44 The Hunting Grounds 



CHAPTER III. 



MULKAPOOK. 



'* Here couched the panting tiger on the watch ; 



Impatient but unmoved, his fire-ball eyes 



Made horrid twilight in the sunless jungle 



Till on the heedless buffalo he sprang, 



Dragged the low bellowing monster to his lair, 



Crashed through his ribs into his heart 



Quaffed the hot blood, and gorged the quivering flesh 



Till drunk he lay, as powerless as the carcass." 



Our camp. Mulkapoor. The Patel. Good news of shekar. 



"W" 's family. Scheme for a Nautch. The Begum. Her 



love of good liquor. The prescription. Chineah and my 

 shekar gang. The doctor's ruse. News of a man-eater. 

 Departure of the gang. 



IT was a fine morning, soon after sunrise, in the 

 in the month of March, 18 , when I arrived 

 at the little village of Mulkapoor, two days' march 

 from Hydrabad, in the Deccan, in command of 

 some irregular cavalry, which, with two companies 

 of native infantry, formed the travelling escort of 

 a begum (a lady of rank) and her daughter, who, 

 with a large suite of followers and attendants of 



