A STORMY DAY 123 



when a man's life may at any moment depend upon his 

 rifle, what care he takes of it. The mists were still 

 drifting wildly over the hills, and we could not see 10 

 yards before us. Every now and then the rain came 

 down in a manner that those who have never ex- 

 perienced a storm in the tropics can form but small 

 notion of. Every now and then, as the strong rank smell 

 of ibex was wafted to us, we sat down and waited in 

 hopes the mists would clear off; but finding this useless, 

 we held on straight to the precipice the old sentinel 

 ibex fell over last evening. There we found the fog 

 much less dense, it being entirely cleared by the 

 furious wind every now and then. I had brought my 

 strong bull-dog called * Tiger ' with me in case the ibex 

 might give trouble to find ; but finding she had fallen 

 over on to another ledge made of hard rock, and from 

 that rolled still farther down and over another, I saw 

 Tiger would be useless, so left him and my second gun 

 with my dog boy at the top, whilst Francis, the tall, 

 * handsome Lascar ' (my second shikaree mentioned 

 in my last), proceeded to clamber down the crags. 

 Finding an ibex path, this was easily done, and with 

 little or no danger to three men so accustomed to it. 

 As we neared the bottom of the hill the precipices 

 stopped, and a green lawn like a beautiful carpet ran up 

 to the very foot of the crags. I thought it was queer 

 not seeing the ibex lying on this, but fancied she must 

 have caught in some corner, and that we should find 

 her all right. Suddenly I saw Francis whip out his 

 telescope and become greatly excited. On clambering 

 to him he pointed to a solitary thick thorny bush 

 growing in the middle of the green lawn. Up with 

 my binoculars, and a sight glided through them that 

 made my heart jump with joy and excitement : A 

 huge royal tiger lying on his side fast asleep. Here 



