16 INDIAN BIG GAME 



and stood left broadside on, head turned towards 

 and staring at me. I turned to stone. We 

 stayed like this for what seemed a long time : I 

 knew he suspected me and feared he would go. I 

 carefully lifted my rifle up, aimed at his shoulder 

 and fired. The tiger spoke to the shot and 

 galloped off. 



I was using a double-barrelled -400 H.V. 

 rifle. Shikaris on an elephant came up, and we 

 tracked till dusk and again next morning, finding 

 plenty of blood but no tiger. I felt a fool that 

 evening at having to tell Sir John that I had 

 made such a mess of an easy shot. To cheer me 

 up, he said, " Oh, we shall come across him 

 again." I replied that I feared there was no 

 chance, and laid 30 to 1 against it. This bet Sir 

 John took. 



Two days later A. of the 9th Hodson's Horse 

 shot this very tiger, a handsome male with the 

 two days' wound on him. No other tiger had been 

 wounded or lost, so there was no doubt as to this 

 animal's identity. 



We traced the course of my bullet ; it was 

 marked throughout by clotted blood. This and 

 the entrance and exit holes showed clearly that 

 the tiger must have seen the movement of the 

 rifle and swung round on his haunches as I fired. 

 His near forearm, then, instead of being vertical 

 was horizontal and pointing at me. The bullet 

 struck the centre of the forearm, went through it, 

 ran up the inside of the arm until it met the chest, 

 ran round the chest between the ribs and the skin 

 and went out at the off shoulder, inflicting in all 

 its course only a slight flesh wound. The wound 



