VI 
THE TIGER 
227 
I never witnessed such a hopeless panic. The 
whole line of elephants broke up in complete dis¬ 
order. The large elephant Hogg, who had been 
seized, was scaring riderless at mad speed over 
the plain; a number of others had bolted in all 
directions, and during this time a continual suc¬ 
cession of horrible roars and angry growls told 
that the tiger was tearing the man to pieces. A 
cloud of dust marked the spot within 70 paces of 
my position. It was like a dreadful nightmare ; my 
elephant seemed turned to stone. In vain I seized 
the mahout by the back of the neck and nearly 
dislocated his spine in the endeavour to compel 
him to move forward ; he dug his pointed hook 
frantically into Thompson’s head, but the animal 
was as rigid as a block of granite. This lasted 
quite fifteen seconds ; it appeared as many minutes. 
Suddenly my servant shouted “ Look out, master, 
another tiger come; two tigers, master, not one!” I 
looked in the direction pointed, and I at once saw a 
tiger crouching as though preparing for a charge, 
about 40 yards distant: the animal was upon my 
right, and the elephant had not observed it. 
I fired exactly below the nose, and the tiger 
simply rolled upon its side stone-dead, the bullet 
having completely raked it. Leaving the body 
where it lay, my elephant now responded to the 
driver’s hook, and advanced steadily towards the 
spot where we had seen the cloud of dust which 
denoted the attack upon the mahout. Fully expect¬ 
ing to see the tiger upon the man’s body, I was 
