Pelts 



a pistol - shot an elephant breaking a branch 

 from a tree. My eyes went down to the sea of 

 grass in front of me, and remained there. A 

 distant rustling made itself heard, and slowly, 

 very slowly, approached, with many halts during 

 which the voice of a mahout raised in execration 

 or exhortation came to me faintly. Away to 

 my right on the opposite side of the nullah a 

 black shape loomed up a howdah elephant. 

 It was B - who had gone with the line and was 

 doing flanking elephant. Owing to some diffi- 

 cult ravines, he had got thrown out a bit, and was 

 now ahead of the line. He came on till he was 

 about midway between the rifle to my right 

 and myself, when he halted. The line slowly 

 approached, and nothing showed afoot. Nor 

 was I aware that anything had been seen. I 

 saw out of the corner of my eye that the line 

 had passed A - to my right, as he was looking 

 in my direction. If tiger there be, I thought, he 

 should be mine. Suddenly down the centre of 

 the grass, with tail cocked stiff over his back, 

 came galloping a fine tiger. Although he must 

 have more or less disappeared in the grass each 

 time he touched ground, the impression left on my 

 memory as he came bounding along (of which 

 I made a rough sketch) is that he was in full view 

 the whole time. 



And a fine sight he was ! He first appeared 

 just above B , and I saw the latter 's rifle go 



223 



