That was almost the worst result we could have 

 had : the tiger was not crippled, nor was it wounded 

 enough to enable us to track it, but must have been 

 so thoroughly alarmed that it would certainly be 

 I extremely nervous and suspicious of everything now, 

 and would probably avoid the neighbourhood for some 

 time to come. 



The trap was clearly of no further use, but after 

 coming so far for the tiger we were not disposed to 

 give up the hunt without another effort. The natives 

 told us it was quite useless to follow it up as it was a 

 real * schelm,' and by that time would be miles away 

 in some inaccessible krans. We determined however 

 to go on, and if we failed to get a trace of the tiger, 

 to put in the day hunting bushbuck or wild pig, both 

 of which were fairly plentiful. 



We had not gone more than a few hundred yards 

 when an exclamation from one of the boys made us 

 look round, and we saw Jess on the opposite slope 

 coming along full speed after us with her nose to the 

 trail. She had scratched and bitten her way through 

 the reed and mud wall of the hut, scared the wits out 

 of a couple of boys who had tried to head her off, and 

 raced away after us with a pack of kaffir mongrels 

 yelping unnoticed at her heels. She really did not seem 

 much the worse for her wounds, and was for her 

 quite demonstrative in her delight at finding us again. 



In any case there was nothing to be done but to 

 let her come, and we went on once more beating up 

 towards the lair in the black krans with the two dogs 

 in the lead. 



260 



