ading horns.

It was my first experience of being face to face with any of the large
game of India; and, as I grasped the idea of what a formidable creature
the buffalo was--certainly nearly double the size of one of our ordinary
oxen, my heart began to beat rather heavily.

"Shall I fire?" I whispered to the doctor; for I had my rifle resting
on the front of the howdah, ready to take aim.

"No," said a familiar voice on my right; and I found that Brace's
elephant had been urged forward until it was now close abreast of ours.
"If you fired at this distance, you would only be wasting a shot. You
could not bring either of the brutes down, and it would be only wounding
them for nothing."

"Going to charge, aren't they?" said the doctor.

"I hope not. They may think better of it, and go back into the jungle."

Brace was right, for, after standing staring stupidly at the elephants
for some moments, the great slaty-black creatures slowly moved off into
the dense growth on our left.

I suppose that I showed my disappointment, for Brace said quietly--

"It is not considered wise to spend time in firing at everything one
meets, when bound to beat up tiger."

He addressed a word or two in Hindustanee to the mahouts, and the
elephants, freed now from apprehension, shuffled onward till we came
upon an open park-like space, at the end of which, on a slope, was the
rajah's shooting-box. Here half a dozen more elephants were standing,
with a number of well-mounted men armed with spears, shields, and
tulwars, and quite a host of lightly clad Hindoos were lying about,
waiting to commence their task--that of beating for game, and driving it
toward where the sportsmen were stationed.

Upon our appearance, the rajah came out of the large verandah in front
of the house, and saluted us cordially.

He was a young, active-looking man, dressed like an ordinary English
sportsman bound for a day's shooting on the moors; and, after pressing
us to enter the house and partake of refreshment, which we declined, he
at once called up a couple of hard, muscular-looking men, gave them an
order or two, and the result was that these two shouldered their long,
clumsy-looking old matchlocks. They signed to the crowd of beaters, who
had all sprung to their feet as the rajah came out, and marched them all
off, so that they could make for the head of a valley where a tiger had
had a kill, and up which valley we were to slowly progress, after ta