Jungle By- Ways in India 



down the road bearing its mass of lunch and 

 drink-baskets, and cursing and praying humanity 

 (reduced from their state of jaunty and superior 

 aloof flunkeyness, for were they not the Burra 

 Lord Sahib's naukars to whom it was a con- 

 descension to serve such as you at all !), was the 

 most ludicrous sight imaginable. 



What had happened ? The tiger whom I had 

 heard in the grass perceiving how near he was to 

 the edge of his shelter, and being a white-livered 

 cur to boot, had lain skulking in the grass, and 

 seeing his opportunity owing to the unauthorized 

 presence of the lunch - elephant, had sprung 

 between it and the outer pad-elephant and broken 

 back. The lunch-elephant gave at once as we 

 have seen, and with shrill trumpets of alarm 

 turned and fled out of the jungle like a driven 

 rabbit, thus upsetting the two beater elephants 

 nearest to it. The grass was so dense that al- 

 though I could follow with my rifle muzzle the 

 first springs of the tiger, I could see nothing of it. 

 A sharp order and we turned left, and in our turn 

 did time down that road, waving forward B 

 as we approached, as it was necessary to round 

 up the tiger at once if he was not to escape us. 

 Several of the beater elephants came out on to 

 the road and followed us down at a rough, sham- 

 bling amble, whilst others went down through the 

 grass on the other side of the forest. The line 

 was reformed, and we beat over the old ground 



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