TIGER-SHOOTING. 217 



ers, she jumped up the opposite bank and disap- 

 peared, and, though we tried another beat, it was 

 unavailing. Another bit of bad luck. Then the 

 weary, jolting ride home had to be faced, and 

 poor Hebbert was feeling miserably seedy from 

 the combined effects of hard work under a blazing 

 sun and an empty stomach, and 1 was not much 

 better for, thinking the distance to Ningnur was 

 only about half what it eventually turned out to 

 be, and thinking we should be back in camp at 

 three p.m., at the latest, we had taken no lunch 

 with us. As it was, we did not get back till past 

 nine p.m. ; too done up and tired to eat anything, 

 and, after a ' B. and S.' (a truly grateful draught), 

 we tumbled into bed, weary and disgusted, and 

 our last words, I think, to each other, ere the 



drowsy god claimed us, was ' If we had only ' 



Again that fatal 'if.' 



Now nearly all these mistakes might and should 

 have been avoided, and we might have had a suc- 

 cessful termination to our expeditions, if we had 

 only been content to take things a little more 

 .quietly, and trusted more to the knowledge of 

 men who knew far more of the habits of these 

 individual tigers than we possibly could do : but 

 no, with the overweening confidence of Britons in 

 our own powers, we neglected advice and precau- 

 tions which, had they been taken, would have 



