174 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



my heart was as water and my legs tottered beneath me. 

 I felt as if I knew the words that were to be spoken. 



" ' The tiger shaitan has been here, and Kali, the beautiful 

 Kah, has been taken, but half an hour gone. Some of the 

 men have already followed on his tracks. He has made for 

 the jungle.' 



" I dropped my load and sank on to the ground on top 

 of it. Kali, my beautiful girl, Kah, taken by the tiger, 

 I could not and would not believe it ! I was soon brought to 

 myself by the women, who started wailing again. My 

 weakness departed from me, and I sprang to my feet. A 

 black, blind rage filled me, I frothed at the mouth and 

 shrieked at the men to be told the direction the devil had 

 taken. I would save her, I said, though the looks of the men 

 told me there was little hope of that. I would have the black 

 devil's heart's blood, and that before I was many hours 

 older, or I too would die. 



" Remonstrance was useless. They offered me food, I 

 vomited at the sight, and grew so fierce that old Sher 

 Bahadur said he would go with me. Soon two others 

 volunteered to accompany us, and taking the few remain- 

 ing matchlocks left in the village and our kukris, we set 

 out. 



" Of that journey I remember nothing. Sahib, I was as 

 one demented. We took the downward path, and after an 

 hour arrived at a dense patch of grass jungle, situated in a 

 small valley, shut in by steep hills, having at its bottom a 

 small torrent. On the edge we came upon the party of men 

 who had started before we arrived at the village. I was in no 

 condition to understand the conversation that followed. 

 Had I not been held back, and it took several men to hold 

 me, for rage had given me the strength of many men, I 

 should have gone straight into the grass, and doubtless have 

 been killed or frightened away the tiger, for he was filled 

 with the cunning of all the devils. The tracks had been 

 followed to a point some two hundred yards lower down, 

 at which they entered the grass. 



" A hurried council was held. The sun had become over- 

 cast, and there was need of haste, as rain was imminent, 

 and if it fell, the marks would be all washed out. That 

 Kali had been brought here was proved by a piece of her 

 clothing still adhering to a thorny shrub at the place where 

 the tiger had entered the jungle. 



