tor
of Forests, a man celebrated for his exploits and daring adventures in
the field, and it was as a friend of his that I joined the hunt with my
man, Pat Quin there."

"Troth, sor, an' av it wasn't for Chand Moorut (blissin's on his great
sowl, av he has wan, an' on his body av he hasn't) your man Pat Quin
would have been left there as flat as a pancake. Excuse me, sor, for
spakin', but me feelin's overcomed me."

"No doubt, Quin, you had a narrow escape; I'll come to that soon. Well,
the spot at last chosen for pitching the camp was a splendid one, facing
northward, where we had an extensive view of the great forests that
stretched to the base of the irregular and rugged Sawalick hills.
Behind these rose the mighty Himalayas themselves, their grand peaks
seeming to push up into the very heavens, where the sun shone with
dazzling brilliancy on their everlasting snows. The camp covered an
immense piece of ground, which was partly open and partly dotted with
clumps of trees. It was so large that the tents, etcetera, were
arranged in streets, and our Director pitched his tent in the very
centre of it, with all the tame elephants and their attendants around
him.

"You may easily fancy that it was a noisy camp, with so many hundreds of
men and animals around, full of excitement, more or less, about the
coming fight; for we had a number of men, called trackers, out in the
woods, who had brought in news that a herd of wild elephants had just
been discovered in the Saharanpur and Dun forests, on the banks of the
Ganges.

"The glens in these forests were known to be well suited for hunting
purposes, so our hopes and expectations were raised to a high pitch.
Towards evening we had got pretty well settled down, when a rumour got
about the camp that one of the Khedda elephants had killed a man, and
that it was highly probable he would run _amuck_ to the great danger of
every one. It happened thus:--

"A big tusker, named Mowla Buksh, was being taken by his mahowt to drink
and bathe, according to custom, when it was observed that the elephant
seemed to be out of temper. Just then one of the fodder-cutters chanced
to pass by.

"`Keep out of his way,' cried the mahowt, in a warning tone. `There's
something wrong with him to-day. I won't bathe him, I think.'

"`Oh! he knows me well, and won't harm me,' returned the cutter.

"The words were scarcely out of the man's mouth, when the brute rushed
at him, knocked him d