THE ONE-EYED MAN-EATER. 75 



I cannot recollect what happened in the next few 

 minutes, but I found myself under the machan 

 and Provis shouting, " What on earth has scared 

 you, old man ? Did you see the tiger ? " A 

 strong nip from Provis's flask and I was able to 

 give some garbled account of having been out of 

 wind with the trot. Shouldering our guns we 

 walked down the ghat and then back to camp, 

 but saw no signs of the tiger. Several times that 

 night I got up with a feeling of the " creeps/' 

 and imagined I was being stalked by the man- 

 eater. 



Next morning Provis insisted that we must make 

 another attempt, this time changing places. No 

 argument of mine would alter his determination. 

 " If you don't come, old man, I go alone and do 

 the dak-man. I won't have the natives say that 

 the chick doray (little gentleman) is afraid." I 

 tried to persuade him to take one of the double 

 guns with him ; but no, he would go just as I went. 

 Well, I got into the machan at 5 o'clock and made 

 a nice little opening on three sides, so as to rest 

 my gun and command the road on both sides, as 

 well as the short cut. After that I sat down to 

 wait quietly but found it a most difficult matter, 

 as at dusk the mosquitoes got scent of me and kept 

 me on the move trying to beat them away from my 

 ears. At last I heard the bells in the distance, 

 when it occurred to me that should anything 

 happen to Provis I would be seriously to blame. I 

 ought at any cost to have dissuaded him from his 

 rash attempt. Every tinkle of the bells I feared 



