TEAK AND BAMBOO 97 



Some days after this I saw a sahib, accompanied by two 

 Korkus, coming up the glen. They were walking up the 

 bed of the stream and pointing to the pugs of the tiger. 

 Something made me move my head as I gazed down on 

 them from among some dry bamboos on the top of an 

 overhanging bank, and in an instant a Korku clutched the 

 sahib's sleeve and, directing his attention to me, whispered, 

 " Burra dhank!" but I, ever wary, had risen and with- 

 drawn from view. Suddenly a sambar's bark rang out 

 from the ndla at the time I noticed nothing peculiar in 

 it except that it sounded weak and then another. In a 

 moment of curiosity I stepped forward to investigate this 

 strange occurrence. One of the Korkus had his hands 

 up to his mouth, and the sahib had disappeared. Again 

 came the bark, apparently from the Korkus, and I turned 

 to plunge into the jungle. As I did so, a rifl exploded 

 among the trees to my right, and I was felled tc the ground. 



Being on the edge of a steep fall, I rolled some distance 

 ere I could regain my feet and stand up, paralysed with 

 a numbing pain. Steps rushed towards me through the loud 

 leaves, and, with an effort, I tottered downhill and gained 

 the thicket bordering the stream, as the Korkus rushed up 

 to turn me, waving their arms and shouting. With a frantic 

 plunge I passed them, and, crossing the bed of the ndla 

 with a clatter, disappeared among the trees, just as a second 

 bullet buried itself with a thud beyond me in the bank. 

 A few steps more, and I came to a standstill, feeling faint 

 and sick ; then, seeing a small side ndla, I crept a short 

 distance up it, and had barely squatted in its sheltering 

 grasses, and pressed my head to the ground, when my 

 enemies came in sight, and, passing close by my hiding- 

 place, their eyes fixed intently ahead, rapidly receded up- 

 stream. 



There were now two sahibs, one of whom was gasping 

 out as he ran, " A perfect monster ! a forty-five incher ! " 



Their footfalls grew faint in the distance, and at length 

 H 



