28 INDIAN BIG GAME chap. 



sharply several times and fled. A minute later a 

 tigress walked quietly from behind the tree and 

 I killed her. 



At midnight a tiger came under my tree, but 

 thinking he was a sambhur I took no steps to be 

 quiet and discovered my mistake too late. 



Three days later there was a kill by a big tiger, 

 probably my midnight friend, some two miles 

 from where I had shot the tigress. 



I sat on the edge of the river looking up a 

 succession of beautiful blue rock-bound pools. 

 On my bank the heavy jungle skirted the river 

 for miles ; on the other bank was a patch of 

 jungle adjoining the river, thick opposite me but 

 running to a point half a mile up. The track to 

 my machan passed through this patch and across 

 the river. The kill was where a dry nullah ran 

 down from the low hills on my left into the river. 



The jungles were beautiful ; the foliage was 

 generally golden brown interspersed with patches 

 of green and red. I sat in one of four trees of the 

 " flame of the forest," a flaming mass of brightest 

 crimson, so bright that my eyes ached with the 

 sight until the sun sank. 



I was some sixty yards from the kill ; the 

 powerful electric light was fitted and all was well, 

 though I viewed with mistrust a leafy bush close 

 to the kill, which I dared not touch, and into which 

 I feared the tiger might drag it. 



There was no moon. At 8 p.m. I heard my 

 friend the little red fox giving tongue sharp and 

 loud half a mile away. 



" It's the tiger, I tell you it's the tiger," he 

 shrilled. 



