TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



subscribing to a fund, erected a monument to his memory 



at Rajkote, which was unveiled by Lord H , the then 



Governor of Bombay, who in a few well-chosen words paid 

 a tribute to the gallantry and devotion to duty he had 

 displayed. 



Shortly after his transfer to the police, he had spent 

 some days with me in my camp near the Chap-Panee 

 ravine, and I well remember his delight at having been 

 selected for the task of hunting down these dacoits. This 

 ravine is — or used to be — a favourite haunt of tigers, and 

 I had seldom, if ever, drawn a blank there. 



On the particular occasion I refer to, it did not belie 

 its reputation, for we had not been long there when we 

 received information of a tigress and three cubs. 



Having arrived at the jungle and taken up our position, 

 we sent word to the beaters to advance. Presently I 

 heard a troop of monkeys chattering loudly, as these 

 animals always do when a tiger or panther is on foot, and 

 at the same instant I saw the tigress emerge slowly from a 

 mass of cypress and come quietly towards me. 



I allowed her to approach within ten yards or so of my 

 position, then fired, and the bullet striking her fairly 

 between the eyes killed her on the spot. Meanwhile the 

 beaters were advancing, driving the cubs before them ; 

 small beasts they proved to be, each about three feet long. 



G , who was to my right, now had his chance, and very 



good use he made of it, rolling two of them over in fine 

 style ; the third broke back, but was soon despatched by 

 the beaters. Their mother, whom I had shot, proved to 

 be a large handsome beast with a fine dark-coloured skin. 

 I had this pegged out alongside the one of a large tiger I 

 had bagged some days before, the two making a goodly 

 show. 



Altogether this shoot was a great success in that we 

 had accounted for every animal put up, and although three 

 were only little ones, still, in tiger shooting it is not always 

 that every tiger seen is bagged, more especially when 

 hunting these animals on foot, for unless badly wounded, 

 they often get away. 



But sometimes, even if fatally wounded, a tiger may 

 sneak off unobserved to die in some dense Jungle, or 

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