74 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



tiger attack them, and told them to divide themselves 

 amongst them, and then beat the small valley or 

 nullah towards me. I placed myself at the end of it 

 and just between the tiger's two runs (or pathways) 

 leading from it. All men in India, except one or two 

 donkeys like myself, get up a tree or something of that 

 sort. I had never seen a tiger in his native home, and 

 so despised the tree, so stood my ground ; I must tell 

 you (from reasons too long and intricate to explain) 

 that it was impossible for the brute to get away with- 

 out almost running over me ; as a tiger seldom leaves 

 you, preferring to put you in his pocket en passant, the 

 moment was an exciting one. I felt pretty cool. At 

 the first shout of the beaters out of bush at the farther 

 end of the nullah walked the glorious tiger. My first 

 tiger. He looked enormous even at that distance, 

 about as far as from the dining-room window to the 

 rhododendrons ; I could see the frightful swelling 

 muscles of his arms rounded, as Tennyson says, like a 

 brook running over stones (the gentle poet alludes not 

 to the tawny tiger). I felt cooler still. He walked 

 straight into the thick bushes below me, and I had the 

 satisfaction to know in thirty seconds I should be face 

 to face with the furious brute and within 10 yards. 

 About the expiration of the thirty long, long seconds 

 the nearest bush slid softly to one side, and right in 

 front of me, about the length of the dining-room, out 

 swaggered the magnificent creature, and came straight 

 towards me with long, powerful, spongy strides. I had 

 reached my climax and felt cool, as if I were drinking 

 tea, far cooler than I am as I write this. It certainly 

 was a trying moment, and one that a great stake lay 

 on a single move. Nearer and nearer glided the tiger. 

 I slowly and carefully raised my favourite rifle, and the 

 sights played on his awful head between those two 



