54 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



as quickly as I could, as a tiger came cantering 

 past about sixty yards away. When he came to a 

 fairly open place I took my shot, but he seemed to 

 take no notice whatever of it, except that after two 

 strides he gave a grunt, then he disappeared behind 

 trees before there was time for a second shot. 

 Mahomed and Yellapa came up with the beat and 

 wanted to know what had happened. I said it was 

 no good ; I had missed ; the bagh was too far away ; 

 it was an awkward shot ; I couldn't shoot from that 

 bag as I was not able to stand up, and so on any 

 excuse for my blundering when they had tried so 

 hard to show sport. One of the stops then came 

 up. He said the tiger had carried on for several 

 strides after I fired, then he had nearly fallen, 

 recovered himself and cantered on. 



I had a youth with me, a police sepoy named 

 Gopal, who was not learned in the ways of shikar : 

 if I went out after small game, with the gun, he 

 would point to a crow or a sparrow and say, " Shikar, 

 sahib ! " He had been told to climb up into a 

 tree, which was behind me as I faced the beat, so 

 as to see the tiger if he went by and mark where 

 he went. He came up looking rather scared : he 

 said the bagh had passed him within a yard or two, 

 went on a hundred yards and fell just below a bank. 

 We went first to the spot where I had fired at him 

 and there were deep marks of his claws in the ground 

 a thing one never sees in the ordinary footmark, 

 when he goes along with the claws drawn in. Then 

 we went on to the place from which Gopal had seen 

 him, and I said : 



