"KILLING A MAN-EATER" i 7j 



On the second day one of the headmen on the 

 left side of the circle fired a shot at what he said 

 was the tiger. Instantly there was a great com- 

 motion and the men started shouting and making a 

 great noise. We were keenly on the alert, as the 

 platform faced the only spot of the circle that was 

 open and free from fire, and hoped the tiger would 

 break cover. Suddenly Ali, touching me, quietly 

 said, as he raised his gun to his shoulder, "Tuem- 

 block-on-po-ko" (behind the tree). Telling him to 

 cover the left side, I covered the right side of the 

 tree the tiger was crouching behind, and told Ali to 

 shoot as close to the tree as he could without hitting 

 it. He fired, and almost instantly I let go at a 

 streak of yellow and black; it disappeared at once. 

 The yelling by this time was enough to drown the 

 grunt or roar of the tiger; there was no way at 

 the time to know if we had succeeded in hit- 

 ting it, so completing the fire circle in front of 

 the platform, we lay down to sleep as best we could. 

 What little wind there was, was in our direction, 

 and kept us pretty free from being eaten alive by 

 mosquitoes. 



On the morning of the fourth day the tiger had 

 not broken cover and as the circle had now nar- 

 rowed to about fifty yards, the heat was intense, for 

 the fires were kept going day and night. Still the 

 tiger would not break cover. I was determined to 

 go into the circle then with the elephant, as the nets 



