xu MARRIED AND A RUN OF LUCK 147 



by choosing the path, avoiding stones, twigs, and 

 thickets where possible ; but in this case I also had 

 a tracker following behind me, and yet neither 

 of them saw the sight that met my eyes until 

 the raising of my gun attracted their attention. 

 As I remarked before, Kerta had paused ; he 

 peered ahead to his left, and I did the same to 

 the right, and there, within fifteen yards of 

 me, was the form of a sleek and glossy tigress, 

 lying on her side with her back to me, her head 

 and shoulders concealed by the trunk of a tree ; 

 otherwise she was in full open view. As I covered 

 her with my gun she happily flicked her tail in 

 luxurious repletion after a heavy meal. In- 

 stinctively, being at such very close quarters, I 

 aimed at her spine. Bang! and with a roar she 

 reared herself up on her forelegs and glancing 

 over her shoulders snarled at me, but her hind- 

 quarters were motionless — my aim had carried 

 true. I then landed her with my left barrel 

 through the shoulder into the chest, and over 

 she rolled ; but as I hastily ejected the two 

 empty shells, and was ramming my third and last 

 cartridge home, she twisted round and seized 

 one of her hind legs in her mouth, crushing the 

 bone and tearing the flesh from it ; so I gave her 

 the third barrel. All this happened in less time 

 than it takes to write. Kerta was so scared that 

 when I hastily asked him to take my now useless 

 gun and hand me the small rifle, he simply edged 

 away. The tigress, in the meantime, was also 

 doing her best to move away from us, but she 

 only managed to drag herself some five yards, 

 and before expiring, vented her rage by rendign 



