170 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



the dogs. It was time for us to go, but I wished 

 to get the sambur into safety first. I made a long 

 detour, crossed to the far side behind the pool, 

 and quietly drove the hinds and their pretty little 

 fawn out of the water, across the nullah and into 

 the jungle on our side the side we had been watching 

 from, and away from the pack; and they trotted 

 off and disappeared in the trees. And I did hope 

 they would have plenty of time to get away after 

 we had gone. But what of the wild dogs' point 

 of view ? perhaps they were desperately hungry ! 



We did not tie up that night, knowing there could 

 be no tiger in a jungle full of wild dogs; besides, 

 they would probably find the calf and kill it. 



When I was leaving this shooting block I had 

 rather an adventurous journey. To get to the new 

 shooting ground the Ranger told me the best way 

 to go was by bullock cart, eighty or ninety miles 

 to Chanda, which was west, go by train north, change 

 and go east, three sides of a square; and all this 

 journey when I could see on the map I could travel 

 north for about fifty miles and hit off the railway 

 at a small station called Rajoli. The railway was 

 in the course of making, and the trains ran as far 

 as this station, so it seemed absurd to go the long 

 roundabout way when there was this short cut. 

 The Ranger warned me that the road was bad, 

 that it would be difficult to get good bullocks, 

 and there would probably be many other difficulties 

 and no one to help. Whereas if I went by Chanda 

 there was a high-road all the way, rest bungalows, 

 and plenty of officials to help me to get changes of 



