ade a
hole. "Look! Saheb!" screamed the servant, "he comes through".

"I have a loaded gun in my hand", the Saheb replied.

The hole speedily grew larger as the great cat clawed and growled. The
servant could stand it no longer. He bolted into the next room,
shutting the door between. There he shivered and shook till morning,
when he fled to the railway station a couple of miles away and told the
Sahibs there his tale. They got guns and horses and rode over. They
peered through the shutters and saw the tiger in the room. It
soon scented them and charged with a mighty roar. They retreated
without dignity to a safe distance where all stopped. One said,
"I say! we must see what has happened to the poor chap". Another:
"So many of us and loaded guns! We must do something". A third:
"let's get back and kill the beast".

They went back and fired shot after shot through the shutters
till the animal was killed. Then they broke into the room and found
their luckless comrade dead on the floor, his loaded gun still in his
hand. The tiger must have killed him with a slap of its mighty paw, and
sat on his body all night, but clearly the animal was not a man-eater.

Earning the Reward

A man-eating tiger was roaming through Hazaribagh station. It had
killed many villagers and had become so daring that it entered the
market-place in broad day-light.

A poor old tailor on his way home one evening was seized by the
blood-thirsty animal, and his screams for help filled the little
town. The morning light showed traces of the struggle between man
and beast, and where the latter had been dragged from the main road.

The villagers did puja that night that all might be saved from a like
fate. A few days after, a ploughman and a little boy stood talking
about the tiger. "How do you know that he won't catch you?" asked
the boy.

The ploughman answered confidently: "I have done puja". Barely had
the words passed his lips than the tiger leapt upon him. The boy was
startled, but not realising his own danger not only did he not run
but also caught up a stick and tried to save his friend. In spite
of his hitting it the animal began to devour the unfortunate man,
snarling threateningly the while. Then the boy threw away the stick
and fled to the village. The news roused the villagers and they
determined to try to rid themselves of their foe. Armed with spears,
sticks and heavy bamboos they followed the boy to the scene of the
tragedy.