TOLD BY THE DOCTOR 75 



"A thousand memories and fancies chased each other 

 through my mind, as they will do on such occasions, and 

 meanwhile a languor stole over the corporeal portion of 

 me while my brain continued alert and unceasingly active. 

 The end of it was that after starting violently once or 

 twice from this borderland of dreams, I found myself 

 admitting that after all a nap till moonrise would do no 

 harm, and I fell asleep. 



"You know that way one has, when the mind is pre- 

 pared and expectant, of passing from sound sleep to 

 absolute wakefulness clear, sharp, wide-awakefulness ? 

 Well, in response to the light but firm pressure of a hand 

 on my arm, I was instantly awake ! 



" In a moment, with dismay, I noted that the moon was 

 not only up, but floated in a serene and cloudless sky, 

 flooding the pool below me in pale clear light, while at 

 my side a figure sat and pointed with a strangely bloated, 

 swollen, bandaged arm at a dark mass that broke the 

 silvered surface of the water below ! They say the 'ruling 

 passion is strong in death.' At any rate, acting on my first 

 impulse the whole scene, though lasting but a second, is 

 indelibly imprinted on my memory I raised the rifle that 

 lay in my lap, and, getting the white card night-sight on 

 the tiger's shoulder, fired. 



" The brute rolled over on the sand, plunging, grunting, 

 and struggling ; and as it did so there came two light pats 

 of an approving hand on my back, a deep-drawn sigh, and 

 the still air was filled with the most appalling odour, which 

 I at once recognised as the peculiar smell emanating from 

 a patient in the last and hopeless stage of pycemia or blood- 

 poisoning ! 



" I whipped round. The machdn was empty. I was 

 absolutely alone. Not a sound disturbed the pale silence 

 but a choking gasp from the expiring tiger. An owl 



