6 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



and determined, in age about thirty years, and liad 

 killed several tigers and many leopards. Like most 

 Mussulmans, lie was a fatalist. His eyesight was 

 remarkably keen, he was moreover a dead shot at 

 close quarters, either by day or night, for his nerve 

 never failed him. 



By the time we had settled down, the moon rose, 

 but unfortunately behind a conical, abrupt peak, 

 so would be some time before its light would be 

 shed upon where we were in hiding. We were thus 

 in semi-darkness, and therefore I did not anticipate 

 success for hope deferred had made my heart sick. 



Young as I was I had had now nearly three years' 

 experience of sport so although not expecting to 

 see anything, I sat perfectly quiet about a couple of 

 feet to Mogul Beg's right. We had been watching 

 barely an hour, the place we were in was still obscured 

 in semi-gloom, when we heard the booming, if I may 

 term it so, of the lungoor monkeys and chatterings 

 of smaller species. " Atta hi" (He is coming), said 

 Mogul Beg. Well, in about a quarter of an hour, 

 without the slightest noise, an indistinct outline 

 came between us and the " kill " and squatted down on 

 its hams like a dog, and lo ! it was not a leopard, but 

 a right royal tiger ! It sat so close to our fence, that 

 by thrusting our guns out of the port-holes we could 

 have touched it. My heart beat faster than it was 

 wont to do I felt a hand laid on my arm, and a voice 

 muttered, " Durro mut (Don't be afraid), Sahib." If 

 every bit of pluck in my body had oozed out of my 

 finger-ends, I would rather have been torn to pieces 

 than expose any signs of funk before my sable 

 comrade, so I whispered back as indignantly as my 



