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S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 4 8 have touched him with the barrel tip. Before this unsurpassed opportunity to kill the man-eater could fade, I pulled the trigger at point blank range. The leopard slumped backward from the velocity of the shot, but did not fall off the roof. There was no sound and we felt sure he was dead. Walking carefully outside we could see the spotted form lying on the roof of the hut. The shotgun blast, directly in his face, had been more than the man-eater could take. E arly the next morning some village men helped carry the leopard back to Nuagam. There was jubilation in Sandrekia and Dharampur and everyone felt they could now resume a normal way of life again without the constant fear of an imminent and horrible death. While skinning this man-eater, I found that he also had been partially handicapped by having a number of porcupine quills imbedded in his forepaws. Walking must have been indeed painful for him. However, the decisive factor as to why he had turned into a man-eater was an old gunshot wound in his right shoulder. It had obviously crippled him to the point that he could no longer hunt properly and had turned to humans as his easiest source of food. There was no doubt that he was the dreaded man-eater and no more human deaths were reported in the area. To my chagrin, I found that since I had not killed the leopard actively over a human kill, under existing law I could not claim the government reward. The gratitude of the village was, however, more than adequate compensation. Note: "Leopard on the Rooftop" is from Hunters of Man (1989) by Capt. John H. Brandt. Reprinted by permission of Safari Press, Huntington Beach, California.