66 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



down in dim succession on either side. Above all hangs 

 the dark blue vault of night ablaze with glittering stars. 



There is a gentle stir of the grass, and a little hesitating 

 figure is standing in the silent roadway. Then it steals 

 tripping delicately across, enters the dim jungle, and a 

 faint crepitation in the leaves marks its slow retreat. 

 Presently the harsh bark of a khdkar resounds through the 

 echoing woods. 



The grass swishes again; some dark half-hidden objects 

 can be seen at intervals as they approach through its 

 crackling stems. Shortly there is a snuffing and a low 

 grunt, and a number of black forms pass trotting across 

 the track. It is a sounder of hogs. Behind them emerges 

 a bulky shape of indistinct grey, and stands motionless, 

 casting a truculent inky shadow on the white dust of the 

 moonlit road the old boar! 



Then these, too, have gone; their footsteps die away in 

 the distant crushing leaves ; and the valley is once more 

 left to its moonlit mhoiva-scented silence. 



Hark! What was that ? Far down the river-bed rings 

 the faint echo of a sudden note! the trumpeting bell of a 

 sdmbar! "Ptnkl" 



The moon that rises over Sfpna's banks this evening 

 throws long shadows in the neighbouring glen of the Kili, 

 and reveals an indistinct bulk creeping quietly along a 

 jungle path. Presently this object turns a bamboo clump, 

 the low rays faintly illuminate a great striped head and 

 heavy fulvous forearm, and a tiger is standing there, 

 gazing up the hillside. 



Then he begins to slowly climb the slanting pathway. 

 It is but a few minutes since he left his lair in a deep 

 ravine of the mazy hill behind. His coat is bleached with 

 long years; his teeth worn and yellow; his once rich 

 markings faded to a dullish brown. But the eye is as 



