Tiger ^Shooting 265 



the stops on one side without being fired at. However, 

 the following night he killed one of our tie-ups, close 

 to camp, and he made off it his last meal in this 

 world. 



The next morning found all three of us up in our 

 respective machdns. Captain F. and myself were about 

 eighty yards apart. The tree which he was in was not 

 quite upright ; it leaned slightly, and it had several 

 branches at intervals up the trunk, the machdn being 

 fastened upon one of them. I sat on my little seat 

 with feelings so intense and so mixed that they were 

 absolutely painful ; the strain and excitement great 

 enough to suggest a blessed relief when all should be 

 over. Occasionally Captain F. and I looked across at 

 each other, as we sat, keenly alive to every leaf stirring 

 in the dry scrub, while down upon the burning sands 

 and rocks blazed the relentless sun. 



Suddenly there was a sound monkeys trooping 

 through the jungle, high in the trees, grasping the 

 pliant branches and shaking them with rage ! A tiger 

 must be in the neighbourhood. Another second the 

 jungle-grass waved and crackled, and out into the open 

 emerged and advanced slowly a picture of fearful 

 beauty. A tiger seen in the Zoo gives no faint idea 

 of what one of his species is, seen under its proper 

 conditions. Beasts in captivity are under-fed, and have 

 no muscle ; but here before us was a specimen who 

 had always "done himself well," was fit as a prize- 

 fighter, every square inch of him developed to per- 

 fection. On he came, his cruel eyes lazily blinking in 



