214 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



same place each evening, the bagh would dine at my 

 expense and then effectually hide himself. So I 

 gave orders that a new spot was to be found, and 

 suggested it should be at the other side of the dry 

 river bed. In the morning Abdulla brought the news 

 that the calf had been taken again, and from the 

 same place. I was very angry : it was an impossible 

 jungle to beat with any chance of success, I thought, 

 and sitting up for a tiger I had always found was a 

 hopeless job. No beaters were available that day, 

 all having gone off to some bazaar, nevertheless 

 I sat up for some hours ; but after I had left he came 

 back and had a square meal, and the vultures 

 finished up the remains. 



I was still in a bad temper next day when I 

 ordered men to beat, being sure there was not the 

 ghost of a chance of the tiger staying in that jungle. 

 I rode Joggins out as far as he was allowed to go; 

 he was sent back for fear the sound of his hoofs 

 should disturb the jungle. I was carried along the 

 loose, deep sand of the river bed and, myself, chose 

 quite a different place for the machan. The beaters 

 had been left behind and the man who was carrying 

 my second rifle had gone with them, rifle too ! I 

 was crosser than ever then, and when he came back 

 with it, trampling through the middle of the proposed 

 beat, it was the limit, and I began to lose all interest 

 in the proceedings, feeling sure no tiger would lie 

 up through all this. 



When the last of the men had gone, I noticed a big 

 hanging swarm of bees in a tree close by : if, under 

 such impossible circumstances, the rifle should 



