222 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



would have given me greater pleasure than to have 

 knocked him over, but for the feeling that it might be 



a disappointment to K , who deserved the shot for 



which he had worked so hard in vain. I also reflected 

 that a preserved bison had been shot by a sportsman not 

 very far from here in order to save his life, and that the 

 plea of self-defence which he had urged had been accepted 

 with anything but a good grace. Stifling my natural 

 impulses therefore, I gently retreated, keeping the bull 

 in sight and longing for the arrival of my companion. 

 The end of it was that the gaur went thundering down 



a steep hillside towards the main ravine just before K 's 



arrival. He was not found again. 



There were a good many panthers near Junglypur, 

 chiefly found in the lower foot-hills and in the vicinity of 

 villages ; and these were shot in the usual manner, by 

 sitting in a tree over a " kill " either natural, or a bait 

 previously tied up or, what was much more deadly, by 

 occupying a roofed-in rifle-pit, and picketting a goat 

 within about fifteen feet of the loophole. A lonely 

 perch in a tree was, however, the commonest stratagem, 

 though obviously too patent to deceive a panther of ex- 

 perience. 



The element of luck is too powerful a factor, however, 

 in this tree-roosting, hole-haunting form of amusement, 

 the most successful exponent of the art being a friend of 

 mine, who never even troubled himself to keep silence, 

 but coughed, yawned, and shook the tree with wide leg- 

 stretchings at his ease. In this manner he bagged five 

 panthers, within a few weeks, from the same tree. 



The rapidity with which a bold or previously unfired-at 

 panther will sometimes arrive before the watcher's hiding- 

 place is phenomenal. On one occasion, about four o'clock 

 in the afternoon, the writer, having climbed to his perch 

 and seated himself, A^as busied in arranging the leafy 

 shelter, when the tethered kid, that had been straining at 



