TIGERLAND 



the herd, were walking cautiously along it, when the 

 " shikari " suddenly touched me on the shoulder, and 

 pointing to a rock some ten yards to our front, whispered, 

 " Kadei (buck), sir, look." 



Sure enough there was the saddle-back, lying, apparently 

 asleep ; or at any rate seemingly quite unconscious of our 

 proximity. 



I raised the rifle quickly, but as I brought the hammer 

 to full cock the click of the lock aroused him ; the next 

 instant he was up on to his feet and jumping off the rock 

 was thirty yards away before I had time to pull. I fired 

 a snap-shot at him as he went bounding along the ridge 

 and evidently hit, as he stumbled to the shot, but picking 

 himself up quickly was going as strong as ever, when I 

 fired the second barrel. This bullet hit him too, and 

 apparently pretty hard, for he now took refuge in a jungle, 

 where he stood with his back and horns only visible above 

 the grass. 



Reloading quickly I took a careful sight and fired, 

 aiming for the shoulder. Almost simultaneously witli 

 the report the beast gave one tremendous bound, high up in 

 the air, and falling backwards lay struggling in the grass. 

 I ran up at once, but he was dead before I reached him, 

 the bullet having penetrated the heart ; I found now that 

 my first shot had merely grazed the buttocks, but the 

 second, striking at the junction of the tail, had gone right 

 through the body. 



He was evidently the beast I had hit the day before, 

 for one hind leg, too, was broken, and from the appearance 

 of the wound I could see it was not so recent as the others. 

 He looked, as he lay there, quite a good-sized beast, 

 with a massive pair of horns, measuring, as I subsequently 

 ascertained, 13 J ins. 



But now, having " bagged " my ibex, I began to wonder 

 how we were to get him home. For we were some distance 

 from the camp, and there was no assistance to be obtained 

 nearer than my bungalow ! 



Fortunately both my attendants were as interested in 

 this question as myself, and neither of them inclined to 

 forgo a feast of goat-flesh that night, soon devised a plan 

 for reducing the said flesh to portable dimensions. 

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