302 THE HUNTING GKOUNDS 



watch the cover in case she may attempt to steal 

 away." 



Knowing from experience the difficulty of making 

 accurate shooting by the light of the moon, which 

 is very deceitful, it was with some reluctance that I 

 ordered Chineah to take a rifle and go with Naga 

 to the hut for the rest of the gang, and I regretted 

 it almost as soon as I had done so, for I felt a 

 strange presentiment of some accident occurring, 

 being aware of the extreme danger of beating out 

 a wounded tiger from thick cover in such an un- 

 certain light ; however, I determined to take every 

 precaution, and clambering down into the nullah, 

 followed by Googooloo, we watched each side of the 

 cover in which the tigress had been seen to enter, 

 imtil Chineah and the rest of the gang, accompanied 

 by our coolies, joined us. We then formed up in 



line, B taking the right and I the left flank, with 



Chineah well provided with rockets in the centre, 

 and all the rest armed with the short spears they 

 generally carried when beating the jungle. 



Having distinctly warned them not on any ac- 

 count to straggle or separate, and seen that our 

 spare guns were at hand, we moved into the cover, 

 which, although not more than fifty yards long by 

 twenty broad, was very dense, being covered with 

 low tangled bushes and coarse grass about four feet 

 high. We could easily have driven the tigress out 

 by firing the grass, but I did not do so as the blaze 

 would have scared all the game away from the sur- 



