THE BIOGRAPHY OF A TIGER 61 



stratagem. Three baits had been tethered together, as in 

 a herd, and at last he had been induced to kill and lie up 

 close by. In the long day's hunting that ensued there 

 had been a series of formidable encounters, during which 

 a foolishly disobedient beater had been clawed from a low 

 tree and killed, and one of the sportsmen fatally mauled ; 

 while he himself, sorely crippled, bedraggled, and spent, 

 had only made good his escape under the opportune 

 approach of dusk. 



Terrible straits were those to which he had been sub- 

 sequently reduced long days of misery and emaciation 

 but, with his usual luck, he had in time managed to make 

 a wonderful recovery from wounds such as almost in- 

 variably prove fatal in the case of the hot-blooded feline ; 

 and once more ranged the jungle. 



From that time forward, however, he went with a slight 

 limp, and his right fore pad left a three-toed impress, a 

 peculiarity so unmistakable that when now, in his old age, 

 he had returned to the jungles that knew him so well, it 

 had gained for him the sobriquet of the " Lame Tiger " 

 Old " Lungra " of the Si'pna. 



And now for years had Lungra lived in peace down the 

 old river-bed with its dense surrounding woodland. With 

 the waning of his youthful agility he had found it more 

 comfortable to lead the life of a cattle-lifter than to subsist 

 on the fleet and wary game of the forests alone ; yet with 

 such marvellous acumen did he ply his trade that he was 

 never to be caught napping. He seemed to be guided by 

 some uncanny intuition that guarded him from every 

 harm ; and many were the tales of his sagacious cunning 

 that went the round of the village fires. In course of 

 time weird myths came to be woven around the personality 

 of the old tiger, and these gradually resulted in his being 

 invested with supernatural powers by the superstitious 

 demon-ridden aborigines of his native wilds, who now 

 regarded his depredations in the light of sacrifices to the. 



