KURUKWAHI 217 



I thought was rather resourceful, and I hoped might 

 be taken for a polite attention. I carefully looked 

 the other way after that, so that the mother could 

 take it out if she thought well. 



I left Garchiroli that evening and was very sorry 

 to see the last of Abdulla, whose work was only in 

 that district. 



I did no good at the new camp : we could not find 

 any tracks of tiger and the weather was getting very 

 hot for a tent. There was a nice forest bungalow 

 at one place that I stayed in. A great jungle fire 

 was raging from the district of Ahiri northward, 

 miles and miles of it, they said : and one of our 

 buffaloes had been tied up in that direction. At night 

 I saw the flames being blown along very fast by the 

 wind, which had changed,[towards the spot it was on. 

 I was much afraid the calf would be burnt to death, so 

 told the shikaris to go and loose it and bring it in. 

 They were afraid of going into the forest at nine o'clock 

 at night; but they thought better of it when I 

 prepared to go and they found one of them would 

 have to go too, to show the road and carry the 

 lantern. So they set off armed with spear and light 

 and brought the little beast back. In the morning 

 we found the fire had burnt right up to the spot on 

 which it had been standing. 



This was a pretty camp with a large pond in front, 

 and big red water-lilies growing high out of the water 

 and white ones lying on it. There was a mugger 

 living in the pond, that the people were anxious to 

 have killed, but it seldom showed itself. Joggins 

 and I used often to ride down to the wide nullah, 



