Jungle By-Ways in India 



which was open stony river-bed. The great 

 difficulty was to stop and guard the road, across 

 which it was practically certain the tiger would 

 attempt to break, as he would never face the 

 wide-op sn spaces to the left and in front. 



Until the beat approached the forest the 

 howdahs there were four of us, with three 

 others in the line remained in echelon on the 

 right of, and ahead of, the beat, my place being 

 No. '3 from the right. As we began to draw near 

 the forest the line halted, and we four howdahs 

 moved up the road in single file. I took third 

 place on the road as we slowly advanced, having 

 one howdah behind me. At a signal I halted, 

 the front two howdahs continuing up the road. 

 No. 2 halted at about sixty paces from me, whilst 

 No. i disappeared from sight round a bend. The 

 beat was not a nice one either for the beaters, 

 who would have difficult work getting through the 

 thick forest, nor for us, who could hope at best 

 for a snap shot as the tiger sprang across the 

 road and disappeared up the sal-covered hill on 

 the opposite side. 



In order to enable me to fire at an angle up 

 the road, and thus get a fraction more time, 

 whilst at the same time being free of the other 

 rifles, the mahout forced the elephant to back 

 a little way into the thick wall of the forest, 

 and we then stood and waited in a tense silence. 



No time was there this morning for natural 



226 



