TIGERLAND 



discover first if there was a similar opening on the other 

 side, and, if so, take up my position near it, and make 

 Birdul fire his carbine into the front hole. This was 

 accordingly done without delay, but though the old man 

 fired some half dozen rounds, and I repeated the per- 

 formance from my side with No. 6 shot, nothing came out, 

 nor was there anything to indicate that there was an 

 animal inside. I was now fairly puzzled, and could only 

 conclude that we had walked over the brute in the ravine, 

 so returned to the entrance and beat it up most carefully 

 till not a portion was left untrodden. Still there was 

 nothing to be seen of the tiger, though from the behaviour 

 of the elephants I was convinced he was somewhere near. 

 The old Ghoorka was completely nonplussed, and declared 

 his firm conviction that the tiger was no tiger at all, but 

 a " bhoot " (a phantom). However, as I had never heard 

 of tigers posing as ghosts, I determined to go back and 

 look for him in the original covert, thinking he might have 

 slunk back across the stream, lying close during our first 

 beat of the ravine till we had passed. I accordingly looked 

 about for a place to get out, as I had had great difficulty 

 in clambering out the first time, the walls of the ravine 

 being on an average about twenty feet high on both sides. 

 However, I could find no other road out, so had to use 

 this again, and had just reached the top when, to my 

 horror, I saw that old Birdul had got off his elephant, 

 and was deliberately walking up the bottom of the ravine 

 towards the hole in the wall, anathematizing the spectre 

 tiger in the strongest language, but at the same time 

 looking for his pugs in the soft mud which was visible 

 here and there in bare places. I called to him to get on 

 the elephant at once, but the words were hardly out of 

 my mouth when there was a deafening roar, and the next 

 moment a huge mass of black and yellow sprang from the 

 hole right on to the poor old man. The latter kept his 

 head, and, with marvellous coolness, fell flat on his face 

 as he saw the beast coming, thinking he would spring past 

 and over him. 



But the tiger naturally was not in the best of tempers. 

 He had been driven off his kill, and had been considerably 

 hustled and worried, and he meant business now ; so 

 48 



