A GAMELESS COUNTRY 



pleasing to impart, and my worst fears were soon to be 

 realized. The man came up to us, accompanied by his son, 

 and, making his " salaams," told us that he had visited 

 every inch of the country in the neighbourhood during the 

 past four days, and, taking advantage of the rain that had 

 fallen the previous night, had just returned from inspecting 

 the recent pools and puddles, but had failed to find the 

 trace of a single footprint, nor was there a recent " form " 

 or lair to be seen anywhere in the grass jungle around. 



This was most depressing news, but I was too old a 

 sportsman to be more than temporarily cast down by it, 

 many years' experience having taught me that in sport 

 luck often comes when least expected. So, telling the 

 " shikari " we would start very early the next morning, sent 

 him off to make the necessary preparation, while we over- 

 hauled our guns and rifles, and, loading up a few more 

 cartridges for the latter, amused ourselves with fishing in 

 the stream with a net improvised out of a " chudder " or 

 sheet belonging to one of the coolies, and very soon had 

 landed quite a plateful of tiny fish, which, served up for 

 dinner, proved an excellent substitute for whitebait. 



The next morning we were up betimes, and by six 

 o'clock already on our way to the more distant covers, 

 taking our lunch with us. We trudged about the whole 

 day with an interval of perhaps one hour for lunch and a 

 smoke ; but though we must have covered miles of ground 

 and gone through acres of long grass, and inspected several 

 pools of water, not a vestige could we find of anything 

 indicating the presence of a " sambhur " or other animal 

 in the neighbourhood. 



The next day, and for six days following, we continued 

 our search, but with no better success, and I was almost 

 beginning to despair, when the " shikari," who felt the 

 disappointment as keenly as we did, suggested that we 

 should try the forest on the other side of the river. Accord- 

 ingly the next morning we started from camp early, and, 

 after an hour of stiff climbing, reached the top of a ridge, 

 where we posted ourselves, while the beaters, whom we had 

 left at the bottom, beat up to us from the valley below. 



Placing the doctor to my right, I took up my position 

 to the left of the advancing line and facing it. We had 



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