3S4 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



who, however, pointed silently to an object in a tree close 

 to our heads. It was a huge colony of bees the terrible 

 Bouhrd, whose swarms had, a march or two before, routed 

 our whole following, leaving a good-sized baggage-pony dead 

 upon the ground. Lucky it was I had not fired, and I 

 thought little of the lost stag in the hurry to get out of 

 so dangerous a vicinity. About half a mile further on, near 

 the river, a spotted doe leaped out of a patch of grass, and 

 scoured across the plain. It was too tempting, she looked 

 so round and fat ; and a snap shot rolled her over, shot 

 through the loins. We were now not far from camp, and 

 I was beating through some longish grass, when a full round 

 countenance was seen peering over the top of it at the 

 advancing elephant. I did not make it out for a while, and 

 presently it disappeared, the motion of the grass showing the 

 progress of a large body towards the river. A little further 

 on it stopped, and the round face again glared at me over the 

 grass. Surely it must be a tiger 1 A glimpse of a striped 

 red hide settled the question, and I moved a little down to 

 cut her off from the river bed. All was motionless for a few 

 minutes, and then again the slowly waving grass showed the 

 stealthy progress towards the deep gully in which ran the 

 river. A shallow ravine was a little ahead, down which she 

 could steal unobserved, except in one place, where a little 

 jungle pathway crossed it, and I took up a place commanding 

 this at about sixty yards, waiting with cocked rifle and 

 beating heart. Now she is close to the opening, the grass 

 rustling gently above her. Now she sneaks rapidly across, 

 crawling low, but halts for a moment to look again before 

 entering the further cover. Fatal pause ! A ball speeds 

 through her shoulder, and, turning with a roar, she gallops 

 back again up the hollow. I thought she meant a charge, 



