A REAL TIGER STORY 



235 



grass, the man in the howdah bending over now and then 

 and looking downward into the long grass, his rifle half up 

 to his shoulder ready for a snap shot. I began to think that 

 it was all over, as I felt confident that no tiger could have 

 remained out there so long, with that din on top of it. 



" Again the grass on the far side of the nullah swayed 

 slightly, and from almost the exact spot at which the 

 tiger had looked out shortly before, another and very large 

 tiger's head appeared. I could not have put my feelings of 

 absolute astonishment into words, had I tried. But it is 

 ever the unexpected that happens in sport. For an instant 

 the big tiger stood at gaze and then came out of the grass 

 and disappeared. There was a drop there, and I now under- 

 stood the configuration of the ground. He had sprung 

 down this and was in the long grass of the ravine. Whether 

 he had seen the elephant or not I could not say. We were 

 in shadow, so I think not. We traced his stealthy approach 

 by the waving grass heads. Suddenly I saw a patch of him, 

 and fired on the 

 instant. A roar 

 answered my shot, 

 and I saw a bound- 

 ing streak of yellow, 

 at which I fired 

 again, and it seem- 

 ed to disappear. 

 Before I had time 

 to make up my 

 mind as to what 

 had happened, how- 

 ever, a second roar sounded on my ears, 

 the empty rifl e and seized hold of my second in the rack. As 

 my hand felt and grasped it, an undulating yellow streak came 

 out of the grass and flung itself at the tusker's head with a 

 blood-curdUng roar. The elephant never moved, but raised 

 up his head to endeavour to get the tigress, for she it was, on 

 to his tusks. The movement unsteadied me, and I gripped 

 the railing of the howdah with one hand to get my feet 

 again, whilst I hfted up the rifle with the other hand. The 

 tigress was now on the base of the elephant's trunk, 

 endeavouring to make good a purchase, and the tusker was 

 shaking himself in the endeavour to get rid of her. Only 

 those who have been on an elephant in a howdah when the 



I hurriedly dropped 



