192 THE EASTERN HUNTERS. 



" Ha ! hum ! Well, perhaps you would ! I don't 

 mean to say that I should particularly wish to make 

 quite so close an acquaintance with a wounded tiger. 

 But why didn't you bolt ? " 



" No time. He was clinging on to the rock in 

 a flash after I fired. If I had once knocked him off 

 his perch down below, I should have made short 

 tracks of it and no mistake." 



" And yet, Mac," said Norman, " would you 

 believe it ? When I dropped the brute, he made 

 no attempt to leg it ; but brandished his gun-barrels 

 and danced about like an Indian." 



" Well," said Mackenzie, " I heartily congratulate 

 you on getting so well out of the scrape. I say ! 

 won't Miss Verney be all in a tremor when you tell 

 her of it, eh ? We must let the skin fall to your 

 lot in the division of the spoils. Pretty present for 

 her." 



" Thanks. I should like it, I confess," the young 

 fellow laughingly replied, " but not for her. The 

 poor old governor at home," he continued, more 

 seriously, " will like to possess it, I know ; and 

 every time he looks at it, will remember the trump 

 of a fellow who saved his son." 



" Save ! nonsense ! " ejaculated Norman. " It 

 would have been just the same whether you were 

 there or not. But come along ; Rugonauth says 



