i THE RIFLE OF A PAST HALF CENTURY 15 



bad as Superintendent of the Cantonment Police before Mr. Crawford. A 

 son of Colonel Hastings Fraser, one of the Frasers of Lovat, he has proved 

 his possession of that nerve and courage which rises to the emergency of 

 danger on which qualities more than all else the British Empire in India 

 has been built, and on which, after all is said, in the last resort, it must 

 bo still held to rest. To quote the graphic account of a correspondent, the 

 escape was about as narrow as man ever had. Mr. Fraser was told by his 

 orderly that a wounded tiger was lying dead with his head on the root of 

 a tree. The orderly having called him up, he went to the spot. Mr. 

 Fraser then sent the orderly and another man with his second gun back, 

 and knelt down to look. Just then the tiger roared and came at him from 

 about eighteen feet off: he waited till the tiger was within five feet of him 

 and fired. As the tiger did not drop, he fired his second shot hurriedly. 

 The first shot had hit exactly in the centre of the face but just an inch too 

 low. It knocked the tiger's right eye out and smashed all the teeth of 

 that side of the jaw. The second shot struck the tiger in the chest, but 

 too low. What happened then Mr. Fraser does not exactly know, but he 

 next found himself lying in front of the tiger, one claw of the beast's right 

 foot being hooked into his left leg, in this way trying to draw Mr. Fraser 

 towards him ; the other paw was on his right leg. Mr. Fraser's chin and 

 coat were covered with foam from the beast's mouth. He tried hard to 

 draw himself out of the tiger's clutches. Fortunately the beast was not 

 able to see him, as Mr. Fraser was a little to one side on the animal's blind 

 side and the tiger's head was up. Suddenly seeing Mr. Fraser's orderly 

 bolting, he jumped up and went for the man, and catching him he killed 

 him on the spot. Mr. Fraser had lost his hat, rifle, and all his cartridges, 

 which had tumbled out of his pocket. He jumped up, however, and ran 

 to the man who had his second gun, and to do so had to go within 

 eight paces of the spot where the tiger was crouching over his orderly. 

 He heard, in fact, the crunching of the man's bones and saw the tiger 

 biting the back of the head. He now took the gun from his man. The 

 latter said that he had fired both barrels into the tiger one when he was 

 crouching over Mr. Fraser, and the other when he was over the prostrate 

 body of the orderly. The man had fired well and true, but just too far 

 back, in his anxiety not to hit the man he would save, instead of the 

 tiger. When afterwards asked if he was not afraid to hit the Sahib, ' I 

 was very much afraid indeed,' he replied, ' but dil mazbiit karke lagaya : 

 I nerved myself for the occasion.' 'A good man and true ! ' a high officer 

 writes, ' who after firing never moved an inch till Mr. Fraser came to him, 

 although close to the tiger all the while. He is one of the Gawilghur 

 Rajputs a brave race, Ranjit Singh, a good name.' The man said he had 

 no more cartridges left and so they both got a little farther from the tiger, 

 as the orderly was evidently done for. Afterwards they found one more 

 cartridge for the gun and tried to recover the body, but it was no use. 

 The tiger was lying close, most of the buffaloes had bolted and the Kurkoos 

 would not help. Mr. Fraser then sent six miles off for an elephant. But 

 the animal did not arrive till dark, so Mr. Fraser went home in great grief 

 about the poor orderly and at having to leave the body. His own wound 

 was bleeding a great deal, it being a deep claw gash. Next day they got 

 the body and the tiger dead, lying close to each other. Perhaps no 

 narrower escape than Mr. Fraser's has ever been heard of. To the ex- 

 cellent shot which knocked the beast's eye out he undoubtedly owes his 

 life. He says that he felt that he had the tiger dead when he fired, but 



