Gulab stood in the ring and looked with large round eyes, for he was
more frightened than he had ever been in his life. He was only a
little boy, and had never seen a tiger face to face.

The tiger growled and snarled and roared. Then it came round and round
the ring, trying to find a gap between the horns to get at the boy.
But there was no gap between the horns.

Then little by little the fear left Gulab's heart. Something inside
him told him to be brave. He walked up to Baldo.

"Baldo, let me up!" Gulab said to him, standing behind the buffalo.
And Baldo lowered his body behind, and bent his hind legs at the
knees.

Gulab took hold of Baldo's tail in both hands, and put his foot on
Baldo's hind knee, which was now bent quite low. In that way Gulab
climbed up to the buffalo's back, and sat on it, holding on to Baldo's
shoulders.

Then, being quite safe on the buffalo's back, Gulab glanced around and
called to the buffaloes at the back of the ring, "Open out!" And the
buffaloes opened out at the back of the ring, and made a crescent.
Then they moved still farther around, and the crescent became one long
line, facing the tiger.

Gulab gave one glance to right and left, to see that all were ready.
Then--

"Charge, brothers, charge!" he cried to the buffaloes.

Then his big brothers, the buffaloes, charged with thundering hoofs
and fiery nostrils. The tiger gave a huge leap to the side to get
away; but the buffaloes on that side opened out and headed off the
tiger. On to the front again the tiger was forced to turn--and run for
his life before the furious herd.

The buffaloes chased and chased that tiger, across field and jungle,
over hedges and ditches, through brambles and bushes and thickets,
till at last the tiger jumped across a ravine and ran away growling
and howling and snarling, like a low thief who is chased out of a
village at night.

The ravine was a deep hollow in the ground, like a huge ditch; and it
ran all the way across the ground; so the buffaloes could not get over
it, as they cannot jump as far as a tiger. Then the buffaloes returned
to the village, and Gulab gave the news about the tiger.

Some of the village people ran to the palace, and said that the tiger
might be still hiding somewhere on the other side of the ravine. So
the six Englishmen went around to that side to hunt the tiger. They
found him and wounded him four or five times. But it takes a lot more
than that to kill a tiger