THE BANDYPORE MAN-EATER. 283 



frequently met later on as a successful coffee 

 planter on the Hills, and a better shot or a more 

 fearless hunter I have never seen. Ward belonged 

 to the 6oth Rifles, then stationed at Ootacamund, 

 and had been specially selected for his keen shikar 

 instincts to exterminate the tigers which then 

 infested the Neilgherries. I have lost sight of 

 him for many years, but I am told that he left 

 the army and joined the Madras Railway where 

 he did right good work. He had so happy a way 

 of relating his shikar experiences so little of the ego 

 in them, yet so full of dash that the long evenings 

 seemed to fly while listening to deeds of daring 

 unrecorded in printer's ink. If ever he writes 

 his experiences of jungle life, his will be a book 

 worth reading. Kaye and Ward had heard of the 

 Bandypore man-eater and were now collecting infor- 

 mation on the spot, and finding out its favourite 

 haunts. They had already been out a couple of 

 days but had not succeeded in coming across 

 it, and had only heard that morning that a coolie 

 on the Moyar Coffee Estate, some fifteen miles 

 away, had been carried off the previous day by the 

 brute, and they were now hurrying to get off while 

 the scent was warm. I had a new Westley- 

 Richards with me, a recent purchase in Madras, 

 and was anxious to try its qualities on big game, 

 but the time at my disposal was not enough to 

 permit of my joining them. In such company 

 I believe I would have faced a dozen tigers, as both 

 were deadly shots, and as cool as cool could be 

 under the most exciting circumstances. Wishing 



