THE FATE OF THE AHNAY PAYEE. 175 



He would explain matters after the kill, he said. 

 The native shikarees and mahouts present were 

 inclined to laugh at Boomay Gowda as a junglee 

 (a term of contempt among natives, meaning a 

 man from the jungles), but Theobald knew him 

 better. A few days later a Sholiga came to Theo- 

 bald and said he had been directed by Boomay 

 Gowda to take the hunters to a place of conceal- 

 ment in a water-course some ten miles off, and 

 that they were to camp there till Boomay Gowda 

 arrived. The spot indicated was a dry nullah with 

 a steep rocky bed and banks of clay about ten 

 feet high. The width of the water-course was not 

 more than ten to fifteen feet. Heavy forest trees 

 with little or no underwood covered the country 

 on both banks for miles, so that it was easy to see 

 any object approaching the water-course without 

 oneself being seen. The hunters were directed to 

 camp about a mile away from the water-course 

 on the left bank, and were instructed that when 

 Boomay Gowda came they were to take up a 

 position in the nullah so that their heads would be 

 level with the right bank, from which direction 

 the mad elephant would approach. They were 

 not to climb into a tree or machan, as from that 

 height their scent would be wafted far and wide 

 and the elephant would not come ; but they were 

 to lie low in the water-course, whence their^scent 

 would not be carried to the elephant and they 

 could shoot him as he approached. 



Two days afterwards Boomay Gowda came 

 early in the morning and said the elephant would 



