CHAPTER LXVI. 



A FORTUNATE SHOT. 



*f IT is a brave hunter who keeps his head in such a crisis as now came upon Dick, 



I] and it is no discredit to him to say that he was flustered for a brief while. 



He held his rifle ready, knowing that he would fire the next moment ; but when 



the native, Jo, saw the tiger following the skurrying horseman at a gallop, and knew 



that he would pass quite close to him, it proved too much for his nerves. 



He was not sitting in the howdah, but had perched himself astride the elephant's 

 neck, the better to control her. 



With a whoop of terror he described a back somersault, landing on his feet, and 

 dashed after the fleeing pony at a gait that almost equaled his. 



At the same moment, the female veered so as to present her front to the 

 approaching tiger, and flung her trunk aloft 



This wonderful organ, composed of tens of thousands of muscles, as perhaps 

 you know, is extremely sensitive, and the owners take the utmost care to protect it 

 from injury. That is the reason why, in passing through a forest, they often hold 

 it aloft and out of the way. 



The flight of Jo and the action of the elephant took place at the moment that 

 Dick brought his rifle to his shoulder and was pressing the trigger. The confusion 

 caused him to hold his fire, and, before he could aim again, the tiger attacked. 



Rising in air, he shot across the intervening space, and landed on the haunch of 

 the female, which uttered a cry of pain, and turned around in the vain effort to 

 reach him with her trunk. 



But the rending of the elephant's thick hide was all by the way ; the assailant 

 was not after her, but after the white-faced boy crouching in the howdah on her back. 

 The tiger held his position, and began creeping over the brown haunch, his short 

 ears pressed flat on his head, his eyes glaring, his sharp teeth showing while he growled 

 savagely and whipped the side of the larger brute with his thumping tail. He was 

 the embodiment of ferocity as he steadily climbed toward the perch of the youth, 

 who had been almost within his reach from the first 



The frenzied swaying of the elephant bothered Dick for a moment, but he 

 quickly regained his self-possession. 



Unable to keep his feet as steadily as he desired, he placed one knee on the 

 seat of the howdah, and, resting the barrel of his rifle on the back, leveled the 

 weapon at his foe. 



The latter was so close that the muzzle of the gun was almost against his nose. 

 At so slight a distance a miss was out of the question, and, aiming at a point 

 directly between the eyes of the beast, Dick let fly. 



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