14 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



with the vibrations of a throaty breathing. The head 

 was held level and advanced. The great forepaws had 

 come to rest in the middle of a pace. And behind the 

 muscular ridge of the shoulder-blades the sinewy and 

 rounded back curved away into a low-carried, black- 

 banded tail. From its side came solemnly pacing, with, 

 absurdly big ungainly paws, a smaller, blear-eyed, and 

 uncouth replica of itself, followed an instant later by yet 

 another that gambolled awkwardly across the sand to 

 halt and sniff at the edge of the pool close by. 



Then the largest of the three came heavily pacing 

 forward, each step making a soft, deep crunching in the 

 yielding sandbank. 



It was the tigress and her cubs. They were seeking a 

 lair for the day after the nightly prowl abroad. And 

 something in the attitude of the trio seemed to suggest 

 that they had not walked the night in vain ! 



Sometimes the cubs would lag behind, but mother 

 would wait for them, her head turned, her jaw ever quiver- 

 ing with her warm breath, or vibrating with a low, affection- 

 ate purring that sounded like the deepest throbbing note 

 of an organ. Their proper place was ahead of her, where 

 she might best shepherd their waywardness, or rush to 

 defend them ; while the way in which she started at a 

 falling dry leaf she, the mistress over all but one of the 

 other beasts of this forest was proof of her unceasing 

 solicitude for their welfare. 



In such manner the little family party passed slowly 

 down the winding reaches of jungle river-bed, the frogs 

 leaping hurriedly for the pools at their approach. Now 

 and then a land-crab would go scuttling off sidewise to 

 its hole amid the stones ; and perhaps a heavy paw would 

 descend on it. There would be a crunch or two as the 

 succulent morsel disappeared. Here and there a handsome 

 grey jungle-cock, strutting in the open with his sombre 

 hens, would beat a cackling retreat, and set up his alarmed 



