ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 155 



which came out for a short distance, and then turned back 

 to the willows. Then one of the cubs came out : he was a 

 small beast, about six feet from tip to tip. He stood broad- 

 side on at seventy yards, and I dropped him dead with one 

 shot. 



The beaters had again taken to the trees, and declined 

 to enter the covert, so after a consultation it was agreed 

 that Ashburner and Bulkley should take up fresh posi- 

 tions in trees, and that Arbuthnot and I should go in with 

 a few picked men and drive out the tigress. 



The chief of the village had come out with us that 

 morning, with a considerable following. Ashburner had 

 lent him a carbine, and he and his men also posted 

 themselves in a tree near the edge of the willows. We 

 hunted about for some time, and, as I now believe, we were 

 fortunate in not finding the tigress, who would certainly have 

 left her mark on one of us. As we came up to a thick patch 

 of willows, near the edge of the covert, several shots were fired 

 in our front by the chief and his men, and we heard their 

 bullets ping in the air as they glanced off the stones. Our 

 position was not a good one. A tiger probably wounded 

 somewhere close to us, and an excited chieftain firing " pro- 

 miscuous " into the covert. 



We shouted to him to " cease firing," and made the best 

 of our way out of the jungle. Going up to him, we found the 

 chief had fired at and killed the other cub, which lay dead 

 near his tree. 



A palaver was now held, and as we believed that only 

 the tigress remained, and that her temper would not be 

 improved by the slaughter of her offspring, we decided on 

 leaving her alone for that day. So, getting some men 

 together, we carried out the two cubs, and were starting off 



