A CENTRAL PROVINCE SHOOT 31 



him, and as I did so he turned and ran hard to 

 me. I heard three coughing grunts, and there 

 was the tiger in full charge after Govind and 

 some fifty yards behind him. 



The tiger seemed to gallop very fast with a 

 marked bounding action. This was probably due 

 to his broken shoulder. He pecked once, and 

 snarled. He had his tail erect, his mouth was 

 wide open. There was literally not a blade of 

 grass to hide his full beauty in this fine charge. 

 Govind, all out and giving way to no fatalistic 

 views, passed close to me on my right. The tiger 

 was then twenty yards from him. 



The -470 caught the tiger in the centre of his 

 chest where the neck joins it. The bullet raked 

 the length of his body. He fell in a crumpled 

 heap, but got up at once. I put the left bullet 

 through both shoulder-blades. The tiger still 

 tried with claw and mouth to reach me. I 

 reloaded and fired into his chest. A shudder 

 passed over him, and this splendid fighting 

 savage died without a groan. 



He was a heavy male, 9' 5|". It took eight men 

 to lift him. He fell seventeen paces from me, 

 having charged for eighty- two paces. He must 

 have slunk out of the cover on hearing the buffaloes 

 and squatted under a couple of tiny saplings in 

 full view. Govind could not believe his eyes at 

 first and would not signal. I think the tiger was 

 going a good pace, partly from the way he over- 

 hauled Govind, who, however, is not a ten-seconds 

 man, and partly from the tracks. To every third 

 footmark of the running man came a pad-mark 

 with claws deep cut. 



