182 THE EASTEEN HUNTEES. 



hundred yards further on. " If there is a tiger 

 above this, he will very likely either come up one 

 of these two nullahs, or sneak down the ravine 

 itself. If neither of you should see him do that, 

 then Mackenzie Sahib, who is nearly half a mile 

 lower down, may have a chance. But my hope is 

 the two nullahs." 



Saying this, he left Norman where he was, and 

 took Hawkes on to establish him in his assigned 

 position. That effected, he moved on to take per- 

 sonal command of the beaters, and see that his 

 directions were acted on. 



The wary and self-reliant old shikaree, fatalist 

 though he was, appeared himself so sanguine, that 

 he impressed the two sportsmen with strong hopes, 

 that, in spite of the adverse chances attending so 

 extensive and speculative a beat, it might after all 

 prove a successful one. 



Before half-an-hour was past, distant shouts re- 

 verberated among the crags and rocks, and were 

 bandied from side to side, announcing the com- 

 mencement of the beat. Soon a blank shot or two 

 was fired at intervals, and was caught up sharply 

 by the echoes and repeated, with a progressive 

 diminution of rattle and hardness, till lost in a soft, 

 undefined murmur. The beating of the tom-tom 

 occasionally swelled into a deeper cadence, as some 



