Told by the Doctor. 



given patience, time and luck, I should assuredly remove 

 this one's skin to the security and comfort of my bungalow 

 or to that of my aunt Priscilla's drawing-room at home. 

 You see I have no other relatives, and my aunt is a lady to 

 keep in with. I may have my moor and salmon river yet !" 

 and, gently closing his eyes, the doctor reflectively blew an 

 enormous cloud from his Mayo cheroot. 

 " Well, I started trying for that tiger. 

 11 His special bit of jungle was a little level valley encir- 

 cled by an amphitheatre of low rocky hills and drained by a 

 winding ndla a beautiful ndla ; its bed of smooth, clean, 

 golden sand, overhung by charming trees and green bushes, 

 broken here and there by outcrops of sandstone boulders, 

 and holding, at the mouth of the little vale, marked 

 by the big tamarinds as the deserted village site of 

 Paldi, one solitary pool of crystal clear water. This 

 snug retreat the brute had entirely to himself, for he 

 would permit no other felines to share it, and the wood- 

 cutters of the villages in the vicinity, the only people who 

 ever went that way, never dared so much as to pass the little 

 gorge by the water-hole that led to his sylvan fastness. 



" I saw at once that ordinary methods would not prevail, 

 so after a day or two spent in cautious reconnaissance of 

 the scene of future operations, I at length prevailed on some 

 of the inhabitants of the villages round about to lend me 

 the services of their cattle, and so possessed myself of a 

 ' scratch herd ' of bovines of decidedly mixed appearance, 

 mostly very scraggy. This motley assemblage I had 

 driven, one evening about five o'clock, through the dreaded 

 pass and into the little strath I have already described. 



"A forest fire had swept over a portion of the glade, and 

 the half-starved kine, their senses ravished by a sight of 

 the fresh green grass that sprouted from the blackened 



