crush a rabbit. But he did not pull away. And the cheetah did not bite. The rascal was acting exactly like a dog that wants to play.
    Roger put up his other hand and rubbed the beast behind the ears. The cheetah dropped the wrist and made a lightning change from dog into cat. It turned on its cement mixer. It rubbed its head against Roger’s and its purr sent vibrations through his whole body.
    Then it jumped down and went bounding about, chirping with pleasure. Its legs appeared to be made of steel springs. It could leap ten feet high with ease. Roger was anxious lest in one of its jumps it should come down on a poisoned stake. But every time it came down near a stake it skilfully twisted its body so as to avoid it. Then it would dash up to Roger and bunt him - and since it weighed more than he did, the bunt was nearly hard enough to knock him off his feet.
    When he had had enough bunts he tried to give the playful animal something else to do. He pulled a root out of the earth wall and tossed it to the other end of the pit. The cheetah was after it in a flash. Roger thought he had never seen anything move so fast. The animal picked up the stick and raced back with it and laid it down at Roger’s feet. Then it looked up at him, ears erect, eyes full of fun.
    “That’s a good dog,’ Roger said. ‘Nice pussy.’
    He began to see why the animal was called a ‘hunting leopard’. It could very easily be trained to hunt game like a hound… Perhaps it would even hunt poachers - like a bloodhound.

Chapter 11
Mischief
    Roger heard voices.
    “Where can that kid be?’
    ‘When I left him he was digging a grave.’
    ‘Where was that?’
    ‘Near the supply van. But he’s not there now.’
    ‘Do you suppose he could have fallen into one of these pits?’
    ‘Let’s hope not. If he fell on the stakes he’d be dead by this time.’
    Roger recognized the voices - Hal and the warden were looking for him.
    He didn’t want to be rescued. He had been having so much fun with the cheetah that he hadn’t bothered to think how he was going to get out of this pit He just wanted to go on playing with his new pet.
    ‘Roger - are you there?’ Hal was peering down through the brush. Roger heard him say to Crosby, 1 can’t see a thing - it’s so dark down there. But I thought I heard something move.’
    He sounded so distressed that Roger took pity on him. He couldn’t let his loving brother worry. He was just about to call back when he heard Hal say, ‘It would be