112 TWO YEARS IX THE JUT^GLE. 



yards and fired both barrels, aiming to strike the brain through the 

 nasal cavity, at the base of the trunk. My shot was a total failure. 

 The elephants ran off a hundi-ed yards, and to my great surprise 

 stopped and began feeding again, all except the tusker, who stood 

 quite still. I stalked him again and this time fired at his temple, 

 but failed to bring him down, and gave up in shame and disgust. 

 The elephants now made off, trumpeting as they went, and leaving 

 a trail which looked as if a hundred men had marched along in 

 Indian file. Then I regretted my folly in firing at the elephant and 

 wounding a noble animal to no purpose, and likewise rendering 

 myself liable to a fine whether I killed him or not. But the temp- 

 tation was too great to be resisted. 



" I found my old Kurumber, and we started home, abandoning 

 the search for the dead sambur. In going through a patch of high 

 grass we came suddenly upon a spot where a tiger had jiulled down 

 and devoirred a sambur about four days previously. The grass 

 was trampled all about, and it seemed the carcass had been dragged 

 some distance. We saw a number of freshly picked leg-bones, and 

 we might have found the skull and antlers by looking about a little, 

 but I, for one, felt a trifle nervous in that dense high grass, con- 

 sidering who had just been there before us, and we left the spot 

 without any unnecessaiy delay. 



" We walked on until almost sunset, and then the old man told 

 me by signs that we were lost, would have to sleep (!) in the jungle, 

 and that we might as well prepare for it as best we could before 

 dark. Here was a pretty fix. We had been rained upon several 

 times and were wet to the skin, had no blankets, matches, nor food, 

 nor even a chopper wherewith to build a hut. A night under such 

 conditions, in that wet grass, would surely finish one of us for some 

 time to come, even should the tigers let us alone, and to sit all 

 night in the fork of a tree was not much better as a prospect. I 

 said we must get back to camp, and the old tracker said (by signs 

 all this) 'Well, I am lost. You may show the way home.' 



"Irephed, 'Very good, I will. Let vis go in that direction,' 

 and pointed across a little valley to a certain low hill. It was 

 simply a hap-hazard ' guess ' at the way out of our difficulty, although 

 I felt, without in the least knowing whj', that the Karkhana and our 

 camp lay in that direction. Without a word of objection the old 

 man waded on through the tall grass in the direction I had indica- 

 ted, and just at sunset we climbed the little hill I had pointed out 

 — and came suddenly upon a well-travelled road ! Then we knew 



