ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 245 



surprise that any animal so cute as a tiger should have 

 shown less nous in his choice of position than an ordinary 

 cat would have done. She would have watched at the 

 mouse's hole ; it was a good thing that he did not. But 

 then, again, was it really stupidity ? No tiger ever yet 

 wanted for nous ; far more likely this one acted as he did 

 as the outcome of crafty logic. A man-eater prefers to 

 strike from behind ; he would never have entered the hut, 

 fearing a snare, but intended to steal round when the prey 

 was leaving to make his attack. 



It was quite a small hut, and with a few backward paces 

 F. was out and able to breathe freely. He said that while 

 in there the feeling of being trapped was unnerving to a 

 degree that no danger in the open could have equalled ; so, 

 keeping a sharp lookout to right and left, the gun steadily 

 pointing and finger and eye ready, he ploughed his way back- 

 wards through the millet, which stood so thick that it would 

 have hidden anything that might have been following till it 

 was awkwardly near — the knowledge of that fact adding its 

 quota to the burden of an already overcharged mind. How- 

 ever, camp was safely reached without sound or stir on the 

 part of the tiger. In spite of this, F. said that his impression 

 as to the creature's identity was unaltered. His proximity 

 and self-assured purring were proof enough of his original 

 intention. It was only misliking the look of the steel 

 barrel facing him through the hut wall that made him 

 change his mind, and when it seemed to be removed he 

 probably shifted himself as soon as he dared, and stole away, 

 just as he had come, with the tread of a cat. Therefore, to 

 be quite fair, the despised shot-gun would seem to have 

 done its part, like the mouse in the fable. 



Such was F.'s reading of an affair which occupied but an 

 hour all told — a long hour, as he and the peon agreed ; and 

 there must be few people who do not find out for them- 

 selves at least once in the course of their lives how long 



