314 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL IXDLl. 



the morning, for liis track had covered that of the 

 elephants as they came. It was too late to hope to find 

 him that evening ; and we could only proceed slowly 

 along on the track, which held to the pathway, keeping 

 a bright look-out. The Lalla indeed proposed that he 

 should go a little ahead as a bait for the tiger, while I 

 covered him from the elephant with a rifle ! But he 

 wound up by expressing a doubt whether his skinny 

 corporation would be a sufficient attraction, and sug- 

 gested that a plump young policeman, who had taken 

 advantage of our protection to make his official visit to 

 the scene of the last kill, should be substituted, whereat 

 there was a general but not very hearty grin. The 

 subject was too sore a one in that neighbourhood just 

 then. About a mile from the camp the track turned oflF 

 into the deep nala that bordered the road. It was now 

 almost dark, so we went on to the camp, and fortified it 

 by posting the three elephants on different sides, and 

 lighting roaring fires between. Once in the night an 

 elephant started out of its deep sleep and trumpeted 

 shrilly, but in the morning we could find no tracks of 

 the tiger having come near us. I went out early next 

 morning to beat up the nala ; for a man-eater is not 

 like common tigers, and must be sought for morning, 

 noon, and night. But I found no tracks, save in the 

 one place where we had crossed the ntila the evening 

 before, and gone oS" into thick jungle. 



On my return to camp, just as I was sitting down to 

 breakfast, some Banjaras from a place called Deknd, — 

 about a mile and a half from camp — came running in to 

 say that one of their companions had been taken out of 

 the middle of their drove of bullocks by the tiger, just 

 as they were starting from their night's encampment. 

 The elephant had not been unharnessed, and, securing 



