Jungle By-Ways in India 



which was open stony river-bed. The great 

 difficulty was to stop and guard the road, across 

 which it was practically certain the tiger would 

 attempt to break, as he would never face the 

 wide-op 3n spaces to the left and in front. 



Until the beat approached the forest the 

 howdahs — there were four of us, with three 

 others in the line — remained in echelon on the 

 right of, and ahead of, the beat, my place being 

 No. 3 from the right. As we began to draw near 

 the forest the line halted, and we four howdahs 

 moved up the road in single file. I took third 

 place on the road as we slowly advanced, having 

 one howdah behind me. At a signal I halted, 

 the front two howdahs continuing up the road. 

 No. 2 halted at about sixty paces from me, whilst 

 No. I disappeared from sight round a bend. The 

 beat was not a nice one either for the beaters, 

 who would have difficult work getting through the 

 thick forest, nor for us, who could hope at best 

 for a snap shot as the tiger sprang across the 

 road and disappeared up the sal-covered hill on 

 the opposite side. 



In order to enable me to fire at an angle up 

 the road, and thus get a fraction more time, 

 whilst at the same time being free of the other 

 rifles, the mahout forced the elephant to back 

 a little way into the thick wall of the forest, 

 and we then stood and waited in a tense silence. 



No time was there this morning for natural 



226 . 



