VENGEANCE OF JHAPOO THE GOND 287 



twilight, had swept up swiftly from the east, to reveal a 

 low-hanging, coppery moon, barred across by parallel 

 bands of dark and motionless vapour. Before me the same 

 lonely nocturne as presented twenty-four hours previously 

 the dim glade, the overhanging trees, the silence, and 

 the faint odour of moisture dank, unmistakable in this 

 dry and heated air of the hot season that emanated from 

 that trickle of water oozing from the cliff so near the 

 sustenance of every creature that haunted this little dell. 

 Last night's leafy bower long since withered and harshly 

 crackling had been removed, and a fresh screen of 

 newly-gathered green leaves and branches surrounded the 

 machdn, increasing the sense of heat and oppression. Coat 

 and boots were already discarded, the water-bottle hung 

 close at hand from a convenient bough, and in the ab- 

 solute calm of the atmosphere, safe from even a breath 

 that might waft its warning to the surrounding jungle, the 

 smoke of my cigar rose slowly in a vertical column through 

 the branches overhead. 



All was well. Jhdpoo lurked hungrily at his post below, 

 and the bamboo tube reposed at his side. I had, it is 

 true, thought of abstracting it there and then, and had 

 even taken it up gingerly 'twixt finger and thumb ; but on 

 second thoughts, and for a variety of reasons, it had been 

 replaced till morning. I recollect that at that moment 

 there had risen a slight sibilant sound in the shadowy 

 undergrowth close by a kind of sigh it may have been 

 the stirring of a snake winding its scales across the dried 

 twigs. 



And now, with settled patience, came quiet reflection. 

 Wherever they might have come from last night, those 

 tigers had apparently not arrived on the scene until the 

 small hours of morning at which time the uncanny dis- 

 turbances reported by my servants had aroused the camp. 

 When, therefore, would Jhapoo's victim or victims arrive 

 this night? In such fashion I found myself fancifully 



