"I will show you," said Rama
Gouda quietly, and he picked up several large stones, threw them into the
ferns, and then plunged into them. I afterwards killed the tiger on foot
in the ravine, but of course he ran the risk of coming upon it in the
ferns. But the coolest thing I ever knew him to do was when a manager of
mine wanted to fire at a tiger as it was approaching him. It was in the
days of the muzzle-loaders, and as Rama Gouda knew that to speak would be
fatal, he quietly but firmly put both his fingers on the caps when my
manager presented the gun at the tiger, and kept them there till the tiger
had reached the proper point for action. Then he withdrew them, and my
manager killed the tiger. It is contrary to all rule, on account of the
beaters, to fire at a tiger till he has passed you, and as the manager and
Rama Gouda were seated on the ground, if the tiger had been fired at face
to face an accident might have occurred. On only one occasion did I ever
see him disturbed, and that was when he took up a position at a beat for
big game. Presently he heard a hiss, and on looking round found a
reared-up cobra about to strike at his naked thigh. He saved himself by a
jump on one side, but he showed by his eye when he mentioned the
circumstance that he had been somewhat commoved.

The natives have an idea that a tiger will not attack a group of from
four to five people massed together, and in 1891 four or five unarmed
natives proposed that I should sit on an absolutely bare piece of ground,
and that they should sit round me, and that the tiger should be driven up
to us. But this offer, and more especially as I had only one gun, I
declined, with thanks, unless they could find a small bush or piece of
rock to sit behind, and as neither could be found, I took up a position on
a steep hillside and on a scrubby tree, which I thought safe enough, as I
assumed that the tiger would pass on the lower side of it, but it
approached close on the upper side, and on rather higher ground, and could
easily have sprung on to me, as it was not more than fifteen feet distant,
thus again illustrating how difficult it is in a hilly country to get into
a reasonably safe position. Altogether, the risks of tiger shooting in a
hilly country where elephants cannot be used, and where you may have to
run to cut off a wounded tiger or follow one into the jungle, is attended
with risk even to the most experienced. The amount of that risk is
difficul