"What are you doing?" he said.

I pointed, for I could not speak, and he laughed, and then raised his
own piece to his shoulder, as a shot rang out from Brace's howdah,
followed by one from the rajah's.

"A hit," cried the doctor. "Did you see him?"

I shook my head.

"I got one glimpse of him."

"That shot was home, doctor, I think," said Brace.

"Not a doubt about it. Steady; keep on."

The elephants advanced slowly, with their trunks thrown up in the air,
and as, in the midst of intense excitement, we neared the spot where the
tiger had been seen slinking from one stone to the other, one of the men
uttered an exclamation and pointed down at a spot of blood upon the hot
stone at our feet; and then at another and another at intervals, on dry
grass and leaf.

"Take care," said the rajah; "he will be very savage now."

The warning was hardly needed, for every one was on the alert, expecting
at any moment to find the tiger lying dead, or to see it bound out
defiantly and ready to spring at the nearest elephant.

"Mind how you shoot, Vincent," said the doctor, meaningly. "I came out
for a day's sport, and don't want it spoiled by professional pursuits."

"I don't understand you," I said.

"Well, if I must put it plainly, don't shoot a beater instead of a
tiger."

"_Bagh! bagh_!" came from one of the men on foot; and this time the
rajah led off with a shot, but it seemed that he had only obtained a
glimpse of the great cat-like beast sneaking round a tuft of bushes, as
it made its way onward.

The brute was evidently severely wounded, for blood-stains were found
again and again, several together, showing where the tiger had halted to
watch or listen for his enemies; but still we could not get close enough
for a decisive shot, and over and over again the line of elephants was
halted in the belief that we must have passed the beast crouching down
among the grass.

At the last of these halts, when, in spite of careful search, no more
traces of the fierce man-eater could be seen, a council of war was held,
and the question was raised whether we should go back, when the distant
sound of shouts and the beating of tom-toms came faintly toward us, and
this decided the line of action, for the rajah at once proposed that we
should go and meet the beaters, for there was another tiger in the
valley, and then we could beat out the one wounded on our return.

This was decided on, and the word was given to advance