62 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



jungle deities. The fact was that old Lungra permitted 

 no other tiger within many miles of his own range, and 

 had established himself as the subsidised custodian of the 

 neighbouring forests, levying blackmail in the shape of an 

 occasional cow or bullock as tribute for his services. Now 

 and then when he felt that he was becoming too much 

 of a burden on his people of the Si'pna, said the Korkus 

 he would leave his headquarters for a while, and the well- 

 known track of his three toes would go limping round on 

 a tour of fifty or sixty miles ere returning. A tiger will 

 travel by road or pathway whenever he can, and the dust 

 of the forest roads registered the impression of his great 

 sign-manual with unfailing certainty, and were the means 

 of checking the interesting regularity of his wanderings 

 abroad. 



And wherever he went he fared well. As to his taking 

 a calf here, a heifer there, in his kindly discriminating 

 way, why, they were his it was " only old Lungra " and 

 the cachinnations of the jungle people waxed ever louder 

 as they exaggerated the wondrous feats of their tawny 

 demi-god. Two bullocks yoked together would be return- 

 ing in the evening from the plough a sudden rush in the 

 long grass, and, madly galloping, they would disappear in 

 the adjoining forest, where one would go down and be 

 eaten while the other remained untouched, a terrified 

 spectator of the gory scene. That was Lungra ! Some 

 unpopular timber agent would come to the valley and 

 strike hard bargains with the Korkus his bullocks would 

 suddenly vanish ! Good old Lungra ! At long intervals 

 a sahib would arrive and hopefully tie up half a dozen 

 tempting httas. Not one would be touched, though the 

 three-toed track would be seen all round but some fine 

 morning his pony would be found half-eaten not a hundred 

 paces from camp, whence it had been silently seized and 

 dragged during the night ! Lungra again ! 



AS for shooting him he, the vehicle of the jungle gods. 



