“KILLING A MAN-EATER” 173 
On the second day one of the headmen on the 
left side of the circle fired a shot at what he said 
was the tiger. Instantly there was a great com- 
motion and the men started shouting and making a 
great noise. We were keenly on the alert, as the 
platform faced the only spot of the circle that was 
open and free from fire, and hoped the tiger would 
break cover. Suddenly Ali, touching me, quietly 
said, as he raised his gun to his shoulder, “Tuem- 
block-on-po-ko” (behind the tree). Telling him to 
cover. the left side, I covered the right side of the 
tree the tiger was crouching behind, and told Ali to 
shoot as close to the tree as he could without hitting 
it. He fired, and almost instantly I let go at a 
streak of yellow and black; it disappeared at once. 
The yelling by this time was enough to drown the 
grunt or roar of the tiger; there was no way at 
the time to know if we had succeeded in hit- 
ting it, so completing the fire circle in front of 
the platform, we lay down to sleep as best we could. 
What little wind there was, was in our direction, 
and kept us pretty free from being eaten alive by 
mosquitoes. 
On the morning of the fourth idee the tiger had 
not broken cover and as the circle had now nar- 
rowed to about fifty yards, the heat was intense, for 
the fires were kept going day and night. Still the 
tiger would not break cover. I was determined to 
go into the circle then with the elephant, as the nets 
