A RIGHT AND LEFT 5 



centres like Calcutta, and the only reason why 

 there are any left in the Sunderbunds is because 

 men do not like to take the risk of fever. I am 

 afraid I shall not see one. I have only one day 

 left. I have shot a big crocodile and seen one 

 big pig (wild-boar) and a fine stag, but had to let 

 them go by, as we hoped for tiger. I must leave 

 off now, as we have heard rumours of a tiger, and 

 the launch is starting. It is a great business: a 

 regular fleet of native boats with machdns, beaters, 

 and my body-guard of seven Gurkhas quite 

 unnecessary, I think, but this is the centre of 

 Bengal unrest, and I found, the Gurkha police 

 awaiting me. 



January ist. I have had a grand day. I have 

 shot two tigers. One is an unusually fine one, 

 with beautiful markings and great breadth of body. 

 The other, his wife, is a bit smaller. I can hardly 

 realise yet that I really have got two good tigers 

 within seven weeks of landing in India. I am 

 hugely pleased and right glad that I shot straight. 

 I hit the big one just into the left shoulder, and 

 the tigress right through the heart and lungs. 

 They both lay dead within some 6 or 8 feet of 

 where I hit them. I was perched up in my 

 machdn at the edge of a clearing, and just saying 

 to myself how easy it would be for a tiger to sweep 

 the whole thing away, when I saw the head of a 

 big tiger pushing through a thick round bush. I 

 could hardly believe my eyes. It was just like a 

 scene of " jungle life in India " which one sees in 

 fancy pictures in the illustrated papers. I caught 

 his eye just as I saw him, and I realised that there 

 was not a moment to spare. I aimed at his 



