he got her to
stop, and again turn round. Meantime the cries and shouting had
ceased, and the beaters came pouring from the jungle by twos and
threes, like the frightened inhabitants of some hive or ant-heap. Some
in their hurry came tumbling out headlong, others with their faces
turned backwards to see if anything was in pursuit of them, got
entangled in the reeds, and fell prone on their hands and knees. One
fellow had just emerged from the thick cover, when another terrified
compatriot dashed out in blind unreasoning fear close behind him. The
first one thought the tiger was on him. With one howl of anguish and
dismay he fled as fast as he could run, and the General and I, who had
witnessed the episode, could not help uniting in a resounding peal of
laughter, that did more to bring the scared coolies to their senses
than anything else we could have done.

There was no doubt now of the tiger's whereabouts. One of the beaters
gave us a most graphic description of its appearance and proportions.
According to him it was bigger than an elephant, had a mouth as wide
as a coal scuttle, and eyes that glared like a thousand suns. From all
this we inferred that there was a full grown tiger or tigress in the
jungle. We re-formed the line of beaters, and once more got the
elephant to enter the patch. The same story was repeated. No sooner
did they get near the old tree, than the tigress again charged with a
roar, and our valiant coolies and the chicken-hearted elephant vacated
the jungle as fast as their legs could carry them. This happened twice
or thrice. The tigress charged every time, but would not leave her
safe cover. The elephant wheeled round at every charge, and would not
shew fight. Fullerton got into the howdah, and fired two shots into
the spot where the tigress was lying. He did not apparently wound her,
but the reports brought her to the charge once more, and the elephant,
by this time fairly tired of the game, and thoroughly demoralised with
fear, bolted right away, and nearly cracked poor Fullerton's head
against the branch of a tree.

We could plainly see, that with only one elephant we could never
dislodge the tigress, so making the coolies beat up the patch in
lines, we shot several pig and a hog-deer, and adjourned for something
to eat by the bank of the creek. We had been trying to oust the
tigress for over four hours, but she was as wise as she was savage,
and refused to become a mark for our bullets in