HAPPY DAYS AS AN ASSISTANT 21 



fectly ideal for tiger and was, in fact, a well-known tiger 

 " walk," if I may so express it. The first time I sat up was 

 over a freshly killed young sambhar. It was very early in 

 the morning and our approach had evidently disturbed 

 the tiger at his meal. The struggle and death of the deer 

 could not have taken place more than half an hour before. 

 I had a machan made there and then and sat up. The 

 tiger was close by all the time. Of that I felt certain, but 

 he was suspicious. Once I feel sure that he came out behind 

 me. I dared not move as the hastily constructed machan 

 was of the flimsiest, and I feared to make a sound. With 

 bated breath I waited to see him appear below, but he 

 never came and I had to give it up in the end. 



On three other occasions I sat up in that machan, more 

 solidly constructed now, each time over a " kill " which 

 had been tied 

 out. In one in- 

 stance the tiger 

 came out all 

 right and had 

 a good meal just 

 below me. My 

 luck was dead 

 out, however, 

 as the moon, 

 which had 

 been brilliant, 



became overcast with rain-clouds, most unusual at that 

 time of the year, and I could not see even the outline of 

 the kill, much less the tiger on it. 



It is a curious and uncanny feeling which invades one 

 on such occasions. The tiger, on first interviews at any 

 rate, like the snake, exercises a weird mesmerism over the 

 senses. I felt this to the full as that beast lay there below 

 me crushing and cracking up the bones of the kill with his 

 powerful jaws and making all the sounds, though greatly 

 intensified, produced by a cat eating its food. 



At length, out of patience, I fired in the direction of the 

 sounds. A startled roar from below and I heard two slight 

 sounds as of an animal making off very lightly, and then 

 silence. Immediately after pulling the trigger I bitterly 

 regretted the action, and I spent the rest of the night in a 

 most agonized state hoping against hope that I had made a 



