THE TERROR OF HUNSUR. 59 



known to calmly await the furious onset of a tiger 

 till the brute was within a few yards, and then lay 

 it low with a ball crashing through its skull. It is 

 even said that, having tracked a noted man-eater to 

 its lair, he disdained to shoot at the sleeping brute, 

 but roused it with a stone and then shot it as it was 

 making at him open-mouthed. He was known to 

 decline to take part in beats for game or to use 

 an elephant to shoot from, but would always go 

 alone save for his factotum Yalloo, and would 

 follow up the most dangerous game on foot. He 

 was a man of few words and it was with the 

 greatest difficulty he could be got to talk of his 

 adventures. When pressed to relate an incident 

 in which it was known that he had done a deed of 

 the utmost daring, he would dismiss the subject 

 with half-a-dozen words, generally : " Yes, the beast 

 came at me, and I shot him." Yalloo was as 

 loquacious as his master was reticent, and it was 

 through his glibness of tongue round the camp fire, 

 that much of Gordon Gumming' s shikar doings 

 >ecame known. Yalloo believed absolutely in his 

 taster and would follow him anywhere. " He 

 carries two deaths in his hand and can place them 

 where he likes (alluding to his master's accuracy 

 with the rifle) ; therefore, why should I fear ? Has 

 a beast two lives that I should dread him ? A 

 single shot is enough, and even a Rakshasha (giant 

 demon) would lie low." 



A Deputy Commissioner in the Mysore service, 

 Cumming was posted at Shimoga, in the north-west 

 of the province, when he heard of the doings of 



