do nothing. But
not so the elephant! He could do something!

The elephant recovered from his fright. He remembered all the clever
tricks he had learned in his youth in the jungle, like Salar, of whom I
have told you in Book I. This elephant remembered what he too could do
with his trunk.

So the elephant began to curl his trunk around the tiger's neck. The
tiger _felt_ the end of the trunk creeping around his neck.

Then the tiger knew that in the next minute the elephant's trunk would
grip him by the neck and tear him off from the elephant's head; and then
the elephant would bring him to the ground and trample him to death.

The tiger did not wait for that. He had scorned the sixty men--some of
whom were the best hunters of the world--but he was too wise to scorn
the elephant. And the tiger knew that by this time his wife must be
safe.

So the tiger dropped to the ground, ran past the rear of the elephant,
and vanished into the bushes. And while he did that, not one of the
hunters had time even to point a gun at him.

Once only did the hunters catch sight of the tiger again. After the
tigress had escaped, she must have worked her way around to the thick
bushes behind the hunters; and there she must have been waiting for her
husband. A few minutes later the men caught a glimpse of the tiger and
tigress, husband and wife, walking together leisurely beyond those
bushes, across a short open space, toward the next jungle. There they
would live in the future.

And as the hunters saw that sight of the tiger and tigress walking away
with stately steps beyond the reach of their guns, Prince Henry took off
his hat to the tiger!

"Gentlemen, I am glad that he got away!" he said to the other hunters.
"I do not think that any man in history has ever charged sixty enemies
single-handed, and has gained his purpose--to save the life of one dear
to him."

Then Prince Henry wiped his forehead, pretending that he had taken off
his hat to do that!

And so the famous tiger hunt was over. It often happens like that, in
spite of sixty hunters and a thousand other men: five minutes of
thrilling excitement--and then it is all over! I must tell you that if
you go to hunt a tiger, even with all that preparation, you never really
know whether you are going to hunt the tiger, or the tiger is going to
_hunt you_! And if you do not have elephants to help you, the chances
are that the tiger will hunt you.

Men, with all their guns and