he male population turned out as beaters, with sticks, guns, tom-toms,
and other instruments for making a noise.

"The trail was not difficult to find. A broad path, with occasional
smears of blood, showed where he had dragged his victim through the long
grass to a cluster of trees a couple of hundred yards from the village.

"We scarcely expected to find him there, but the villagers held back,
while we went forward with cocked rifles. We found, however, nothing but
a few bones and a quantity of blood. The tiger had made off at the
approach of daylight into the jungle, which was about two miles distant.
We traced him easily enough, and found that he had entered a large
ravine, from which several smaller ones branched off.

"It was an awkward place, as it was next to impossible to surround it
with the number of people at our command. We posted them at last all
along the upper ground, and told them to make up in noise what they
wanted in numbers. At last all was ready, and we gave the signal.
However, I am not telling you a hunting story, and need only say that we
could neither find nor disturb him. In vain we pushed Begaum through the
thickest of the jungle which clothed the sides and bottom of the ravine,
while the men shouted, beat their tom-toms, and showered imprecations
against the tiger himself and his ancestors up to the remotest
generations.

"The day was tremendously hot, and, after three hours' march, we gave it
up for a time, and lay down in the shade, while the shekarries made a
long examination of the ground all round the hillside, to be sure that
he had not left the ravine. They came back with the news that no traces
could be discovered, and that, beyond a doubt, he was still there. A
tiger will crouch up in an exceedingly small clump of grass or bush, and
will sometimes almost allow himself to be trodden on before moving.
However, we determined to have one more search, and if that should prove
unsuccessful, to send off to Jubbalpore for some more of the men to come
out with elephants, while we kept up a circle of fires, and of noises
of all descriptions, so as to keep him a prisoner until the arrival of
the reinforcements. Our next search was no more successful than our
first had been; and having, as we imagined, examined every clump and
crevice in which he could have been concealed, we had just reached the
upper end of the ravine, when we heard a tremendous roar, followed by a
perfect babel of yells an