A TERRIBLE ENCOUNTER 



instead of springing over, he deliberately jumped on the 

 unfortunate man. Then followed a scene the recollection 

 of which haunts me still. Being some twenty feet above I 

 could not see very clearly what was actually going on, as the 

 huge body of the tiger completely covered the old man, but 

 the loud angry growls of the brute and the manner in 

 which he appeared to be biting and tearing with his teeth 

 and claws was too horrible to witness, more especially as 

 I was powerless to render any assistance. To fire was im- 

 possible, and it would have been madness to have attempted 

 it, as I could not possibly have hit the tiger without hitting 

 the man. Moreover, unless I could kill him instantaneously, 

 I should only infuriate him more, and with the brute 

 moving every second, it was impossible to make sure of 

 hitting him in a vital part. The temptation, however, 

 to do so was hard to resist. The rifle was in my hand and 

 at full cock ; I brought it to my shoulder, my elephant 

 was as steady as a rock, and I was just about to risk a 

 shot at the tiger's head, when providentially it occurred 

 to me that a sudden noise might cause him to release his 

 victim ; so calling upon the mahout (elephant driver) 

 and my orderly sitting behind me to join, we yelled and 

 shouted with all our might, and so hideously appalling 

 must have been the noise we made that we had hardly 

 begun when the tiger sprang off the man and into the 

 jungle. All that I have described occupied actually about 

 two minutes probably less. I have no recollection of 

 how I dismounted or got down the bank, which was almost 

 perpendicular, but was told afterwards that I swarmed 

 down by the elephant's ear as he stood, and took the 

 bank at a run. 



Be this as it may, I was off the elephant and alongside 

 the old man before he had time to realize that the tiger 

 had left him, and to my intense relief found him not only 

 alive, but quite conscious and collected, though one mass 

 of blood from head to foot, his white clothing crimson. 

 With the assistance of my orderly and some villagers who 

 had been hanging about some distance off we carried him 

 to the village, and placing him under the shade of a tree, 

 I washed his wounds with whisky and water, and bound 

 them up as well as I could. He had twenty-seven wounds 



E 49 



