242 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



A fortnight and a day the man stayed up in the tree ; 

 on that last day — the fifteenth — the people, who now came 

 and went as they listed, were to bring him away and make 

 much of him, for he had kept his word to them as far as he 

 could ; so he climbed down to be ready for them, and stooped 

 over the trough to take a drink. At that very instant, in 

 the face of the approaching crowd of friends, the tiger 

 came out from the edge of the forest, swung himself across 

 the road, picked up the shikari in his jaws, and walked back 

 with him to cover in a leisurely manner, not even taking 

 the trouble to lay a paw on his prey. Numbed, paralysed, 

 with his spine, perhaps, snapped, the man was carried off 

 as limp as ever a dead mouse by a cat. All were agreed as 

 to that ; also that not the faintest sound was heard then or 

 afterwards. 



No one now dared dispute the tiger's right to the 

 trough ; but, all unknown to him and to the unhappy 

 people, the days of his career were numbered, for very 

 shortly after this, while the tale was still fresh in men's 

 minds and mouths, F. arrived to take up his appointment 

 in Kurnool. 



To F. such an affair waiting for him to negotiate it was 

 enough to make any ' desert blossom as the rose ' — and 

 Kurnool was not much better than a desert in parts ; only, 

 as I have said, it was a huge district. There was always 

 plenty of work in a new charge, but that work, while follow- 

 ing its ordinary and accustomed routine, was here spiced 

 with the special zest of a possible lurking danger. This 

 would not be to everybody's mind, nor was it, I believe, 

 to that of all whose duties forced them to accompany their 

 master wherever his business might take him. 



As a general rule, F. and others of kindred spirit who 

 were with him, once the quarry at their feet, felt only regret 

 that all was over, the acquisition of a trophy being a very 

 secondary consideration. Here, however, the sooner an 



