50 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



one bullet had hit the tiger, he had shifted his 

 position and gone on a hundred yards. I absolutely 

 refused to give them any more cartridges, and 

 said I was going myself, so they pulled away the 

 boughs hiding the ladder as I climbed down. I felt 

 in my pockets and there was only one cartridge left. 

 The men who were up trees shouted to say where- 

 abouts the tiger was, and I went towards the place 

 at which they pointed. When I got near I went 

 down on my hands and knees and crawled up a 

 small bank at the side of a nullah to look over. 

 The tiger was so much the colour of the leaves and 

 the yellow ground that for a moment I could not 

 see him ; but there he lay, at a few yards distance, 

 with his back towards me. There was a moment 

 of suspense, and I lay down and tried to take a very 

 steady aim with my one cartridge, into the back of 

 his neck, and fired. I suppose the bullet got the 

 right spot, as he never stirred after it. 



Laximan and Krishna, whom I had told to stay 

 behind, came up, and after a short wait we all threw 

 stones at the tiger and found he was quite dead. 

 The men came swarming down from their trees, 

 and we were really able to measure now, and find 

 out the size of this wonderful head at last. He 

 was indeed a fine tiger, very heavy and thick, and 

 just over ten feet. He had clawed and bitten 

 savagely at the tree above him and there were long 

 deep scores torn down it, and teeth-marks, which 

 he must have done in his fury, standing up on his 

 hind legs and tearing down the bark ; as the scores 

 started from nine or ten feet high, and two of his 



