76 THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



him, " I Ve killed a bar ! I Ve killed a bar ! Jock, 

 mon, do ye hear ? I 've killed a bar ! " After much 

 difficulty, I persuaded him to relinquish his much- 

 esteemed trophy to the charge of a beater, and 

 Chineah having reloaded his gun, the line moved 

 on. 



The old man went along, delighted as a child ; and 

 amid a succession of grunts, which with him denoted 

 satisfaction, I heard him muttering something about 

 preserving the skeleton, tanning the skin to make a 

 muff, and boiling down the fat to be sent to an old 

 sister, &c., although the wild animal he had killed 

 was but little larger than a sucking-pig. He strode 

 along perfectly happy, as if he had done his work. 



Very shortly afterwards we heard several suc- 

 cessive shots on the right, where I knew W 



was posted, and almost immediately a beater came 

 running up with the news that three tigers were 



afoot, and that W had wounded one severely, 



but that it had taken refuge in the high grass we 

 had passed through yesterday. 



Ordering the line to halt, and taking three 

 troopers with me, loaded with rockets, to drive them 



out, should it be necessary, I went to join W , 



who had just reloaded his guns as I came up. 



He told me that he had seen three tigers, one of 

 which he had wounded, after having fired five shots 

 as they were bounding through the long grass and 

 brushwood. 



I examined the pugs and found them to be the 



