the table. The lamp either attracted or annoyed him and he raised
his paw to the table. The weight of the huge paw tilted the table,
the lamp toppled and fell with a crash. The terrified tiger gave a
mighty roar, turned tail and fled.

The camp was aroused. Everyone shouted and rushed out into the night,
armed with some weapon or other. Sir M. related to his brother guns
what had happened and they all enjoyed a good laugh and rather envied
him for the fine sight he had of such a superb specimen of the kings
of the jungle.

A Thrilling Story

One evening, in Assam, a young Englishman was driving along a lonely
jungle road. He wished to visit a neighbouring Saheb; and though his
servants had warned him that tigers had been frequently seen on that
particular road, he had laughed at their fears and told them that
the only tiger to be feared was a "man-eater", and that there were no
"man-eating" tigers about that district. As usual in the mofussil of
India, he was going out to dine and sleep, and his bearer had put up
his clothes and his suit case was stowed into the dog-cart.

The road was a good one and considerably wide, for it was the main
thoroughfare in the district and along it tea, jute and all other
agricultural products were transported to the river for export to other
districts of India and also to Europe. Nevertheless it was bordered
on either side by dense jungle, and there were few villages in its
vicinity. After sunset it was a road little frequented by villagers
and it had the reputation of being tiger-haunted.

There was no moon and, as B. had not started much before sunset,
darkness soon overtook him on the road. As he had no syce with him
he got down to light the trap-lamps and jumped in and drove on again
very cheerily. He was not far from where he must turn off the main
road to the narrow one leading to his friend's estate, when the pony
suddenly took fright at something and bolted. At first B. tried to
pull the animal up; but its erect ears and wild snorting showed him
that there was cause for alarm. He looked over his shoulder and in
the dim starlight discerned the bulk of some animal in pursuit of
them. An eerie feeling came over him and he wondered what was going
to happen. He sat tight in his seat and let the pony race on. The
chase continued and the pony began to show signs of collapse. It was
evidently being overcome by fear and, in spite of all B.'s urging,
could not keep up the pace, a