232 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



torches, shed their great umbrella hats, and dropped 

 one by one out of sight into the hole. 



Lim had had scruples about accompanying me 

 on the hunt, but protests that he was indispensa- 

 ble and assurances of perfect safety had overruled 

 them : he was necessary, not only to interpret direc- 

 tions, but to hold my extra gun and pass it to me, 

 should the two barrels of the .450 cordite-powder 

 express prove ineffectual. I had fair confidence in 

 the stopping power of the express, but in case of 

 emergency thought it best to take a second gun. 

 This gun, which was a double-barrelled lo-bore, I 

 gave to Lim, loaded but uncocked, and stationing 

 him behind me on a suitable rock a few yards from 

 the cave opening, awaited results. 



Probably few forms of sport afford greater inter- 

 est than watching the opening of a cave, knowing 

 that at any moment one or more tigers may charge 

 out, and aware that if they do, one must shoot both 

 instantly and accurately. Under such circumstances 

 an ordinary hole in a hillside becomes a distinctly 

 fascinating object, as one who has had the expe- 

 rience must realize. As Perry and Wheeler a year 

 before in the same spot had seen four tigers break 

 cover simultaneously, and as two days later Perry 

 had found and shot a fifth in another cave near by, I 

 was sanguine of success. But there were to be no 



