60 A CHANCE OF A TIGER. 



companion who knew the language and the district. The 

 scenery was very fine, the mountains, nearly all of them 

 volcanic, rise directly from the sea level and have a very 

 grand and imposing effect. At one place, the muddy path 

 along which we travelled, with high grass on each side 

 and occasional patches of forest, was so beaten down with 

 tiger tracks that it looked as if some one had been driving 

 them like a flock of sheep to the market, and as I was most 

 anxious to bag a Javanese tiger, we had a machan (platform) 

 built commanding the most frequented of these tracks, and 

 I sat up all one beautiful moonshiny night, but nothing came 

 of it, and the only tiger I saw in these parts was lying out 

 on rather a bare spot surrounded with high grass and well 

 situated for a stalk ; my guide made signs as if asking me 

 whether I would shoot it ; I replied "why certainly" as plain 

 as I could by signs, so he beckoned me to dismount and 

 follow him ; we crept away through the grass, I all the time 

 fancying he was bringing me round for a shot, at last I saw 

 that he was taking me right away in a contrary direction. I 

 then seized him by the scruff of his neck and made signs that 

 we must go back and shoot the tiger ; but the tiger settled 

 the question by quietly walking into the jungle close at 

 hand. 



When I returned to the bungalow I had the man 

 questioned as to whether he intended to take me up to the 

 tiger. " What ! " said he, " do you suppose I was going to 

 let the gentleman shoot at the tiger ? Why, if the tiger had 

 killed him, what would have become of me ? " One evening 

 I made a very good stalk and shot a doe muntjack ; I sent 

 my guide with it to where the ponies were posted, and while 

 waiting for his return I saw a peacock in grand plumage fly 



