vi THE TIGER 131 



that the tiger was not far off, I ordered the left wing (on my 

 right) to close in, so as to come round me, by which movement 

 the tiger would be forced to within a close shot. 



Before the line had time to advance, there was a sudden roar, 

 and a tiger sprang from the grass, and seized a large muckna 

 (tuskless male) by the trunk, pulling it down upon its knees so 

 instantaneously that the mahout was thrown to the ground. 



As quick as lightning the tiger relinquished its hold upon the 

 elephant and seized the unfortunate mahout. 



I never witnessed such a hopeless panic. The whole line of 

 elephants broke up in complete disorder. The large elephant 

 Hogg, who had been seized, was scaring riderless at mad speed 

 over the plain ; a number of others had bolted in all directions, 

 and during this time a continual succession of horrible roars and 

 angry growls told that the tiger was tearing the man to pieces. 

 A cloud of dust marked the spot within 70 paces of my position. 

 It was like a dreadful nightmare ; my elephant seemed turned to 

 stone. In vain I seized the mahout by the back of the neck and 

 nearly dislocated his spine in the endeavour to compel him to move 

 forward ; he dug his pointed hook frantically into Thompson's 

 head, but the animal was as rigid as a block of granite. This 

 lasted quite fifteen seconds ; it appeared as many minutes. 

 Suddenly my servant shouted "Look out, master, another tiger 

 come ; two tigers, master, not one ! " I looked in the direction 

 pointed, and I at once saw a tiger crouching as though preparing 

 for a charge, about 40 yards distant : the animal was upon my 

 right, and the elephant had not observed it. 



I fired exactly below the nose, and the tiger simply rolled upon 

 its side stone-dead, the bullet having completely raked it. Leaving 

 the body where it lay, my elephant now responded to the driver's 

 hook, and advanced steadily towards the spot where we had seen 

 the cloud of dust which denoted the attack upon the mahout. 

 Fully expecting to see the tiger upon the man's body, I was stand- 

 ing ready in the howdah prepared for a careful shot. We arrived 

 at the place. This was cleared of grass by the recent struggle, 

 but instead of finding the man's body, we merely discovered his 

 waist-cloth lying upon the ground a few yards distant. About 

 15 yards from this bloody witness we saw the unfortunate mahout 

 lying apparently lifeless in the grass. 



We immediately carried him to the river and bathed him in 

 cool water. He had been seized by the shoulder, and was terribly 

 torn and clawed about the head and neck, but fortunately there 

 were no deep wounds about the cavity of the chest. We bandaged 



