NIGHT IN A MACHAN. 61 



a sign of him again. I had " counted my chickens before 

 they were hatched." My delay in shooting had lost me my 

 chance. This little incident with the leopard, which may 

 have served to illustrate one of the many hunting stratagems 

 used in these mountains, has caused me almost to forget the 

 &&r-eating stag we had come out to look for. 



After making an unsuccessful search for any traces of the 

 leopard, I started on the following afternoon with Jeetoo for 

 the place where he had reported the stag was to be found, 

 which was situated a short distance above the outskirts of 

 an extensive oak-forest that spread itself over the northern 

 slope of an adjacent hill. Our way led up over some broken 

 ground, where I shot at and wounded a gooral which I lost. 



We reached the Jcar a little after sunset. As the spot was 

 unfavourable for firing from the ground, Jeetoo had con- 

 structed a machan in a tree about twenty yards from the 

 tovhole. From the fresh marks around this it was evident 

 the stag had paid it a visit the night before, and as there 

 would be a bright moon, I thought matters looked very 

 promising. 



We had soon arranged our blankets in the machan, and 

 had settled ourselves there pretty comfortably in fact so 

 much so on my part, that after watching for several hours 

 I fell fast asleep. Such was not the case, however, with my 

 trusty old companion, who had evidently been keeping his 

 eyes, and his ears also, notwithstanding their deafness, wide 

 open, for I was awakened by his giving me a gentle shake. 

 How long I had slept I had no idea, but when I awoke the 

 moon had risen high, and threw her broad, tranquil light 

 over the forest sloping away down below, and into the deep, 

 misty valleys that lay one beyond another like mighty 

 trenches between us and the distant rampart of perpetual 

 snow, rising dim and irregular along the horizon. The night 

 was bitterly cold, and so calm and still that one might have 

 heard the fall of a leaf. I could hear my heart beating as I 



