272 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



It was hard to realise that brief span of high-pressure 

 life, so quickly had it passed, lasting perhaps not more 

 than two minutes, yet the story of which must, perforce, be 

 so laboured in the telling. 



Had F. wished to fire, which he did not, he could not have 

 done so, for the rifles were at that moment lying in pieces on 

 a mat, being cleaned ready for the morning. Over and 

 above that detail, he was then on the track of a bull bison, 

 with the which nothing must interfere, as a shot might do 

 if heard, as it probably would be — sound carrying so far by 

 night — and, as a consequence, would alarm the game and 

 drive it elsewhere. 



A small piece of forest lay to our right, and F. told me after- 

 wards that he had caught a very slight sound from that 

 direction — the snapping of a twig — which from its slightness 

 he knew could only be caused by the passage of some animal, 

 while a louder sound might easily be accounted for by the 

 falling of a branch or fragment of rock. There were no 

 human beings up here but ourselves, nor were any animals 

 likely to be stirring then except night prowlers. When he 

 had told me to look it was at something he could only make 

 out very indistinctly (on account of the mist), as it was 

 turning the angle of a rock below. It stole up the incline 

 towards us, and crouched, and there being nothing behind 

 its outline was clear against the sky. Then he saw plainly 

 that it was a tiger, and, moreover, about to spring upon us ; 

 as he surely would have done but for F.'s promptness in 

 showing himself. And as I was a dummy in this act he was 

 forced to be quick, not to say rough, in getting me out of 

 the way — a roughness for which I was grateful enough. 

 My own laggard senses would never have seized and saved 

 the situation. F. said, too, that he thought the tiger had 

 only meant to creep up to some unwary dog or goat, perhaps 

 taking us for such. In any case, it was an unheard-of thing 

 that one should dare to get so close to the tents at all, and 



