MELURSUS "DIABOLICUS" 107 



by the shikdris and men, looking into little scooped-out 

 recesses below the perpendicular face of sandstone, and 

 under the impression that there was no hiding-place 

 sufficient for a bear. The shikdris, local men, were now 

 of opinion that there was no cave here. 



After a time, however, there came a corner, round which 

 curved the ledge we were following, and on passing this 

 I suddenly found myself in front of a large low-roofed 

 cave. 



At the far end of this antechamber, into which the 

 morning sun shone brightly, were two dark apertures 

 leading into the bowels of the hill. On the sandy floor of 

 the entrance to the cave were the fresh ingoing marks of 

 a bear and none leading out. 



We had halted, I suppose, for a few seconds, and I had 

 let fall a word or two, in a low tone, to the effect that a bear 

 was there all right and it was no place for us. 



Next to me was the local G6nd shikari, and behind him 

 a young Jat non-commissioned officer of my regiment ; 

 while another of my men had been posted on the terrace 

 above us to act as a " look-out." 



Our position was a sufficiently hazardous one from the 

 nature of the surroundings, as will be noted by a glance 

 at the sketch of the episode itself copied from a photo- 

 graph secured during a subsequent visit to the scene of 

 disaster. It did not take very long for a mental apprecia- 

 tion of that situation to form itself, and the next moment 

 we were quietly retracing our way. 



Round the corner whence we had come was a little room 

 for expansion, so to speak, where the precarious ledge 

 widened slightly, and formed a kind of niche or platform 

 overhung by rock. For this vantage ground we were now 

 making ; and, had we reached it, I think that bear might, 

 with a fair amount of certainty, have been defeated and 

 precipitated into the depths below. But unfortunately 

 there was a " but " in the case scarcely had we taken one 



