TIGER-SHOOTING. 215 



It was a blazing hot day, and, as the villagers 

 had been out with Captain Preston the previous 

 year, and knew the road these tigers (for there 

 were two) travelled, we left the posting of the 

 guns to them. I was placed in a tree at the spot 

 where the nullah branched out, whilst Hebbert 

 was taken to a small tree right out on the bare, 

 burnt ground. I was intently watching the big 

 nullah down which the beat was advancing, and 

 heard the tigers roar, when a rustle among some 

 dead leaves to my left rear caught my ear. Peer- 

 ing cautiously round, I saw a movement amid the 

 brushwood, then a sun-ray fell for a moment on, 

 as I thought, a yellow hide. Raising my rifle very 

 cautiously, I covered the spot, only waiting for 

 the next movement to pull the trigger, when, to 

 my horror, I saw Hebbert 's face as a slight gust 

 of wind stirred some of the foliage amongst which 

 he was hidden ! 



I shall never forget the cold, creepy sensation 

 that came over me when I thought how near I 

 had been to shooting my best friend. It appeared, 

 subsequently, that he, on reaching the spot where 

 he was advised to post himself, right out in the 

 open in the re-entering angle formed by the 

 nullah, had come to the conclusion that for a gun 

 to be posted in such an open spot was useless, for, 

 as he said, he felt no tiger would face such an 



