248 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



that was accused of a crime. In his place a 

 relative appeared, who gave forty -nine reasons 

 why the accused could not come. The fiftieth 

 reason offered was that the man was dead ! The 

 shikari gave me a few reasons, and I am sure had 

 in reserve many more, why it was impossible 

 for him to take me up to that tiger : the fiftieth 

 was that he had no intention of going near him. 

 Ibrahim and I, if left to our unaided selves, 

 would have taken at least half an hour to get 

 through the mass of thorn and jungle that lay 

 in front ; so without mincing matters, I intimated 

 to the reluctant one that if I got the tiger a 

 reward of twenty tomans would be his, while if 

 he refused to try, I would regretfully have to 

 resort to the argumentum ad baculinum. He 

 read inexorable resolve in my eye, and preferred 

 to chance the tiger. So after crawling cautiously 

 back over the ridge, he began bounding along 

 in front of me like a roebuck, and at such a 

 pace that I could scarcely keep up with him. 



Pushing through the forest growth on the far 

 side, we came face to face with a stag that went 

 crashing down the side of the valley as if demons 

 were after him, as no doubt he thought they 

 were. In a very short time, breathless but 

 "there," I crept out of the forest and gained 

 the knoll but no tiger was to be seen. 



