CHAP VI A CHAPTER OF MISTAKES 57 



were a pair who had been lent me. One of them 

 was sick, and the other was an old man who had 

 quite outlived his great and well-earned reputa- 

 tion. Both men are now dead, I am sorry to say. 



I had run this tie-up myself, and suspected 

 the kill might be that of a panther. 



Before I had been sitting up an hour, a small 

 panther stalked up to the kill, very cleverly, but 

 with such an air of proprietorship that I regarded 

 it as the criminal and killed it. I got down and 

 hid the body, and went on sitting up in the vain 

 hope that a tiger might come. In the morning 

 there were unmistakable tracks of a tigress that 

 had come to a certain distance and then turned 

 off, presumably on hearing the shot. A bungled 

 business. 



The weather was getting warm, so we decided 

 to march up to the hilly plateau, some 1500 feet 

 high, which lay in our block. My wife went up 

 at daybreak, driven in a little country ringhi cart, 

 while I followed later, having seen off all the kit. 

 My wife was escorted for part of the way by two 

 jackals which ran behind her cart. 



As they went up the ghat a panther crossed 

 the road in front of them, climbed on to the over- 

 hanging bank at the side of the road, and sat there 

 looking at them as they passed, and until they 

 were out of sight. Neither my wife nor the 

 bullock man had any weapons, and they kept 

 their heads and did well, taking no notice of the 

 panther.^ But they were glad to be gone. 



^ Note by the Author's wife : — I cannot agree with the above 

 account I Far from " taking no notice," I took, on the contrary, 

 every notice. The driver and I stared at the panther, fascinated 



