TIGERLAND 



locality, and hoped within the period of his leave to satisfy 

 his ambitions. 



For days before experiencing his adventure, he had made 

 many a long tramp amongst the hills in quest of one or 

 other of these much-coveted treasures hitherto without 

 any success. At length, late one dark October night, his 

 " shikari " came to him and reported that he had that evening 

 seen a herd of several buck ascending a neighbouring hill. 



Hope once again rose strong in Jones' breast as it 

 had many a time before but, forgetting for the moment 

 all previous disappointments, he was keen to try again. 

 To ensure his rising early, he adopted the best method 

 of not going to bed at all, and at three o'clock in 

 the pitchy darkness sallied forth with the " shikari." 

 Feeling their way as best they could, for it was im- 

 possible to see it even with the lantern, which only served 

 to show how very dark it was, they trudged along the 

 jungle track, stumbling every moment over the loose stones 

 with which the path was strewed. 



The distance from the bungalow to the summit of the 

 hill they were bound for was barely five miles, but most of 

 it stiff climbing, and although they had tramped steadily 

 all the time, it was seven o'clock before they reached their 

 destination. But the climb proved worth the toil it had 

 entailed, for as they gained the summit, the first object 

 their eyes lit on, was an ibex standing on the slope about a 

 hundred yards below them. Unfortunately it had winded 

 them as soon as they had seen it, and before the excited 

 sportsman could bring his rifle to the shoulder, it went 

 scampering down the slope with the speed of a locomotive. 

 Jones fired off both barrels, with scarce an interval 

 between them, but as well might he have tried to hit a 

 cannon-ball in its flight as that fleeting vision, which 

 vanished from his sight as rapidly as the smoke from the 

 muzzle of his rifle. 



He knew that he had missed, for he had seen, with 

 disgust, the bullets strike the ground several feet behind ; 

 but nothing daunted he continued along the ridge, trusting 

 to good luck to see the beast again from another point of 

 view. In this he was disappointed, but fortune had better 

 things in store for him this time, 

 ISO 



