she and he went into the ravine, hoping to escape.

But they too did not know that the sixty hunters were waiting at the end
of the ravine to shoot them as soon as they emerged.

So the tiger and tigress walked calmly through the ravine, and emerged
into the open country at the end of it.

Now I must tell you that in a tiger hunt of this kind the guest of honor
has the place of danger, which was in this case right in front of the
ravine. So Prince Henry waited right there on his elephant, and the
hunters on the other elephants were placed in a line on his right side
and left side.

This is what happened. When the tiger and tigress emerged from the
ravine, they suddenly saw the line of hunters blocking their path. At
the same time the hunters also saw the tiger and tigress. Now I must
tell you that it is a rule that only the front man on each elephant may
fire his gun at once, and the man with him must reserve his shot, in
case the front man misses and the tiger comes nearer. So, as soon as
they saw the tiger and tigress, the thirty front men on the thirty
elephants fired their guns.

But it takes at least a second for the quickest man to aim his gun and
fire; and a tiger can make up his mind to do something, and do it, in
less than a second. So in that time the tiger told his wife what to do.

I do not know what language tigers use among themselves, but she
understood what he meant. And she did it!

This is what she did. Like a flash of lightning she leaped toward the
side. So when the hail of thirty bullets came, she was not there where
the hunters had aimed. Not a single bullet hit her. And in the same
instant the tiger had also leaped--but onward. Some of the bullets
wounded him, but not very severely, as the hunters did not have time to
aim exactly.

[Illustration: Tiger Charging Hunting Party]

He knew that he must engage the attention of all the sixty men to give
his wife enough time to escape. So, wounded as he was, he leaped again,
straight onward.

Then the thirty men who had reserved their shot saw a terrible sight.
They saw the tiger coming straight toward the nearest elephant--Prince
Henry's elephant, right in front of the ravine. The thirty men pointed
their guns at the tiger. They may have vaguely seen that the tigress was
escaping; but their whole anxiety was about the terrible tiger leaping
straight toward them.

All the thirty men fired at him. But as the tiger was leaping onward all
the t