s well as your gamekeepers in England know which covert may be drawn
for foxes. Yes; 'tis a royal sport, and we keep it for Maharajahs. I
myself never hunt a tiger till some European visitor of distinction
comes to Moozuffernuggar, that I may show him good sport. This tiger we
shall hunt to-morrow, for example, he is a bad old hand. He has carried
off the buffaloes of my villagers over yonder for years and years, and
of late he has also become a man-eater. He once ate a whole family at a
meal--a man, his wife, and his three children. The people at Janwargurh
have been pestering me for weeks to come and shoot him; and each week he
has eaten somebody--a child or a woman; the last was yesterday--but I
waited till you came, because I thought it would be something to show
you that you would not be likely to see elsewhere.'

'And you let the poor people go on being eaten, that we might enjoy this
sport!' I cried.

He shrugged his shoulders, and opened his palms. 'They were villagers,
you know--ryots: mere tillers of the soil--poor naked peasants. I have
thousands of them to spare. If a tiger eats ten of them, they only say,
"It was written upon their foreheads." One woman more or less--who would
notice her at Moozuffernuggar?'

Then I perceived that the Maharajah was a gentleman, but still a
barbarian.

The eventful morning arrived at last, and we started, all agog, for the
jungle where the tiger was known to live. Elsie excused herself. She
remarked to me the night before, as I brushed her back hair for her,
that she had 'half a mind' not to go. 'My dear,' I answered, giving the
brush a good dash, 'for a higher mathematician, that phrase lacks
accuracy. If you were to say "seven-eighths of a mind" it would be
nearer the mark. In point of fact, if you ask my opinion, your
inclination to go is a vanishing quantity.'

She admitted the impeachment with an accusing blush. 'You're quite
right, Brownie; to tell you the truth, I'm afraid of it.'

'So am I, dear; horribly afraid. Between ourselves, I'm in a deadly funk
of it. But "the brave man is not he that feels no fear"; and I believe
the same principle applies almost equally to the brave woman. I mean
"that fear to subdue" as far as I am able. The Maharajah says I shall be
the first girl who has ever gone tiger-hunting. I'm frightened out of my
life. I never held a gun in my born days before. But, Elsie, recollect,
this is _splendid_ journalism! I intend to go through with