teeth; and all this, that takes such a time to tell, was but the work
of a few short minutes. Crouching now still lower, till he seemed
almost flat on the ground, and gathering his sinewy limbs beneath his
lithe, lean body, he suddenly startled the stillness with a loud roar,
and quick as lightning sprang upon the boar. For a brief minute the
struggle was thrilling in its intense excitement. With one swift,
dexterous sweep of the strong, ready paw, the tiger fetched the boar
a terrific slap right across the jaw, which made the strong beast
reel; but with a hoarse grunt of resolute defiance, with two or three
sharp digs of the strong head and neck, and swift, cutting blows of
the cruel, gashing tusks, he seemed to make a hole or two in the
tiger's coat, marking it with more stripes than Nature had ever
painted there; and presently both combatants were streaming with gore.
The tremendous buffet of the sharp claws had torn flesh and skin away
from off the boar's cheek and forehead, leaving a great ugly flap
hanging over his face and half blinding him. The pig was now on his
mettle. With another hoarse grunt he made straight for the tiger, who
very dexterously eluded the charge, and, lithe and quick as a cat
after a mouse, doubled almost on itself, and alighted clean on the
boar's back, inserting his teeth above the shoulders, tearing with his
claws, and biting out great mouthfuls of flesh from the quivering
carcase of his maddened antagonist. He seemed now to be having all the
best of it, so much so that the boar discreetly stumbled and fell
forward, whether by accident or design I know not, but the effect was
to bring the tiger clean over his head, sprawling clumsily on the
ground. I almost shouted 'Aha, now you have him!' for the tables were
turned. Getting his forefeet on the tiger's prostrate carcase, the
boar now gave two or three short, ripping gashes with his strong white
tusks, almost disembowelling his foe, and then exhausted seemingly by
the effort, apparently giddy and sick, he staggered aside and lay
down, panting and champing his tusks, but still defiant with his head
to the foe." But the tiger, too, was sick unto death, and the end of
this battle-royal was that he who saw it emptied the contents of both
his barrels into the two stricken belligerents, and put them out of
their agony.

[Illustration: "Beetle."]

It is against such a fierce, resolute, and well-armed enemy that
Baden-Powell loves to match his