50 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



stars, and he began to drag away his prey, he was sur- 

 prised that it would not accompany him farther than a 

 certain limit the length of its tether. Therefore, after 

 a few powerful attempts to snap the strange bond, he 

 sat down and made his first meal on the spot. On leav- 

 ing the carcase at dawn he moved off up the ravine, 

 drank at a waterhole among the rocks, and lay up for 

 the day below a little dry waterfall in a tributary nullah, 

 in a cool spot overhung by green bushes. 



About half an hour later two natives came very slowly 

 up the bed of the main stream, stooping at intervals, and 

 looking cautiously about them. They halted opposite 

 the mouth of the nullah up which the tiger had gone, 

 whispered together a little, gesticulated in silent panto- 

 mime, gazed about a little more, and then went quietly 

 away. 



Half that day had passed, and the jungle outside the 

 tiger's retreat was shimmering in the full glare of silent 

 midday. The great brute himself lay in the deep shade 

 of the overhanging rock, sprawled out on the dry sand, 

 his eyes mere half-closed slits, the thick forearms stretched 

 out, his mouth half open, and his whole heavy frame 

 panting in the dry heat when he suddenly checked his 

 breathing, closed his mouth, and seemed to be listening. 

 For a moment he remained thus ; then his lower jaw 

 slowly dropped again, the eyes dozed, and the panting 

 recommenced. 



A minute or so later he raised his head attentively and 

 listened again. The faint yell of a man had come echo- 

 ing through the trees to his ears, and some time later 

 there followed a sudden chorus of distant howling and 

 the sound of drumming. A shot was fired far away. 

 After a while the uproar seemed louder and nearer, and 

 mingled with it came the loud knockings of axes on 

 fallen trees. The tiger was now on his feet. The axes 

 he had heard before ; but the other sounds were new of 



