86 A Sportswoman in India 



even the keenest subaltern is inclined to think the game 

 hardly worth the candle. 



We, however, were all agog ; and S. was started off 

 about tea-time with a basket containing sandwiches and 

 drink and everything which would go towards a cold 

 supper. He rode to Jundragat, sent the pony back, and 

 was walked off down the khud, into the jungle, by the 

 native shikari who had brought the khubr. The goat 

 had been killed there was no doubt about that ; and 

 a village charpoy, or bed, had been fastened up in a 

 tree close to the kill. It made a capital seat, well 

 concealed and screened with boughs, and quite long 

 enough even to lie down on ; a, rug made it most 

 comfortable. 



S. was perched up by five o'clock, and the work of 

 patience began. It grew dusk slowly ; he sat till it 

 was pitch dark. Unfortunately, there was no moon at 

 all, which made it, as he said, " much less enjoyable 

 and much more haphazard " ; but he trusted to seeing 

 something at the first break of dawn. At last, about 

 9.30 in the evening, and when the cold supper was a 

 thing of the past, he heard a very slight rustle, and 

 shortly afterwards a loud crunching of bones. It was 

 quite impossible to see the body of the goat, the tree, 

 or anything. Nothing but pitch darkness. However, 

 S. knew the direction, and there remained nothing else 

 but to fire. With every nerve tingling, he blazed off 

 both barrels of his eight-bore duck-gun, loaded with 

 slugs. There was a rustle, then all was quiet. But 

 in about ten minutes' time, to his utter astonishment, 



