TIGERLAND 



to me by the villagers and police, the reporting of such 

 matters being a portion of their duties. 



Often, too, while seated of a morning under a tree 

 examining witnesses in some case, or poring over musty 

 registers at a station the distracted owner of a cow or 

 buffalo, killed during the night and dragged into an adjoin- 

 ing jungle, would come running in himself, and, grovelling 

 at my feet, insist on " The preserver of the poor trans- 

 ferring his august presence " to the scene of the disaster 

 and slaying the " bagh " * at once ! 



I seldom declined these invitations, for the destruction 

 of dangerous game was, I had been told, a part of my busi- 

 ness, and one I felt better qualified to tackle than witnesses 

 and registers, since the first I could barely understand, and 

 of the purport of the latter I had but the vaguest notion. 



But, diligently as I followed up each information I 

 received, I was invariably unsuccessful, sometimes because 

 the so-called " kill " would on inquiry be found to have 

 died a natural death, though more often, as I know now, 

 the failure was due to my ignorance of the habits of the 

 beasts I was attempting to locate, and it was not till many 

 months later when I was acting for my C.O., who had 

 gone on three months' leave that my perseverance was 

 rewarded. 



The incident happened in this wise. 



One morning, shortly after I had taken charge, I was 

 hearing the usual daily reports from all the police stations. 

 Amongst them was one from the officer in charge of a 

 frontier post urgently requesting to be supplied with some 

 more rounds of ball cartridge. This being a somewhat 

 unusual demand, and one I considered dangerous to 

 comply with without further inquiry, I despatched a 

 mounted constable at once to the post, some seventy miles 

 distant, to demand further details. 



In the course of four or five days I received a reply 

 stating that a tiger had for some weeks past taken up his 

 position in a jungle close to the outpost, and not only 

 carried off several head of cattle belonging to the villagers, 

 but had become also so bold and reckless that it was feared he 



* Tiger or leopard, according to the height of the informer's 

 imagination. 

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