68 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



and started early, leaving the servants to follow. I 

 found a very nice place for the tent, under a big 

 mango tree. Some former sahib had found it a nice 

 spot and had camped there too, his servants having 

 left little heaps of straw and feathers and rubbish, 

 though these were swept up quite tidily. 



While I was waiting for the servants I thought 

 it would be both useful and amusing to make bonfires 

 of the heaps of rubbish. The first heap took a good 

 deal of lighting and many matches, but it flared 

 away eventually and burnt out. I set fire to one 

 or two more, and then a strong breeze sprang up 

 and the rough grass around caught fire. I tried to 

 beat out the flames, which ran along in a long line, 

 but as soon as I had got one end of the fire under, the 

 other end got ahead. The man who drove my tonga 

 came to my help and we tried to beat it out with 

 sticks. An old village man arrived next and showed 

 us that leafy branches were much better to use than 

 sticks. By this time the fire was well ahead and we 

 could only try and keep down one end of it. It 

 raced along in the wind down the field boundaries 

 up to the road on one side and to the jungle on the 

 other. 



When the servants came in, they set to work too. 

 It was a warm job, what with the hot blazing April 

 sun and the fire and the hard work. Eventually 

 we thought we had got the flames under, but while I 

 was having an afternoon sleep a big roaring woke 

 me and I saw a new strip of grass was flaring up 

 towards the tent, which we struck very quickly 

 and beat out the flames over again. The jungle 



