268 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



bourhood, and I had promised to ascertain whether the 

 prospects of hog-hunting were sufficiently rosy to induce 

 some friends to join me from cantonments. Meanwhile 

 an old "tank," or artificial lake, the water supply of the 

 besieged garrison in the troublous times of bygone days, 

 held some fine specimens of that almost amphibious fish 

 the murral ; the plains below were wandered over by 

 many a roving herd of antelopes ; and the elevation over 

 the surrounding country, only a few hundred feet though 

 it might be, afforded a pleasant retreat from the scorching 

 blasts of an Indian summer. 



It was my wont to leave my bed each day before dawn, 

 and pick up my horse, which was accommodated at the 

 foot of the old Fort hill ; but, rousing later than usual 

 one morning, I sauntered instead to the outermost walls of 

 the decaying fortress, field-glass in hand. The lower slopes 

 of the hill were scored with rocky ravines, and some 

 chinkdra\hz Indian gazelle inhabited this ground, 

 among them being an exceptionally fine little buck. In 

 addition to this material attraction, the view was wide and 

 glorious. 



The little hill fort was perched some five hundred feet 

 sheer above the open plain, which stretched away, almost 

 a dead level, to the dim blue circle of the horizon. At a 

 distance fields, villages, groves of trees, palm brakes, and 

 waste ground blended into an indistinct wash of purple 

 haze that was touched here and there by the remote sheen 

 of a great river ; but closer at hand, for some fifteen miles 

 out, the surface of the earth was etched into the neatest 

 of maps, its topographical features displayed in every 

 minute detail. Far to the left rose a serrated line of 

 faintest blue the jungly hills that were at present rather 

 beyond the scope of my limited period of leave, and 

 were reputed to hold a few wandering tigers and from 

 their direction could be traced the advancing serpentine 

 course of a large tributary stream. Patches of thorny 



