CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 101 



and again giving one of those piteous, long- 

 drawn mews so impressive in the silence. Just 

 at first, I was a little nervous. I remembered 

 having seen the half-eaten remains of brown 

 men and women in that jungle, killed and left 

 by tigers, and it was not by such a process 

 that I wanted to go into eternity. In a few 

 minutes, however, my nerves troubled me no 

 longer. As I walked more slowly and listened 

 to her voice, I became convinced that my in- 

 visible friend was in trouble of some sort, and 

 that she was telling me all about it and asking 

 my aid. Indeed, I felt quite certain of this 

 by the time we had gone half a mile, and, as 

 if in response to my silent sympathy, she came 

 a yard or two nearer. It may have been that 

 her cub had got into difficulties fallen in some 

 waterhole, from which she could not rescue it, 

 or starving in some cleft in the rocks of yonder 

 peak, the inky outline of which, showing dimly 

 through the tree-tops, made a barren space in 

 the starlit sky. 



" For all the rest of that long, lonely tramp, 

 I was aching to help her, but that was clearly 

 impossible. I could obviously not wander 

 about a jungle all through the night and at 

 the tail of a disconsolate mother, whose sorrow 

 was possibly vague and uncalled for. Mewing 

 gently every few moments, the tigress accom- 

 panied me on my homeward way, up the slopes 

 and down into the hollows, her great velvet 

 paws now and then cracking a twig, and over 

 the rivulets, where she would pause to drink, 

 never giving me a glimpse of her, but ever 



