SOME TIGER AND PANTHER STORIES 21 



Khan and the mahout saw the tiger's ear move, 

 as he lay in the clump of bushes. The shikari 

 and I had passed within a few yards of him. 

 We drew back and held a council of war. I had 

 the black powder -500 Express, with which I had 

 shot the other four tigers, and the shikari had a 

 Lee-Metford. My idea was to give the Lee- 

 Metford to Mihtab Khan and allow him to fire 

 from the back of the elephant, and to shoot the 

 tiger, as he rose, with the -500 ; but the mahout 

 urged me to mount the elephant and shoot, and, 

 as she was then standing very quietly, I decided 

 to try this. The elephant, as I afterwards heard, 

 would not stand a shot-gun ; but, when drawn 

 back from the proximity of the tiger, she allowed 

 me to mount without difficulty and then, under 

 pressure from the mahout, she advanced and 

 stood within 30 yards of the bushes. After some 

 time I made out the outUne of the tiger crouching 

 in the bushes, and the elephant allowed me to 

 take a steady aim. As soon as I fired, however, 

 she swung round with amazing quickness ; and, 

 seeing that I must be thrown off, as I was merely 

 sitting on the pad and my hands were engaged 

 with the rifle, I jumped and landed on my feet, 

 but fell back, cracking the stock of my rifle. 

 I sprang to my feet with very creditable rapidity, 

 but fortunately for me the tiger was done for. 

 He staggered to his feet but did not leave the 

 bushes, and a shot by the shikari finally laid him 

 low. My shot from the elephant merely passed 

 through the forearm and did him no appreciable 

 injury, but the shot in the back, as he galloped 

 off, had inflicted a mortal wound. The shot in 



