22 Leaves from an Indian Jungle. 



movement in the now dry ndla-bed ; we had sighted each 

 other simultaneously, and it was in vain that the tiger flat- 

 tened his belly against the yellow sand, for my deep voice 

 gave forth a sharp warning, and, with answering barks of 

 alarm, the hinds crashed through the crackling carpet of 

 leaves, and stood stamping their fore feet, while nothing 

 escaped their large ears, which were spread to catch any 

 suspicious sound, as they moved them first in this direction, 

 then in that. With a baffled look on his cunning face the 

 tiger rose, and disappeared round a bend in the ravine. 



Some days after this I saw a sahib, accompanied by two 

 Korkus, coming up the glem They were walking up the 

 bed of the stream and pointing to the pugs of the tiger : 

 something made me move my head as I gazed down on them 

 from among some dry bamboos on the top of an overhang- 

 ing bank, and in an instant a Korku clutched the sahib's 

 sleeve and, directing his attention to me, whispered, " Burr a 

 dhdnk /" but I, ever wary, had risen and withdrawn from 

 view. Suddenly a sambar's bark rang out from the ndla 

 at the time I noticed nothing peculiar in it except that it 

 sounded weak and then another. In a moment of curiosi- 

 ty I stepped forward to investigate this strange occur- 

 rence. One of the Korkus had his hands up to his mouth, 

 and the sahib had disappeared. Again came the bark, 

 apparently from the Korkus, and I turned to plunge into 

 the jungle ; as I did so, a rifle exploded among the trees 

 to my right, and I was felled to the ground. 



Being on the edge of a steep fall, I rolled some distance 

 ere I could regain my feet and stand up, paralysed with a 

 numbing pain. Steps rushed towards me through the loud 

 leaves, and, with an effort, I tottered down-hill and gained 

 the thicket bordering the stream, as the Korkus rushed up to 

 turn me, waving their arms and shouting. With a frantic 



