A TIGER-DRIVE. 219 



therefore practically impossible for any animal be- 

 tween them and us to escape. The Malays now 

 advanced foot by foot, and in an almost breathless 

 silence. Then I saw something move stealthily under 

 a fallen tree, whose dead leaves prevented me from 

 getting more than a glimpse of it, and that, too, a 

 glimpse not so much of it as of the place from which 

 it had stirred. It saw me as soon as I saw it, and, 

 knowing itself to have been discovered, a great, gaunt, 

 wild sow rushed out and dashed past me. The nearer 

 of the beaters heard it and dropped on their knees, 

 with their spears thrust forward to receive it. " Here 

 he is ! Here he is ! Steady ! Hold steady ! " 



For a space not a man moved : probably not a man 

 breathed. Then I shouted that the animal that had 

 come out was only a pig, and that the tiger had not 

 yet shown itself. " Pig," they roared up and down 

 the line, " only a pig " ; and again the line moved 

 forward to beat out the few remaining yards that 

 separated them from the guns. But when they 

 reached us not a sign was there anywhere of the 

 tiger. 



Excited questions were yelled on every side. No 

 one knew what had happened. What every one failed 

 to understand was why no one had fired. The men 

 thronged round the place where the old sow had 

 passed by me, and leant upon their spears examining 

 the tracks and mournfully shaking their heads. Their 

 heaving chests, twitching muscles, and unnaturally 

 contracted eyelids told of the intense nervous strain 

 which they had undergone. 



Had any one seen or heard the tiger, and who had 



