1 8 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



where the beaters were awaiting us. They were a 

 stout lot of Rajputs, as far as I can recollect, some 

 fifteen to twenty in number. Before commencing 

 operations, I served out a gun-wad to each man as 

 a voucher for his wages in the evening. Unless one 

 takes this precaution the whole village turns up at 

 pay-time. We then proceeded to the lower spurs of 

 the Beawar Range. For some hours we beat on with 

 absolutely no result, and it is still a mystery to me 

 where the deer had all got to, for on my way to the 

 hill I had noticed cultivated fields which they had 

 worked till the ground looked as if sheep had been 

 folded there. 



At last the shikari posted me among some thick 

 trees facing a steep hillside, down which a game-path 

 led. I have often since thought what an awkward 

 place that would have been if a wounded tiger had 

 charged, as it was downhill towards me, and the 

 trees and thorn bushes were so thick around and 

 behind us, that we could not possibly have moved 

 except forwards. Some such idea must have crossed 

 my mind then, for I took my second rifle from the 

 shikari, and laid it by my side. Before I had heard 

 the beaters' shouts the shikari grasped my arm. But 

 I had seen them too three sambur hinds slowly 

 descending the rocks, with their ears pricked towards 

 the unusual noise behind. 



" Shoot, sir, shoot," whispered the shikari. It was 

 one of those tempting shots which females, and other 

 animals one does not wish to shoot, always give. The 

 silly creatures had stopped in an open space not fifty 



