118 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



At length, having carefully tauten out the tamarisk, which had 

 now been almost destroyed by the tread of so close a line of 

 elephants, we emerged at the extreme end of the hollow, where, 

 instead of tamarisk, a dense patch of withered reeds much higher 

 than an elephant were mingled in a confused growth, occupying an 

 area of hardly 10 yards square. I felt sure that the tiger must 

 have crouched for concealment in this spot. 



Suchi Khan had brought his elephant xipon the left, another 

 gun was on the right, and a third in the centre at the extreme 

 end, while I was in the bottom with the line of elephants. 

 Begging the outside guns to be careful, and to reserve their fire 

 until the tiger should bolt into the open, I ordered the elephants 

 to form three parts of a circle, to touch each other shoulder to 

 shoulder, and slowly to advance through the tangled reeds. This 

 was well done, when suddenly the second elephant upon my left 

 fell forward, and for the moment disappeared ; the tiger had made 

 a sudden spring, and seizing the elephant by the upper portion of 

 the trunk, had pulled it down upon its knees. The elephant 

 recovered itself, and was quickly brought into the position from 

 which for a few seconds it had departed. The tiger was invisible 

 in the dense yellow herbage. 



Very slowly the line pressed forward, almost completing a 

 circle, but just leaving an aperture a few yards in width to permit 

 an escape. The elephant's front was streaming with blood, and 

 the others were intensely excited, although apparently rendered 

 somewhat confident by pressing against each other towards the 

 concealed enemy. 



Presently a mahout about two yards upon' my right beckoned 

 to me, and pointed downward with his driving-hook. I immedi- 

 ately backed my elephant out of the crowd, and took up a position 

 alongside his animal. He pointed at some object which I could 

 not distinguish in the tangled mixture of reeds, half-burnt herbage, 

 and young green grass that had grown through ; at length some- 

 thing moved, and I at once made out the head and shoulders of a 

 tiger crouching as though ready for a spring. In another moment 

 it would have tried Sutchnimia's nerves by fixing its teeth upon 

 her trunk ; but this time she stood well, being encouraged by the 

 supporting elephants, and I placed a "577 bullet between the 

 tiger's shoulders ; this settled the morning's sport without further 

 excitement. 



The tiger was dragged out. It was a fine male, and we 

 discovered that Suchi Khan's shot had struck it in the belly ; the 

 wound, not U-ing fatal, had rendered it more vicious. 



