An Exciting Days Sport. 395 



have been the act of a fool or a madman to have forced 



my way in, as I could not see a foot in front of me, 



and it is not child's play approaching a wounded tiger 



even in the open, almost certain death in heavy cover. 



So I beckoned to my shikarie, sent him back to the 



camp for an elephant, and told the other beaters to 



get up the few trees scattered beyond, and to watch 



that nothing sneaked away without being marked. 



After kicking my heels about in no sweet temper for 



a couple of hours, only an unreliable elephant with my 



howdah on it appeared. All the rest, the mahout 



said, had gone for their churah (green food), not 



thinking that they would be wanted. My rifles were 



ready in their racks, the ammunition in the box in 



front of the howdah. So I lost no time in mounting, 



and promising the driver the full reward if he kept 



his animal steady and enabled me to bag the quarry, 



told him to go straight into the patch of long grass 



into which I had traced the feline. The mahout was 



a Mussulman, and as such a fatalist ; he had seen me 



kill much game ; very few of these men are cowards, 



and if they have confidence in the shooting powers of 



their master they are almost foolhardy. I did not 



doubt the man, but the question was, How w^ould the 



elephant behave ? He was a big powerful tusker ; I 



had never had a howdah on him, as I prefer koonkies 



to shoot off, as they are smoother in their paces and 



more accustomed to wild beasts, but he had often been 



out and at the death of all kinds of game. Like most 



others of his peers he was very uncertain ; at times he 



was bold as a lion, and at others would run from a 



hare; but on this occasion he went into the long 



grass willingly enough. The patch of jungle was not 



