138 THE PANTHER I DID NOT SHOOT 



rag, but must be pronounced like barg without the 

 r and signifies a tiger or panther) had killed a cow 

 in the village the night before last. 



When he added that the villagers had set a spring 

 gun for it last evening and it had returned to the 

 "kill" and been badly wounded, my excitement 

 was turned into wrath. I had been at anchor here 

 all yesterday. The Indian ryot everywhere turns 

 instinctively to the sahib as his protector against 

 all wild beasts. What did these men mean by 

 keeping their own counsel and setting an infernal 

 machine for their enemy ? Abdul Rehman ex- 

 plained, and the explanation was simple andsufficient. 

 My fat predecessor in the appointment that I held 

 had no relish for sport and kept no guns, so the 

 simple villagers, when they saw my boat with its 

 familiar flag, looked for no help from that quarter. 

 However, I might still win renown off that wounded 

 " bag," if it was not a myth ; but, to tell the truth, 

 I was sceptical. The tiger and the panther are not 

 nomads on rocky plains, like the antelope. I 

 landed, notwithstanding, promptly and visited the 

 scene. Sure enough, there was a young heifer lying 

 on its side, with the unmistakable deep pits where 

 the jaws of the panther had gripped its throat, and a 

 gory cavity where it had selected a gigot for its dinner. 



Round the corpse the villagers had arranged a 

 circular fence of thorns, with one opening, across 

 which they had stretched a cord, attached at the 

 other end to the trigger of an old shooting iron of 



