276 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



else behold not save through the doubled circlet of my 

 sacred jdneo (Brahminical thread), it may so pass that this 

 witchcraft of sorcerers shall spare me this once ! " 



Thus we went on our way, and in time reached our 

 destination. 



The narrow ravine in which we found ourselves was even 

 more thickly wooded than had been apparent when viewed 

 from above. The vegetation followed the course of its 

 rocky bed, for about fifty yards up and down, impinging 

 on and thrusting itself against the very walls of the low 

 cliff, from whose foot now oozed the parent spring, and 

 then spreading upwards to each flank, until the whole 

 depression was enclosed in green shade. In the centre, 

 between these strips of miniature jungle, had been formed 

 a little dell, overhung by one or two taller trees that sprang 

 from the lower ground and met their green tracery over- 

 head; and this narrow fairy glade extended right through 

 from the base of the cliff to the spot where the nullah ran 

 out among longish grass and emerged into the open air. 



The panther was not in the habit of lying up in this 

 covert, though he prowled through it at night. His abode 

 seemed to be somewhere in the recesses of hollow rocks, 

 which lay rolled together in masses as they had fallen from 

 other portions of the hill. 



The head of the glade, as has already been hinted at, 

 was surrounded by an amphitheatre of low cliff, so it was 

 impossible for an animal to enter save by the mouth of the 

 little gorge or its vicinity. 



Against the cliff itself there grew a wide-branching 

 banyan tree, and in its boughs I had already erected a 

 platform of rough poles. It was not long ere rug, blanket, 

 and rifle were handed up, and I found myself occupying a 

 cleverly screened hiding-place which commanded a capital 

 view of the ground and thicket below. The goat had 

 been secured by a cord to a projecting root about five 

 yards away, and the old chest still masquerading as 



