THE TIGER AND THE TIFFIN BASKET 



except the tiger himself ; for so long as the elephant con- 

 tinued her flight, the tiger would naturally follow, and the 

 headlong pace at which they were going prevented any 

 help being afforded from the guns. The tiffin basket 

 attendant, originally seated behind his basket, had now 

 in his fright scrambled on top of it and sat there, holding 

 on as best he could, in abject terror. Both he and the 

 driver had by this time completely lost their heads ; the 

 latter, instead of trying to check his animal, was uncon- 

 sciously goading her on to swifter flight, and yelling out 

 hysterically that " he was being eaten up and so was his 

 elephant," while from the man behind could occasionally 

 be heard, in trembling accents, " I am gone, too, and so is 

 the tiffin basket." 



The last remark struck us as so extremely ludicrous 

 under the circumstances, that, serious as the situation was, 

 we could not help laughing ; but we soon realized that it 

 was no laughing matter, and that unless something was 

 done at once some serious fatality was inevitable, for by 

 this time the tiger had seized the elephant by the tail and 

 was apparently trying to scramble up her stern. We now 

 urged our elephants on in pursuit, shouting and yelling 

 at the top of our voices. Just then the fleeing elephant, 

 fortunately, turned at right angles to her course, and gave 

 us an opportunity of firing at the tiger, which we did in 

 a volley. One of the shots evidently took effect, for the 

 tiger, releasing his victim's tail and seeing us near, charged 

 down upon us. We halted to receive him, and my elephant 

 being slightly ahead of the other two, the tiger went 

 straight for him. Having plenty of time, I waited till I 

 thought he was close enough to make certain, and when 

 he was about twelve feet off, fired. The bullet, as we 

 afterwards found, passed through his neck, just escaping 

 the vertebrae, so the shot was neither paralysing nor imme- 

 diately fatal, and before I could fire again I saw the tiger's 

 head about three feet from me and on a level with my 

 elephant's, and snarling at the " mahout." I was helpless, 

 for the elephant, though an exceptionally steady one, was 

 anything but sweet-tempered, and his rage at feeling 

 the tiger on his trunk and head exceeded anything I have 

 ever witnessed. He squealed, stamped, shook from side 



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