should betray us. After looking round for a bit he 

 pointed to a spot on the bank where he had found the 

 fresh spoor of the tiger, and picking up something 

 there to show to us he came back to our side. It was 

 a little fragment of whitish skin with white hairs on 

 it. There was no doubt about it then : we were on 

 the fresh spoor of the tiger where it had stopped to 

 drink at the pool and probably to lick the scratches 

 made by the trap ; and leaving the bed of the stream 

 it had gone through the thick undergrowth up towards 

 the krans. 



We were not more than a hundred yards from the 

 krans then, and the track taken by the tiger was not 

 at all an inviting one. It was at first merely a narrow 

 tunnel in the undergrowth up the steep hillside, 

 through which we crept in single file with the two 

 dogs a few yards in front ; they moved on in the 

 same silent deliberate way, so intent and strung up that 

 they started slightly and instantly looked up in front 

 at the least sound. As the ascent became steeper 

 and more rocky, the undergrowth thinned and we 

 were able to spread out into line once more, threading 

 our way through several roughly-parallel game tracks 

 or natural openings and stooping low to watch the 

 dogs and take our cue from them. 



We were about fifteen yards from the precipitous 

 face of the krans, and had just worked round a huge 

 boulder into a space fairly free of bush but cumbered 

 with many big rocks and loose stones, when the dogs 

 stopped and stood quivering and bristling all over, 

 moving their heads slowly about with noses well 



262 



