228 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



deer that ran past them this against orders of 

 course ! there was a great difference between that 

 and the stern silence with which the tiger was let 

 by. It was most annoying, and one might as well 

 beat for a tiger down Piccadilly as with these, sort 

 of men, though the remainder were doing their 

 best. 



When everything I tried went so wrong for me I 

 began to feel that I really was " Champion, in this 

 Scheme of Frustration/' as I remember " Punch " 

 once neatly put it. I must own, though rather 

 against my will, as it tends to spoil the record for 

 " Champion/' that I had shot a good tiger in the 

 first district, though without an incident worth 

 recording, and now, soon after my unhappy beat, 

 when sitting up over a calf that had been killed by 

 these same two tigers, I shot the tigress that came 

 out just at dusk. 



The shikari and guards came with torches after 

 hearing the shots, and I went back to camp with them, 

 leaving the dead tigress lying there until next day. 

 In the morning when we went to bring the tigress 

 in we found that the tiger had come and had been 

 feasting on the calf, only a few yards from his poor 

 dead mate who lay stretched there. I decided on 

 another night's sitting up; the remains of the two- 

 days-old kill, as it was in the hot weather, were 

 impossible to sit over for obvious reasons, so they 

 were dragged away for the vultures to finish and a 

 small buffalo calf was tied in its place. There was no 

 moon, so I could only hope for a shot before dark 

 or one at dawn. I saw or heard nothing in the 



