330 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



wounds a feline must be prepared to follow it up on foot 

 if necessary until he kills it . . . If a man is not prepared 

 to follow up the tiger he has wounded he has no business 

 to go out tiger shooting " and so forth. 



Excellent theorising no doubt, but savouring of the 

 armchair, and too general in its character ; also dangerously 

 devoid of qualifying matter. It is not difficult to imagine 

 the effect of such a postulate so frequently dinned into the 

 ears of an inexperienced man, an apprentice in the art of 

 shikar. To such it becomes one of the inflexible laws the 

 " right thing to do " a " rule of the game." He becomes 

 imbued with the "heroic" nature of the assumption, gallantly 

 responds to its stimulus, goes ahead as thoughtlessly as 

 his unknown lawmaker has issued his ukase and, in time, 

 suffers. 



The trouble may not come at once, nor for a long time ; 

 and in such a case the unfortunate man often becomes 

 hopelessly reckless. But it is nearly always bound to 

 arrive in time. And should the state of that man be as 

 now hinted, its result will probably be proportionately 

 severer. 



Originators of such misleading doctrines will of course 

 argue that they merely state them as guiding principles, 

 and that people should be capable of modifying them 

 according to the circumstances of the moment. They, 

 however, ignore the fact that the very men whom such 

 teachings affect are those who are incapable through in- 

 experience of judging of the amount of the necessary 

 modification. And herein lies the danger. 



The inexperienced sportsman (not necessarily a novice 

 be it noted) meets tigers, finds them, generally speaking, 

 timid of man, and, even when wounded, usually only 

 desirous of making good their escape. Then, some day, he 

 wounds one ; it disappears into ground apparently offering 

 little concealment ; his natural impulses may be those of 

 caution, but no " a wounded tiger must be followed up ! " 



