ped
from the cage, and seemed to be astonished at the sight of so many people.
Three officers took possession of the brute's prison, armed with rifles to
shoot him if he killed the bull. No person was in the ring, or within reach
of the savage animal. The door by which the horseman had entered was thrown
wide open, and the bovine, vexed to the highest degree of wrath, came into
the arena with a bounding run.

The tiger had advanced quietly to the centre of it, though with the royal
mien of the "king of beasts," as he was here, his eyes like a couple of
coals of fire. He caught sight of the bull as soon as he appeared, for he
had doubtless killed many a bullock in the jungle. He planted himself on
the ground in readiness for a spring. His present enemy saw him at the same
instant; but he did not halt, or show any signs of fear.

[Illustration: "The striped beast went up into the air."--Page 263.]

The bull crouched his head, increased his speed, and bounded on the tiger.
At that moment the striped beast went up into the air so quickly that the
audience could hardly see how it was done. His horned foe showed that he
had not wholly escaped, for his head was covered with blood. But the tiger
was not yet defeated. He sprang to his feet, and darted furiously at his
enemy. He fastened with claws and teeth upon the neck of the bull, and the
king believed that his wager was lost.

But the Spaniard shook him off, and turned upon him again, tossing him
higher in the air than before. He came down badly disabled; and the bull,
as though it was the finest sport in the world for him, gored him with his
long horns till the life was gone out of him. The Spaniard was the victor.
The people shouted themselves hoarse; but their cries were in honor of the
Guicowar, and not the bull. The victor had lost a great deal of blood from
a bad wound in the neck, and it was a question whether or not he would die;
but he did not; he recovered, and before the tourists left India Sir Modava
learned that he had been killed in a battle with a smaller tiger than the
first.

Though the guests said but little about it, most of them were disgusted
with these spectacles, and considered them cruel and brutal. They remained
their week at Baroda. Those who desired to do so were taken to a hunt one
day with a cheetah, in which this animal killed deer and other animals; and
on another, on elephants, for tigers. Two tigers were killed, and Louis
Belgrave had the