CHAPTER XII 



MEANWHILE, having despatched the injured man to the 

 station hospital on a litter improvised out of a " charpoy " 

 or native bedstead, we continued our tour, and camping 

 daily on the way, finally reached our destination the 

 military post on the hill where we had arranged to spend 

 Christmas week at the mess, of which we were all honorary 

 members. 



Here we learnt from the officers of an extraordinary 

 incident which had befallen one of their number some three 

 weeks before, and that night, after dinner, were told all the 

 particulars by the individual concerned. The story was 

 such a strange one and so full of interesting details that it 

 merits a chapter to itself. 



This cantonment, as I have said, was situated on a hill 

 some two thousand feet above the plains, which were 

 covered by vast and almost impenetrable jungles, inter- 

 sected by swift-rushing mountain streams and infested 

 with herds of wild elephant. Rhinoceroses, tigers, and 

 leopards were also abundant, and pig and deer of all kinds 

 were so plentiful and such comparatively easy prey that 

 the tigers and leopards had ample for their sustenance 

 without being constrained, as is usually their wont, to kill 

 the cattle belonging to the few villages scattered here and 

 there along the military road passing through the forest. 

 Hence the usual method of hunting these animals, by 

 watching over the carcass of any cow or bullock killed by 

 them, or beating the particular patch of jungle into which 

 such carcass had been dragged, could not be adopted ; 

 therefore, the only plan likely to be successful was to tie 

 up an old bullock or cow occasionally at nights in some 

 run or path known to be frequented by tigers. If a " kill " 

 took place, a platform was hastily constructed in the 

 96 



