king
a circuit, so as to reach its mouth about the same time as the beaters
reached the head.

We had a much greater distance to go than the men on foot, and after a
few preliminaries, the rajah mounted to the howdah of one of the waiting
elephants, followed by his chief huntsman, well provided with quite a
battery of English rifles. Two or three of his officers took their
places on other elephants, and the mounted men and a party of foot
marched at our side, as the imposing little procession started.

The rajah spoke very good English, and there were moments when I forgot
his smooth oily manner and dark countenance, and could almost feel that
he was some swarthy sportsman who had invited us to his place for a
day's shooting.

He was as eager as any of us, and, as we marched off, he told us that
his shikaree had marked down two tigers of exceptional size--beasts that
had done a great deal of mischief in the district; and he was confident
that we should have an excellent day's sport.

The sun was now tremendously powerful, but the motion of the huge beasts
we rode produced a certain amount of air, and the excitement made us
forget everything but the object of our visit.

Our course was toward a spur of a range of hills, and on rounding this,
we found ourselves at the entrance of a narrow valley, across which we
were formed up, the rajah's huntsman giving us a few words of
instruction as to keeping as nearly as possible in a line, and warning
us to have a watchful eye upon every patch of bushes and tall, sun-dried
grass.

A move was made as soon as we were in line, and with the valley
gradually contracting in width, and the hills over our side growing
higher and more steep, our prospects of seeing game grew brighter each
moment; in fact, it was almost a certainty, as the head of the valley
was occupied by the beaters, who would soon begin to move down in our
direction.

Certain enough, but very tantalising, for every now and then there was a
sharp rustle or breaking of twigs and something bounded from its lair to
dash up the valley without giving us a chance of seeing its flank.

"Never mind," said the doctor. "Not what we want; and we shall have a
chance at them, perhaps, by-and-by, when they are turned back."

As we went on, from my elevated position I began to have better fortune,
seeing now a deer dart up the valley, and directly after, from some
yellow dried-up grass, there was a loud rush and a scramble