BULLET AND SHOT 



with fear, fell, and the tiger, his attention thus 

 drawn to my direction, instantly spotted me, and 

 with a " Woof ! " he started forward at me. I fired 

 immediately, and he disappeared in the nullah. I 

 at once shouted to the men to retreat, and then 

 proceeded cautiously to the spot at which he had 

 vanished. 



There I saw, in the erebean darkness caused 

 by the dense shade, two fiery balls at the bottom 

 of the deep ravine. I made sure these were the 

 eyes of the tiger, and, aiming carefully between 

 them, I fired, and then found that what I had thus 

 mistaken for eyes, were but two gleams of sunlight 

 which had penetrated the blackness of the gloom 

 below, and that the tiger had gone back down the 

 nullah. We followed, and found that he was in 

 anything but an amiable temper, as he had en route 

 picked up a thick piece of creeper stem and had 

 bitten it, leaving blood upon it. We carried the 

 tracks back across the stream until they entered 

 a very dense thicket, and there I pegged a piece 

 of paper to the ground to enable us to find the 

 exact spot on the morrow, and then returned to 

 camp. Heavy rain came on, and I almost 

 despaired of our ability to distinguish the tracks 

 next day as the rain would certainly wash away 

 all bloodstains from the trail. 



Next morning we went to the spot at which we 

 had left the tracks, and the men began cutting the 

 jungle to enable us to get through, when, from 

 close in front of us, we heard a heavy animal 

 moving off. Taking the men with me, I made a 



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