A MAN HIT 289 



At midnight, when the whole camp was hushed in slumber, 

 a fire flickering here and there, Jumbo woke me with a start 

 by biting through the rope which secured him to the post. I 

 remember turning drowsily over from my left side to my right, 

 and saying to Clements, " Confound it, Clements, Jumbo has 

 got loose," after which I dropped off to sleep. At about 2 a.m. 

 I Was suddenly wakened by hearing all our camp-followers 

 shouting at the top of their voices, every man, as I afterwards 

 found out, with his head under his blanket. I immediately sat 

 up, and on hearing the words " Kya, kya, lu-ta-youk-pa-thwa- 

 byi-ah me le peya ! " (A tiger, a tiger, a man is being carried 

 off; oh, my God !), I came to the conclusion that one of our 

 followers was in the act of being carried off, or had already 

 been taken away by the tiger. Thinking that perhaps by 

 firing a few shots I might be able to startle the tiger sufficiently 

 to make him drop the man he was carrying, I whipped out 

 my loaded revolver, as I sat, and with a hurried ejaculation to 

 Clements of, "My God, Clements, somebody is being carried 

 off by a tiger ! " I stretched out my arm at full length before 

 me, and, aiming up into the trees, fired two shots in quick 

 succession, sufficiently low to avoid boring a hole through the 

 waterproof sheet some 30 inches or thereabouts above my 

 head, after which I put the weapon down between us and 

 waited events. All shouts had ceased after my two shots, 

 with the exception of a few inquiries as to who had been 

 carried off. While these inquiries were going on the fires 

 all round which had burnt down were blown up and re-kindled 

 to a bright blaze. All this was, of course, the work of a few 

 seconds. Moung Hpe, my favourite head shikarie, who 

 was seated round a fire some fifteen or twenty paces off to 

 one side under a bamboo clump, suddenly made my heart 

 throb in a way that I have never experienced since or before, 

 or ever hope to again, by saying, "Thakin, thakin, lu- 

 ta-youk-hman-thwa-byi ! " (Sir, sir, a man has been hit !). 

 Clements and I, on hearing this, immediately leapt out from 

 beneath our blankets on to the ground, and there stretched 

 right out at full length on his back close alongside the foot of 

 the bamboo platform, grasping tightly with his right hand his 

 snider rifle, was the poor unfortunate fellow, a Karen corporal 



