THE TIGER. 201 



came down the hill and saw the elephant standinfr 

 right in front of him. He said as plainly as possible, 

 " Come what will, I don't mean to run another yard ; 

 and it won't be the better for anybody that tries to 

 make me," So he lay down behind a large Anjan tree, 

 showing nothing but one eye and an ear round the side 

 of it. I marched up within fifty yards, and now saw 

 the switching end of a tail added to the eye and ear. I 

 could not fire at him thus, and therefore sidled round 

 till I saw his shoulder. He saw the opening thus left, 

 and eyed it wistfully, as if he would rather escape that 

 way, if he could, than fight it out. But I planted a 

 ball in his shoulder before he had time to make up his 

 mind ; on which he rose with a languid roar, and 

 lumbered slowly down the hill at the elephant. So 

 slowly ! He actually hadn't steam left in him to get up 

 a proper charge when he tried. A right and left- 

 stopped him at once, and another ball in the ear settled 

 him ; and then Futteh went up and kicked him, and it 

 was all over. He was a very large tiger, measuring ten 

 feet one inch in length as he lay, and was a perfect moun- 

 tain of fat — the fat of a thousand kine, as the cowherds 

 lugubriously remarked when they came up. He had a 

 perfect skin, clear red and white, with the fine double 

 stripes and W mark on the head, and long whiskers, 

 which add so greatly to the beauty of a tiger trophy. 

 The whole of the pads of his feet were blistered off on 

 the hot rocks he had been traversing, and his tongue 

 was swollen and blue. We were nearly dead ourselves, 

 and went down to the water he had been making for, 

 while a messenger went to the village for more men — 

 the dozen lusty cattle-herds and my own men together 

 being totally unable to put him on the pad elephant to 

 carry home. An ordinary tiger will weigh about four 



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