MY LUCKY ESCAPE 



approach of the tigress, which I conjectured, if alive, would 

 certainly follow me along the bed. 



After about five minutes of anxious watching, however, 

 nothing appeared, nor could we hear any sound coming 

 from the scene of my late perilous encounter, so with our 

 rifles at the ready and full cocked, we walked along the 

 edge of the bank round the bend, and soon, to our intense 

 delight, saw the tigress lying apparently stone dead, just 

 below the tree where I had stood. 



We threw a few stones at her to make sure she was 

 really dead, and, as there was no movement, clambered 

 down the bank and found her, sure enough, as dead as 

 Julius Caesar, with my Alpine stick which I now remem- 

 bered having stuck into the bank close to the tree lying 

 under her and covered with teeth and claw marks, showing 

 pretty plainly that the tigress was by no means dead when 

 she reached the tree, which she must have done a few 

 seconds after I left it. 



We measured her between two uprights, one at the tip 

 of the nose, and the other at the end of the tail, and found 

 she taped nine feet six inches, almost a record for a tigress, 

 so I felt not a little proud of having bagged her on foot, 

 and with only one shot. My bullet I found had hit her in 

 the throat slightly to the right side below the gullet, and 

 lodged in the top of the left shoulder, thus inflicting a fatal 

 wound, but evidently not causing instantaneous death, as 

 I had hoped, judging from the marks on the Alpine stick. 



I fully realized now what a providential escape I had 

 had from death, for had the tigress reached me she would 

 most assuredly, in her dying agonies, have inflicted 

 injuries which in all human probability must have ended 

 fatally, as I would not have been in a position to protect 

 myself, and could not have looked for any assistance from 

 my friend, who was too far off and, being hidden from 

 view, was, as I subsequently ascertained, quite ignorant of 

 what was going on. However, it was only another instance 

 of the old proverb " All's well that ends well," and our 

 sombre reflections of what might have happened were soon 

 dispelled in the contemplation of the grand trophy we had 

 secured, and now lying at our feet. 



The " shikari " and the beaters were most jubilant over 



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