CHAPTER XIV 



THE HAVILDAH S STORY 



The man-eater — The Nepal jungles — The havildah commences his story 

 — The animals of the Nepal jungles — An expedition in the rains- 

 Good hunting — Return to village — The man-eater's victim — The 

 boy's grief and frenzy — Set out to search for the man-eater — Discover 

 traces of victim — The plan of campaign — Ascend the ravine — Reach 

 the cave — The man-eater appears — Face to face — The shot — Death 

 of man-eater — The boy's mad rage. 



Y 



"OU have often asked me, sahib, to tell you the 

 story of how I saw my first tiger," said the old 

 havildah, one depressing afternoon in the 

 rains. We were all up in the hill station, and 

 it had been raining on end for weeks. I was lounging in 

 the verandah watching the man clean the rifles and 

 guns, the whole battery having been got out to see that the 

 excessive moisture in the atmosphere was not attacking 

 the barrels. 



" Speak, havildah, and tell me the story. It was in 

 your own village, and the beast was a monster, was it 

 not ? " 



" Yes, sahib, a very bad man-eater, and I who speak to 

 you suffered heavily from the shaitan. But I dipped my 

 hands in his heart's blood afterwards, and tore out the heart 

 of the evil one, that I did." And the old man's eyes gleamed 

 vindictively as he spoke. And then his face grew sad as 

 reminiscences of the past crowded on his memory. 



169 



