Melursus Diabolicus. 33 



fortnight. I went slowly along the ledge, followed by 

 the shikaris and men, looking into little recesses below 

 the perpendicular face of sandstone, and under the 

 impression that there was no hiding-place sufficient for a 

 bear. The shikaris, local men, were now of opinion that 

 there was no cave here. 



After a time there came a corner, round which curved the 

 ledge we were following, and passing this I suddenly found 

 myself in front of a large low- roofed cave. 



At the far end of this antechamber, into which the morning 

 sun shone brightly, were two dark apertures leading into 

 tne bowels of the hill. On the sandy floor of the entrance 

 to the cave were the fresh ingoing marks of a bear, and none 

 leading out ! 



We had halted, I suppose, for a few seconds, and I had let 

 fall a word or two, in a low tone, to the effect that a bear was 

 there all right and it was no place for us. 



Next to me was the local Gond shikari, and behind him a 

 young Jat non-commissioned officer of my regiment ; while 

 another of my men had been posted on the terrace above 

 us to act as a look-out. 



Our position was a sufficiently hazardous one from the 

 nature of the surroundings, as will be noted by a glance at 

 the sketch of the episode itself copied from a photograph 

 secured during a subsequent visit to the scene of disaster. 

 It did not take long for a mental appreciation of that 

 situation to form itself, and the next moment we were quietly 

 retracing our way. 



Round the corner whence we had come was a little room 

 for expansion, so to speak, where the precarious ledge 

 widened slightly, and formed a kind of niche or platform, 

 overhung by rock. For this vantage ground we were now 

 making ; and, had we reached it, I think that bear might, 

 5 



