158 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
ing the rifle from its case and handing it to me 
with a couple of cartridges, and I surely took days 
to load the weapon. The tiger never turned his 
gaze from mine during this anxious period, nor did 
he move when I fired, nor even when I proceeded to 
reload, so as to have more than one shot available in 
case of trouble. Then I said to the mahout, “Is 
he hit?” He replied, “I don’t know, but there is 
blood trickling from his nose ;” and as he spoke the 
muscles relaxed and the beast rolled over on his 
side. He was not 5 yards from us the whole time, 
and none but the stanchest elephant would have 
stood so unconcernedly for so long, or, indeed, 
would have resisted the impulse to back away, if not 
to flee, at the first surprise. 
Between. the next house at Bhddi Tél and Bil- 
raien are two famous ‘“ndlas,” where many tigers 
have lived and died. The first is narrow and deep, 
flowing through high ‘“ratwa” grass, and is un- 
propitious ground to fight a wounded tiger with a 
single elephant. We found it best to wait in such 
cases till the beast moved towards one of the large 
lakes to the north, and then track him through the 
tree-forest if he was still able to travel, and there- 
fore powerful to hurt. One such Abdul reported to 
have left cover, growling savagely, as soon as even- 
ing fell, and we were on the trail by daylight. It 
was easy following for about a mile in fairly open 
ground, so that at a distance we could see a great 
clump of elephant-climber, almost the only shady 
retreat that we had come across. It was also 
enough that on a high tree above a dejected crow 
sat silent, and the trackers were at once taken off, 
