iv A HARD WALK 71 



are very small. I don't recollect when I was so tired, 

 and I wanted all my wits and nerves, and both of them 

 were distracted by the awful pain. So intense, how- 

 ever, was the stress on my senses in feeling my way 

 through these pitchy woods, expecting every minute to 

 hear a low growl at my back (nothing could have been 

 more likely, as the jungle has never been beaten, and 

 the tigers are as bold as possible), that my toothache 

 ceased ; had it not, I almost think these words would 

 never have been written ; how I got through it as it was, 

 it is most difficult to say. I mentioned this little 

 adventure to Colonel Porter and his son, and they both 

 agreed I had had an uncommon narrow escape. No 

 one who has not been in an Indian jungle can form the 

 smallest idea of the tangled mass of rank vegetation 

 which composes it ; to be lost in one at night would be 

 anything but an enviable position. Just as I emerged 

 from the last jungle, the first thing I saw was the huge 

 shadow of a sambur deer upon higher ground than 

 where I stood. I could hardly see my rifle ; neverthe- 

 less I fired, but missed, and had the satisfaction of 

 hearing him crashing away through the forest. My 

 misfortunes were not over ; on my way across the rocky 

 hills, between the jungles and the bungalow, I knocked 

 my knee a terrific bang against a rock, actually 

 bruising a hole in my strong shooting knickerbockers ; 

 men with torches were now in sight, and most willingly 

 did I give my heavy Purdey rifle up to one of them 

 and limped home." 



From Tarikere, Brooke made expeditions to every 

 place where the tiger had last been heard of, accounts 

 still coming in of men killed or injured. 



I have had a long talk with the duffodar (head 

 shikaree) about my great object, the Benkypore 



