VII 
THE TIGER 
255 
she uttered several short roars, and upon the 
beautifully clean ground she bounded forward in 
full charge straight for Moolah Bux. I never saw 
a more grand but unprovoked attack. 
The elephant was startled by the unexpected 
apparition, and I could not fire, as he swung his 
mighty head upon one side, but almost immediately 
he received the tigress upon his long tusks, and with 
a swing to the right he sent her flying into the deep 
nullah from which she had just emerged. 
Although the trees and shrubs were utterly 
devoid of leaves, there was unfortunately a large 
and dense evergreen bush exactly opposite, called 
karoonda; the tigress sprang up the bank, and 
disappeared behind this opaque screen before we 
had time to fire. 
The mahout, who was a splendid fellow, per¬ 
ceived this in an instant, and driving his elephant 
a few paces forward, he turned his head to the right, 
giving me a beautiful clear sight of the tigress, 
bounding at full speed about 8o paces distant along 
the clean surface of parched herbage, up a slight 
incline. 
I heard the crack of Berry’s rifle close to my ear, 
but no effect was produced. The tigress was going 
directly away from us, and Moolah Bux stood as firm 
as a rock, without the least vibration. As I touched 
the trigger,.the tigress performed a most perfect somer¬ 
sault, and lay extended on the bare soil with her 
head turned towards us, and her tail stretched in a 
straight line exactly in the opposite direction. A 
