26 
IVILB BEASTS AND THEIR WA VS 
CHAP. 
him on the spot. Mr. Fraser had lost his hat, rifle, and all his 
cartridges, which had tumbled out of his pocket. He jumped 
up, however, and ran to the man who had his second gun, and 
to do so had to go within eight paces of the spot where the tiger 
was crouching over his orderly. He heard, in fact, the crunching 
of the man’s bones and saw the tiger biting the back of the 
head. He now took the gun from his man. The latter said 
that he had fired both barrels into the tiger—one when he was 
crouching over Mr. Fraser, and the other when he was over the 
prostrate body of the orderly. The man had fired well and true, 
but just too far back, in his anxiety not to hit the man he would 
save, instead of the tiger. When afterwards asked if he was 
not afraid to hit the Sahib^ ‘ I was very much afraid indeed/ 
he replied, ‘ but dil mazbut karke lagaya : I nerved myself for 
the occasion.’ ‘ A good man and true! ’ a high officer writes, 
‘ who after firing never moved an inch till Mr. P raser came to 
him, although close to the tiger all the while. He is one of 
the Gawilghur Rajputs—a brave race, Ranjit Singh, a good 
name.’ The man said he had no more cartridges left and so 
they both got a little farther from the tiger, as the orderly was 
evidently done for. Afterwards they found one more cartridge 
for the gun and tried to recover the body, but it was no use. 
The tiger was lying close, most of the buffaloes had bolted and 
the Kurkoos would not help. Mr. Fraser then sent six miles 
off for an elephant. But the animal did not arrive till dark, 
so Mr. Fraser went home in great grief about the poor orderly 
and at having to leave the body. His own wound was bleeding 
a great deal, it being a deep claw gash. Next day they got the 
body and the tiger dead, lying close to each other. Perhaps 
no narrower escape than Mr. Fraser’s has ever been heard of. 
To the excellent shot which knocked the beast’s eye out he 
undoubtedly owes his life. He says that he felt that he had 
the tiger dead when he fired, but the Express bullet unfortunately 
broke up. Probably, he thinks a 12-bore would have reached 
the brain.” 
I could produce numerous instances where failures 
have occurred, and I know sportsmen of long ex¬ 
perience who have given up the use of hollow 
