us when he struck down his victim; he was not more than fifty when
he caught sight of us. He stopped for an instant in surprise. Charley
muttered, 'Both barrels, Harley,' and as the beast turned to plunge into
the jungle, and so showed us his side, we sent four bullets crashing
into him, and he rolled over lifeless.

"We went up to the spot, made the Begaum give him a kick, to be sure
that he was dead, and then got down to examine the unfortunate fakir.
The tiger had seized him by the shoulder, which was terribly torn, and
the bone broken. He was still perfectly conscious.

"We at once fired three shots, our usual signal that the tiger was dead,
and in a few minutes were surrounded by the villagers, who hardly knew
whether to be delighted at the death of their enemy, or to grieve over
the injury to the fakir. We proposed taking the latter to our hospital
at Jubbalpore, but this he positively refused to listen to. However, we
finally persuaded him to allow his arm to be set and the wounds dressed
in the first place by our regimental surgeon, after which he could go to
one of the native villages and have his arm dressed in accordance with
his own notions. A litter was soon improvised, and away we went to
Jubbalpore, which we reached about eight in the evening.

"The fakir refused to enter the hospital, so we brought out a couple
of trestles, laid the litter upon them, and the surgeon set his arm and
dressed his wounds by torchlight, when he was lifted into a dhoolie, and
his bearers again prepared to start for the village.

"Hitherto he had only spoken a few words; but he now briefly expressed
his deep gratitude to Simmonds and myself. We told him that we would
ride over to see him shortly, and hoped to find him getting on rapidly.
Another minute and he was gone.

"It happened that we had three or four fellows away on leave or on staff
duty, and several others laid up with fever just about this time, so
that the duty fell very heavily upon the rest of us, and it was over a
month before we had time to ride over to see the fakir.

"We had heard he was going on well; but we were surprised, on reaching
the village, to find that he had already returned to his old abode in
the jungle. However, we had made up our minds to see him, especially as
we had agreed that we would endeavor to persuade him to do a prediction
for us; so we turned our horses' heads towards the jungle. We found the
fakir sitting on a rock in front of