g the belly, glossy-hided, full-frilled
about the neck, whiskered, frisky, and young. He had slain a man in pure
sport, they said.

"Let him be fed," quoth Bukta, and the villagers dutifully drove out a
cow to amuse him, that he might lie up near by.

Princes and potentates have taken ship to India and spent great moneys
for the mere glimpse of beasts one-half as fine as this of Bukta's.

"It is not good," said he to the Colonel, when he asked for
shooting-leave, "that my Colonel's son who may be--that my Colonel's
son should lose his maidenhead on any small jungle beast. That may come
after. I have waited long for this which is a tiger. He has come in from
the Mair country. In seven days we will return with the skin."

The mess gnashed their teeth enviously. Bukta, had he chosen, might
have invited them all. But he went out alone with Chinn, two days in a
shooting-cart and a day on foot, till they came to a rocky, glary valley
with a pool of good water in it. It was a parching day, and the boy
very naturally stripped and went in for a bathe, leaving Bukta by the
clothes. A white skin shows far against brown jungle, and what Bukta
beheld on Chinn's back and right shoulder dragged him forward step by
step with staring eyeballs.

"I'd forgotten it isn't decent to strip before a man of his position,"
said Chinn, flouncing in the water. "How the little devil stares! What
is it, Bukta?" "The Mark!" was the whispered answer.

"It is nothing. You know how it is with my people!" Chinn was
annoyed. The dull-red birth-mark on his shoulder, something like a
conventionalised Tartar cloud, had slipped his memory or he would
not have bathed. It occurred, so they said at home, in alternate
generations, appearing, curiously enough, eight or nine years after
birth, and, save that it was part of the Chinn inheritance, would not
be considered pretty. He hurried ashore, dressed again, and went on
till they met two or three Bhils, who promptly fell on their faces. "My
people," grunted Bukta, not condescending to notice them. "And so your
people, Sahib. When I was a young man we were fewer, but not so weak.
Now we are many, but poor stock. As may be remembered. How will you
shoot him, Sahib? From a tree; from a shelter which my people shall
build; by day or by night?"

"On foot and in the daytime," said young Chinn.

"That was your custom, as I have heard," said Bukta to himself "I will
get news of him. Then you and I will go to him