TWO TIGERS 103 



enjoying ' domestic felicity.' We looked at them for 

 about a quarter of an hour, then, having determined to 

 stalk them, took our line of country and started. We 

 were obliged to make a circuit of some 3 miles, so 

 as to come down over the rocks above them (always 

 keep above a tiger). The country was very rough, and 

 I got one severe fall, but am not much the worse. As 

 we neared the back of the hill, on the other side of 

 which the tigers were basking, we began to take every 

 precaution. I took off my boots, fearing the nails 

 might make noise enough to reach the watchful ears, 

 and made Brine sit down, while I went to reconnoitre 

 alone. I crept straight down to a rock I had marked, 

 from which I calculated that I could kill one or both ; 

 at first I saw no tigers and was beginning to fear they 

 had vanished, when the noble old male tiger walked 

 full in view, about 60 yards lower down the hill. I 

 made a sign to Brine, and at the same time took cool, 

 steady aim at the tiger's shoulders. Bang ! the tiger 

 bounded full 5 feet in the air, and coming down with 

 a heavy muffled sound on a rock below him, slipped 

 off that with a loud crash into the brushwood below. 

 There he lay for a moment quivering in all his 

 enormous limbs. Thinking he was dead, I would not 

 fire the other barrel, expecting the other tiger, but 

 presently the dying monster moved slightly and set 

 himself rolling down the hill. Fearing we should lose 

 him, Brine fired and hit him, again rolling him over 

 motionless. But not dead yet ; he struggled, and bump, 

 bump, down the hill he went again, crashing through 

 the low, long brushwood like a huge cannon-ball. I 

 fired again and again, the bullet told but did not stop 

 him. Crash, crash, crackle, crack ! Bang ! down the 

 hill he went like an elephant in a bamboo jungle. As 

 he came to the bottom all life seemed gone ; he regularly 



