A CHAPTER OF MISTAKES 63 



yards of and below the dense cover to which 

 the tiger had dragged the kill. The result was 

 that as my wife was halfway up the tree she 

 saw the tiger break out. I never saw him. He 

 broke clean away, nearly, but unfortunately not 

 quite, knocking over our cook, who had come 

 out to watch proceedings. 



The shikaris saw this tiger on the kill in the 

 morning. Virtue being its own reward, I had not 

 gone round the tie-ups this morning, as we had 

 been up till late the night before, filing the ring 

 off the toe of a poor little Gond girl, who was in 

 much pain. This operation took three hours, 

 with a pocket file, and by the light of a hurricane 

 lamp. 



After the beat I sat up for this brute in a high 

 tree over the kill, which lay in the rippling stream. 

 Owing to the water, I never woke when the tiger 

 came, and only heard his departing crunches 

 at dawn. My wife and I sat up again the 

 following night. The tiger came blundering down, 

 but I think heard me, and went off silently, giving 

 no shot. He sing-songed as he passed our tree 

 on his way home in the dawn. 



Nightly tracks of tiger were now found on 

 the ghat road. We first tied up on the road 

 itself, and next morning found nothing but horns 

 and hoofs left. A pack of wild dogs had eaten 

 every bit of the tie-up. I tried for these pests 

 and failed to get them. 



Then we tied up where the road began to rise, 

 and had a couple of beats, but in both cases the 

 tiger had gone to his sanctuary. 



I sat up after both blank beats. This is not 



