pened that ever I
experienced.

Not fifty yards from the place in which we then stood, as it happened,
listening for any sound which might reveal the whereabouts of the tiger,
a shot suddenly rang out, instantly followed by a kind of sound, half
roar, half moan; then came the noise of a scuffle, the crashing of
twigs, a few gasping coughs--then silence.

'Shikari,' I cried aloud, scarcely knowing in my excitement what I said,
'it is the Sahib! Come!' I dashed forward. 'Charlie--Charlie Eccles!' I
yelled, 'is it you? I am Ralph!'

A feeble cheer replied to my shout. The next moment a remarkable
spectacle opened itself out before us.

Charlie Eccles half lay, half sat upon the ground--pale, tattered, but
smiling; a few feet away lay upon its side the body of an enormous
tiger. I sprang forward. 'Don't touch me, old chap,' said Charlie, 'I
feel as if I was broken all over!'--then he fainted.

Well, except a couple of broken ribs and some nasty gashes and
scratches, there was nothing seriously the matter, and with the help of
a litter and half-a-dozen natives summoned by the shikari, we got him
home to the bungalow without further damage. There he told me his story.
The tiger had been wounded, but not seriously, by his first shot. The
shikari fired and missed. Then the beast had seized him by the shoulder,
which was lacerated, and had dragged him to this place. Charlie had
clung to his rifle, and upon reaching the spot where we had found him,
the tiger laid him down and rested. Fortunately the pain of his wound
had rendered the brute disinclined to eat. He stood over him for nearly
half an hour, listening, licking his wound, and growling. Charlie lay
still as death, for he knew that if he moved a finger he would be slain
that instant. After half an hour the brute left him and lay a few yards
away, but in such a position that Charlie could not fire a fatal shot;
he therefore waited in hopes that he would change his attitude. The
tiger lay and attended to his wound for a full hour or more, and Eccles
waited patiently.

At last--just before we arrived--the tiger shifted, presenting his side
and shoulder, and Charlie, pointing his rifle with the utmost care, for
he knew his life depended upon the shot, pulled trigger.

'I think,' Ralph concluded, 'that evening in the Dak Bungalow was about
the happiest I ever spent. The doctor had been summoned from the camp at
Bandapore and had pronounced Charlie Eccles to be progressi