114 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



them a few feet and some palm-leaves loosely strung 

 together. His first idea was to make a rush for the 

 door on the other side of the house, but this he 

 did not dare to do, for fear that the tiger hearing 

 him attempt to decamp might forget its caution and 

 jump in upon him. He therefore lay motionless and 

 shouted for his Chinese boy to bring a lamp but 

 then, getting a sleepy answer from the boy, unluckily 

 told him to hurry up, as there was a tiger outside. 

 After that the boy not unnaturally refused to move, 

 and so B. lay there on his mattress absolutely de- 

 fenceless and in the dark. When he had shouted to 

 the boy the tiger had kept quiet, but as soon as he 

 stopped shouting he heard it again. He heard the 

 tiger smelling at him, and the sniff-sniffing of its 

 nostrils as it tried to take in all that there was to 

 be smelt, in the same way that a hound snuffs up a 

 stale scent or tries to make out what some strange 

 food may be. The heavy fetid breath of the animal 

 was over him, and the deep body sound that is half 

 purr half growl vibrated in his ear. 



Again B. shouted until he had to stop for want of 

 breath, and again the tiger kept perfectly quiet. 

 When B. stopped shouting, and lay with gasping 

 lungs and throbbing heart, hoping that he might 

 have frightened the animal away, he would hear after 

 a minute or two a gentle sniff outside which told that 

 the tiger was still there. Again he would yell as long 

 and as loud as he was able, but all in vain ; when his 

 voice ceased, he would hear the quiet sound outside, 

 within perhaps two, perhaps three, feet of him not 

 more patient as the mouse within the wainscoting, 



