48 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



different, perhaps, had the stalker approached from 

 behind ; but piggy happened to look up from his busy 

 rooting in the nick of time, and the very uncompromising 

 attitude he instantly struck persuaded his antagonist that 

 pork was too expensive that day. 



Across the tiger's path had fallen as yet no shadow of 

 the sportsman ; but his rifle-shot had more than once been 

 heard echoing up the glens that bordered the central valley 

 of the jungly Melghat, and in the natural sequence of the 

 wanderings of both it was inevitable that these two should 

 meet. 



It happened one cool, cloudy evening that the tiger, 

 issuing abroad earlier than usual from his lair, had been 

 attracted by the movements of a little brown four-horned 

 antelope that was stepping about daintily in the fallen 

 leaves at the side of a forest road ; and he had begun to 

 creep stealthily up the bed of a miniature ravine towards 

 the unsuspecting creature. Before he had crawled very- 

 far, however, the little animal raised its head to listen a 

 moment, cocked its ears, then, with a few jerky pre- 

 liminary steps through the long grass, suddenly hopped off 

 into the still forest with a coughing "Phoo-phoo I " of alarm. 

 Very soon after this there came a quick, soft thudding of 

 hoofs in the dust of the roadway, and as the tiger shrank 

 back and crouched lower, a horseman turned the corner of 

 a steep bank at a sharp trot. His eyes were following the 

 course taken by the startled antelope, so that their gaze at 

 first passed over that cringing shape in the nullah ; but as 

 his head turned he started, unconsciously checked his 

 horse, and their eyes momentarily met. Then the horse, 

 who had seen the tiger before his master, snorted and 

 danced sidewise for an instant, and the tiger had vanished. 

 He reappeared for a few seconds, about a hundred paces 

 farther on, glancing back momentarily before passing over 

 a rising ground into the jungle beyond. The man re- 

 mained seated there, still gazing attentively after him. 



