nimal flattened
himself like a huge striped serpent. His head was extended so that the
throat and chin were touching the ground, and there was absolutely no
motion of the body other than the hips and shoulders as the beast slid
along at an amazingly rapid rate. But at the instant the cat gained the
nearest cover it made three flying leaps and landed at the foot of the
terrace upon which the goat was tied.

"Just then he saw me," said Mr. Caldwell, "and slowly pushed his great
black-barred face over the edge of the grass not fifteen feet away.

"I fired point-blank at his head and neck. He leaped into the air with the
blood spurting over the grass, and fell into a heap, but gathered himself
and slid down over the terraces. As he went I fired a second load of slugs
into his hip. He turned about, slowly climbed the hill parallel with us,
and stood looking back at me, his face streaming with blood.

"I was fumbling in my coat trying to find other shells, but before I could
reload the gun he walked unsteadily into the lair and lay down. It was
already too dark to follow and the next morning a bloody trail showed where
he had gone upward into the grass. Later, in the same afternoon, he was
found dead by some Chinese more than three miles away."

During his many experiences with the Futsing tigers Mr. Caldwell has
learned much about their habits and peculiarities, and some of his
observations are given in the following pages.

"The tiger is by instinct a coward when confronted by his greatest
enemy--man. Bold and daring as he may be when circumstances are in his
favor, he will hurriedly abandon a fresh kill at the first cry of a
shepherd boy attending a flock on the mountain-side and will always weigh
conditions before making an attack. If things do not exactly suit him
nothing will tempt him to charge into the open upon what may appear to be
an isolated and defenseless goat.

"An experience I had in April, 1910, will illustrate this point. I led a
goat into a ravine where a tiger which had been working havoc among the
herds of the farmers was said to live. This animal only a few days previous
to my hunt had attacked a herd of cows and killed three of them, but on
this occasion the beast must have suspected danger and was exceedingly
cautious. He advanced under cover along a trail until within one hundred
feet of the goat and there stopped to make a survey of the surroundings.
Peering into the valley, he saw two men at a