at distance. The object was brown and hairy; a dark brown, not the
kind of colour one expects to see in the jungle in September. I looked
closely, and was satisfied that it must be part of an animal; still more
clearly I saw it, and no doubt remained in my mind; it was the head of a
bullock or a heifer. I shouted to the man to be careful, to stop and let
the elephants plough through the undergrowth, as only elephants can. But
he did not understand my Hindustani, which was of the civilised _Urdu_
kind learnt in the North-West Provinces. The man went quickly along, and
I tried to make the collector comprehend what I saw. But the pad
elephants were coming out of the water and forcing themselves between
our beasts, and he hardly caught what I said in the confusion. The track
led away to my left, nearly opposite to the elephant bearing Mr.
Ghyrkins and his niece. The little Pegnugger man was on my right. The
native held on, moving more and more rapidly as he found himself
following a single track. I shouted to him--to Ghyrkins--to everybody,
but they could not make the doomed man understand what I saw--the
freshly slain head of the tiger's last victim. There was little doubt
that the king himself was near by--probably in that suspicious-looking
bit of green jungle, slimy green too, as green is, that grows in sticky
chocolate-coloured mud. The young fellow was courageous, and ignorant of
the immediate danger, and, above all, he was on the look out for
bucksheesh. He reached the reeds and unclean vegetables that grew thick
and foul together in the little patch. He put one foot into the bush.

A great fiery yellow and black head rose cautiously above the level of
the green and paused a moment, glaring. The wretched man, transfixed
with terror, stood stock still, expecting death. Then he moved, as if to
throw himself on one side, and at the same instant the tiger made a dash
at his naked body, such a dash as a great relentless cat makes at a
gold-fish trying to slide away from its grip. The tiger struck the man a
heavy blow on the right shoulder, felling him like a log, and coming
down to a standing position over his prey, with one paw on the native's
right arm. Probably the parade of elephants and bright coloured howdahs,
and the shouts of the beaters and shikarries, distracted his attention
for a moment. He stood whirling his tail to right and left, with half
dropped jaw and flaming eyes, half pressing, half grabbing the fleshy