FAILURES 229 



evening, and the calf, I think, spent a happy and 

 peaceful night, lying down and sleeping. A little 

 before dawn I heard a sambur give its warning call, 

 and soon afterwards the sound of a short heavy 

 rush of some animal and a roar. There was no sound 

 of a struggle, no other noise of any kind, and the calf 

 was killed the whole thing took perhaps two 

 seconds. It was quite dark and I could see nothing 

 below, but by the sounds following I think the tiger 

 was drinking the blood. He did not settle down to 

 eat at once, but I could hear him wandering round, 

 and he stood for a time in the place the dead tigress 

 had been lying, which had been taken back to camp 

 in the morning. There was a little swish, swish 

 of the long grass as he came through it, back to the 

 kill where he now began to feed. There seemed to 

 be a faint shadow moving, but nothing that I could 

 really distinguish; and which was tiger and which 

 was the dead calf I could not make out. I waited 

 and waited, longing for a streak of dawn which would 

 not come. I thought I should be foolish to shoot 

 in the dark when probably a few minutes more 

 would give me a fair shot : I looked up at the sky 

 and the stars were certainly fading. Come dawn ! 

 it never dawned so slowly before. There was just 

 a faint streak of grey, my rifle was at my shoulder, 

 but when I picked it up I found that a small fork 

 of white paper I had fastened most carefully, as I 

 thought, to the foresight to give me a guide for a 

 night shot, had gone, torn away I suppose by a branch 

 or something it must have brushed against. I gave 

 one more glance up at the stars and then looked 



