Page:Hunting and trapping stories; a book for boys (IA huntingtrappings00pric).pdf/13

STORIES OF TIGER HUNTING they realized their danger, for the expression on the servant's face was fearful. His eyeballs were nearly starting out of their sockets, while his body was stiff with terror. They looked in the direction the man was staring and beheld a pair of devilish green eyes watching them. Neither of the men had arms ready and their situation was critical. The tiger knowing that it was discovered without waiting a second sprang at them with a roar. Both Englishmen escaped injury, but the wretched servant was seized by the tiger and dragged off the veranda to the flower-beds below. The man's screams had roused all the servants and they fled in terror, jabbering like apes. One of them in his haste slammed the compound gate after him. The tiger was not expecting this move, for it made him partially a prisoner. The walls were not very high, but the brute could not leap over them with a man in its mouth.

Now the native's wife who was close at hand heard his screams, and seized a heavy kitchen knife she rushed at the tiger and plunged it in to the animals throat. The beast roared in fury and struck out with its left paw. It caught the woman in the back killing her instantly. The Colonel and the Judge who had recovered from the shock now rushed to the scene and simultaneously emptied their heavy army revolvers into the brute. The hail of lead bullets was too much even for a tiger, and with a last roar it toppled over dead.

Lanterns were procured and the tiger examined. The servant was found to be absolutely unhurt, for he had been seized by his clothing, but his poor wife had her back broken in several places while the tiger's claws had made fearful wounds on her head and side. Henceforward the village had peace, for the career of the man-eater was at an end and the incident was soon all but forgotten.

When a tiger pest appears near a village all energies are turned towards encompassing its destruction, for neither man nor beast is safe where it lives.

On one occasion a splendid tiger was seen lurking near a cattle compound, and the authorities forthwith pronounced its doom. The village huntsman was detailed to the work and in a few days he rid the place of the brute and in a most ingenuous manner. He found a path in the jungle which he knew the tiger used on its way to drink, and he laid a trap for it.

Near sundown, some yards from the trap, an Axis deer and its mate and young one appeared leisurely eating grass. Soon the male deer became uneasy sniffing the air suspiciously. The birds ceased singing, the monkeys climbed to the tops of the trees, and the hunter felt sure that the tiger must