TIGERLAND 



penetrated the cover about twenty yards or so, and were 

 pushing our way through a tangled mass of trees and 

 creepers, when, with a roar that seemed to shake the 

 ground, the tiger was on to us. 



" The elephant, an untrained, timid beast, stopped 

 suddenly, and, turning quickly round, shot me head 

 foremost on to the tiger's back. 



" Stunned for a moment by the fall, I cannot quite 

 say what happened immediately afterwards, but when 

 my senses returned to me, I found myself being dragged 

 along by the left arm, which the tiger held between its teeth. 

 Strange as it may appear, I felt no bodily pain ; the 

 terror, inspired by the helplessness of my position, seemed 

 to have paralysed my feelings in that respect, but the 

 mental anguish I endured baffles all description, for no 

 words of mine could adequately express the horror and 

 despair which filled my mind. 



" I had lost my rifle as I fell, and alone, and, as I thought, 

 unarmed, entirely at the mercy of my savage captor, to 

 be killed and eaten at his leisure perhaps to be devoured 

 alive ! my position could not well have been a more 

 hopeless one. 



" The jungle, as already mentioned, being very dense, 

 the tiger had some difficulty in dragging me through it. 

 Moving his grip from time to time to obtain a better hold, 

 he had finally seized me by the shoulder, my arm resting 

 against its side. 



" And now comes the strangest part of my adventure, 

 illustrating, as it does, how a fact, quite unimportant 

 in itself, may yet prove of the greatest value, and just 

 make the difference between life and death. 



" Overcome by the hopelessness of my position, I had 

 resigned myself to my fate, and was actually longing for 

 the end to come, when suddenly I felt under my hand, 

 which the tiger had drawn against its side, the beating 

 of the animal's heart. With that sensation there came to 

 me the recollection of something I had forgotten. 



" The sudden fall, followed by some moments of 

 unconsciousness and the subsequent awakening to the 

 awful situation in which I found myself, had clouded my 

 mind. Having lost the rifle, I had thought myself unarmed, 

 222 



