300 THE TEAIL OF THE TIGER 



one patch of jungle to another, when one noon the 

 dogs suddenly broke into a loudly distressful 

 chorus which Aboo declared could only mean that 

 they had run into a tiger. As we turned cautious 

 steps towards the howling and yapping it sub- 

 sided and soon we came to three badly mauled and 

 whining members of the scattered pack which we 

 could hear beating hasty retreat in many direc- 

 tions. "We moved carefully, although the jungle 

 was fairly open and the dogs' back tracks easily 

 followed in the soft soil. The ground was well cut 

 up at the scene of the brief and apparently one- 

 sided conflict; blood showed that something had 

 been doing, while the plainly printed oval pugs 

 of a tigress indicated who had been doing it. We 

 followed these pugs with the utmost deliberation 

 until they led out of that piece of jungle to skirt 

 another and finally enter the lower end of a ravine, 

 by which time it was dark. Next morning at day- 

 light, we picked up the trail again at the point 

 where it led into cover of unusual density in the 

 shallow ravine. I suggested that Aboo put the 

 dogs and men in here while we took position at the 

 upper end of the draw just below where it ended 

 in higher ground. A good bit of urging was nec- 

 essary to get the dogs into the cover and much 

 encouragement to keep them moving, but the Ma- 

 lays, armed only with the parang (jungle knife), 



