IN THE KANAKA JUNGLES 63 



in the jungle, and would I make arrangements to 

 tie up there. I thought it was better to beat straight 

 away, so the patel, quite keen, sent on at once to 

 collect coolies. He drove me out in his bullock cart 

 as soon as I had had my breakfast. 



On the way out, a man came to meet us with fresh 

 khubber, which was that the pig had been killed the 

 previous day, but that only about an hour before 

 a cow had been killed in a field, in broad daylight. 

 The cowman saw the whole thing. It was a panther 

 and not a tiger; he had drunk the blood from the 

 cow's throat, then left her and seized her half-grown 

 calf and had bitten through its shoulder, but it had 

 somehow managed to escape. 



Nevertheless, we beat. It was quite a small 

 stretch of jungle and had been burnt, all the grass 

 and undergrowth being in ashes. The patel and I 

 settled we would have a silent beat, as the ground 

 was so clear and open, and I did not want the panther 

 frightened and made to come galloping by. 



The beaters were not long in coming. In the 

 distance I saw, from my machan, something yellow 

 slip by which the man said afterwards was a chital 

 stag. Then the monkeys swore and chattered and 

 I soon saw a big panther appear from behind a 

 burnt bamboo clump, stealing along the far side 

 of a nullah very quietly about forty yards away. 

 He stopped for a second to look about him, and was 

 just moving on again when I shot. He fell over all 

 right, but then sat up like a dog and was starting to 

 crawl off when I gave him the second barrel. He 

 went away as fast as he could, one hind leg dragging 



