ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 249 



odour was heavier in the burning heat — that was all. As 

 a rule, when shooting from a tree, it was F.'s habit to mask 

 all traces of footsteps with earth, leaves, etc., but here it 

 was unnecessary ; there was enough of the human already. 

 He confessed afterwards that they had found it desperately 

 sickening to have the gnawed body lying below them 

 awaiting a horrible sepulture, and he had sworn to himself 

 that it should not be so if he could prevent it — nor was it ; 

 they buried the poor fragments instead. 



Such plans do not always work out according to intention, 

 but to-day the man-eater's ' number was up.' About five 

 o'clock he appeared, and settled himself beneath the tree 

 in placid good-humour and anticipation. As tigers go, this 

 one was not especially handsome — his sort seldom are — but 

 he was no more than full grown, with many years of nefarious 

 life before him had he not come up against an Express 

 bullet. 



Those in camp were near enough to hear one reverberating 

 shot, which was not repeated ; and for them, in their un- 

 certainty as to whether that shot had given the desired 

 quietus, or whether the tables had perhaps been turned, 

 the screw began to get unbearably tight. However, every- 

 body knew ' before long,' as F. had prophesied ; knew, too, 

 that the tiger lay harmless now beside his latest victim. 



Presently the body was slung to a pole and borne away 

 in the midst of a crowd of wildly jubilant people, who, as 

 soon as it was set down again in the camp, began reviling 

 it, spitting at it, and slandering every one of his ancestors 

 and relations after their usual fashion. 



No longer might the forest keep its secret ; convincing 

 evidences, more than enough, came to light the very next 

 morning, when it was searched over, that it had been, as 

 was expected by then, a stronghold of the tiger for many a 

 day. 



So long had this creature held the people in thrall that 



