354 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



And so did the panthers of Mungbung advertise their 

 whereabouts. 



We need not linger over the very easy slaying of the 

 big male, nor that of his consort, she of the postmen, she 

 whose cub was wont to follow the chinking of the post- 

 bells till mother, crackling the leaves alongside, or emerging 

 on the post-track itself, would endeavour with nasty growls 

 to warn Mhateen of the danger of playing with panther 

 cubs in general, and hers in particular. 



They ate goats ; they returned to the remains ; or they 

 were enticed from their jungle at sundown to embrace a 

 kid tethered temptingly nigh ; and so they died. 



The third panther, the disappointed suitor, he of the 

 deep ravine round the corner, came by his end in a 

 different manner. Hence this tale. 



Has the reader ever squatted in a roofed-in rifle-pit? 

 Has he ever been buried alive, and waked to the cheerful 

 knowledge that he is hemmed in by solid, damp, heavy, 

 scream-stifling earth above, beneath, and all around ; and 

 that there is no human creature within half a mile to lift 

 off the lid? That was how I found myself one sultry 

 night in June in the Mungbung district. 



Figure to yourself a circular pit sunk about thirty inches 

 in the ground ; heavy boulders ranged all round the lip of 

 the pit ; heavy logs arranged roof-wise on the boulders ; 

 heavy earth thrown over that ; the aperture for ingress of 

 the victim thrust full of thorns with an outer covering of 

 still more earth ; and a narrow loophole in front disclosing 

 about twenty-four square inches of dim religious light. 

 Into this dreadful place I had shuffled, feet first, a little 

 before sunset and been securely blocked up. 



Freshly dug earth may have its uses in concealing the 

 human effluvium from an approaching feline but it con- 

 jures up the most lugubrious of thoughts ! 



Centred in that oblong patch of grey light, and looming 

 black against the faint luminosity of the sunset after-glow, 



