ON THE TBAIL OF A MAN-EATER 307 



and to have escaped any injuries to his leg bone. His 

 friends were quite happy about him till the morning of 

 the second day, when his fingers began suddenly to 

 twitch, and by four that afternoon Foorsut was dead. 



Some time after this adventure Colonel Gordon 

 Cumming was sent to do some work in the country 

 beyond the Nerbudda, which was, at that period overrun 

 with tigers. The animals found shelter in the broken 

 ground, covered with high grass and sharp, prickly shrubs, 

 from which they would steal out to attack cattle and 

 sometimes men. 



One day a villager came to Colonel Gordon Cumming, 

 and told him that a tiger had rushed out and killed a 

 man who had been gathering gum from a tree, in company 

 with two friends ; and they, being unarmed, could do 

 nothing to save him. 



As it was almost sunset, and the man was known to 

 be dead, nothing was done that night ; but as soon as it 

 was light next morning, Gordon Cumming, with two 

 officers, rode off to the jungle. Here some men were 

 waiting with guns and elephants, and the place of attack 

 being arranged, they went first to the gum trees where 

 the man had met his death. 



His body was still lying on the ground, bloody where 

 the tiger's teeth had torn it, but otherwise untouched, 

 which looked as if the tigers had all gone elsewhere. 

 However, men were sent up the trees to report if anything 

 was to be seen, and the British officers took up then- 

 positions and advanced into the jungle. 



They had not gone very far before a huge tiger sprung 

 out of a watercourse where it had been hiding, and 

 dashed up the bank. He was too far off to hit with 

 certainty, and the bullets sent after him only put him out 

 of temper, and he growled loudly as he disappeared into 

 the nearest thicket. The hunters followed on his track 

 at a safe distance, and once they caught sight of him, but 

 again he was off, and was reported by the men in the 



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