VI A CHAPTER OF MISTAKES 59 



Our camp was under two noble peepul trees, 

 which treacherously shed their leaves as the heat 

 increased and shade was required. Yet we 

 summered very well here. A hot wind always 

 blew during the day, and with well-watered 

 grass screens in our E.P. tent, we had all the 

 coolness possible in the hot weather. 



At our door was the solitary Gond village. 

 No one else lived on the plateau. 



We had half-a-dozen tie-ups out ; and the first 

 morning before I had been round any of them, 

 and we were still settling down in camp, news 

 came in that a tiger had killed half a mile away, 

 and was eating his kill in the open. 



My wife and I hurried out, and at 8.30 a.m., 

 from a distance of some three hundred yards, saw 

 a tiger eating his kill in the open in the full sun- 

 light. My wife watched events from this spot 

 on a little hillock. She could see the ensuing 

 stalk, and also the tiger as he lifted up the kill 

 at intervals, shook and tore it. 



The old shikari had a genuine cough, so the 

 other man and I stalked up a nullah and into 

 a little piece of jungle which ended a short 

 distance from the tiger. We worked from the 

 right, not knowing the ground. Had we crawled 

 to our left and then swung right-handed, an easy 

 grass approach and a shot at a hundred yards 

 would have been obtained. As it was, crackling 

 fallen leaves were a sore trouble. We got to 

 within twenty yards of the far edge of the jungle, 

 and I thought all was well, for a 'jungle sheep ' got 

 up a few yards on our right on the slope above us 

 and walked away with its back to the tiger. We 



