164 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
then a shock and silence. The agitated mahout 
now explained that the tiger was clasping the ele- 
phant’s fore-legs, and we implored him to move 
onwards. With difficulty the elephant took a step 
forward ; the tiger now lay on his back, biting her 
belly ; another step, and she was preparing to yield 
to pain and fear and subside, when Abdul remarked 
that he could see the tiger. Lying on my face on 
the “pad,” I lowered the rifle with one hand over 
the crupper ropes, and fired into a writhing mass 
below, and the elephant was free and staggering 
away. We took her to the open country out- 
side the swamp; she had thirteen bites and innu- 
merable scratches, and we led her away, fearful 
lest she should die of loss of blood on the journey 
to camp. It was many months before she was 
recovered, but she was then as stanch to tiger as 
before. 
Meanwhile Abdul remained to watch the ground 
and warn the villagers of the danger in their neigh- 
bourhood. The next morning he drove a herd of 
buffaloes into the grass, which were driven out by 
the tiger, who still lay on the same spot; then, 
unwilling to own defeat, Abdul went himself into 
the swamp to reconnoitre. Advancing through grass 
that rose many feet over his head, he suddenly 
entered an area of trampled herbage, and saw the 
blue sky above him, while almost at his feet lay the 
tiger, who greeted him with a loud roar. He fled, 
leaving his shoes in the sticky mud; and now his 
position was the worse, in that he feared to return 
to camp without them. Better death than ridicule, 
so again he faced the danger, this time pushing his 
