When Ibbotson returned from Pauri, I told him of the leopard’s habit of going down the road between Rudraprayag and Golabrai on an average once in every five days. I convinced him that the only hope I now had of shooting the man-eater was by sitting over the road ten nights; for, the leopard would be almost certain to use the road at least once during the period. Ibbotson agreed to my plan reluctantly, for I had already sat up many nights, and he was afraid that another ten nights on end would be too much for me.

Ibbotson was reluctant to agree to the narrator’s plan because he was afraid that

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