fringed on one side by a narrow strip of high grass, in which I hoped to come upon the tiger whose trail I followed. Limited as that cover was, my hope was justified by the absence of any other from the environment of the lake, whether grass or reed or forest.

I had not gone far upon those tracks when I saw the grass ahead of me wave the signal that a tiger was afoot. Then I looked upon that tiger as mine -for what could save it? It could not break away on either hand without exposing itself to the batteries of the three gunners who were after it; it could not get away forward beyond our reach; I never dreamed that it could break back and so escape; so I pushed on, keen for the triumph that I had already discounted, Jacky Hills and Gream close following. Again and yet again I saw that signal of the waving grass, and might have shot the tiger without seeing it; but why attempt to kill my quarry, yet unseen, with a chance shot, when in a minute or two it would show itself either by flight in the open or by turning in defiance upon its pursuer? So, always close behind it, I drove it forward into the last patch of that strip of grass, when the alternative was forced upon it to fight or fly. It elected for the former, and charged straight for my-i.e., Bulrampoor's-elephant. I had seen nothing of it until it was on my elephant's head, and then, again, I said to myself, this tiger is mine. Confident that the result would be such as it had been in my previous experiences of this

situation, I leaned over the howdah, placed the muzzle of my smooth-bore close to the neck of the tiger, and pulled the trigger. This was the work of two or three seconds; but a performance of Bulrampoor's elephant, which synchronised with it, upset all my calculations, and nearly everything else of mine then present. The brute of an elephant thought fit to draw back from the tiger, and in stepping back its game leg gave way, and over it went sidelong with a crash, that spread the mahout, my shikari, myself, and all my paraphernalia broadcast upon the ground, and a good deal distributed us and ours among the legs of elephants pushed to the front by my comrades.

As that crash of matter and fall of elephant were exactly timed to the pulling of my trigger, the bullet aimed at the tiger's neck sped harmlessly heavenward. Perhaps that was as well for us, who involuntarily became the tiger's companions when we were all precipitated to earth together. A wounded tiger, of malicious nature, might have made it very unpleasant for some of us as we lay there unarmed, much shaken, and wholly unfit for fight; but this one was unwounded, and, being thrown from the elephant's head, did not stay to improve its acquaintance with us. It made no further demonstration of any kind; perhaps it was satisfied with a modest victory, and thought it not unseemly to march off after a first triumphant round, or discretion may have prevailed over valour: be that as it may, the tiger disappeared.

And of all the unexpected things that may happen in tiger-shooting, that disappearance was, I think, the most unexpected. The tiger must have escaped across the open within fifty yards of Jacky Hills and Gream, both of whom, gun in hand, looked down from their howdahs upon the scene, ready and longing to shoot the beast that had so upset the beat. But they looked down too closely closing in in front of my prostrate form, they thought only of shooting the tiger when it threatened us fallen ones; they saw nothing of it -and so that tiger was lost to us.

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CHAPTER X.

MIXED SHOOTING IN OUDH.

SNIPE-QUAILS-BLACK-BUCK-NEELGHAI-GHURRIALS AND MUGGURS.

involved a six months' tour through the twelve districts into which Oudh was divided, and into every portion of them, where there might be an office or distillery to inspect or a jheel to shoot over. Every year I rode and drove a distance of about 3000 miles; and this nomadic life gave me opportunities of visiting all the best shikar country, whatever the distance from my headquarters might be. Unfortunately for me, I could not always ensure being first in the field at every

point. It frequently happened that other men, similarly inclined with myself, arrived before me, and got the first and best of the shooting. These rivals sallied forth from every district sudder station, many of them from many quarters, and, single-handed, I could not cope with them in the race; so went the cream of the shooting to them, and the skim to me who followed.

But when fortune was good enough to smile upon me, I made fairly good bags of snipe between November and March while the season lasted. I did not expect to beat that Kanchrapara record of 51 couple: 20 couple satisfied me, and when I reached 30 couple I considered that there was nothing left to wish for immediately in the way of snipe. And very frequently I shared the good things of the jheel with friends who came from Lucknow or elsewhere to join my camp; and a possible big bag for a single gun became a very modest one for three or four.

Fairly good quail-shooting was to be had in the wheat and grain fields, and in dry grass cover of a certain kind, from December to April; but in this branch of sport the shooter had to compete with the man of nets-the native who caught the birds alive for the quaileries of Anglo-Indians. And one may well pardon the purchasers of these netted fowl; for when in the summer solstice the AngloIndian is a close prisoner within the kus-kus tattied walls, and below an ever-swinging punkah; when his eye cannot bear the light of mid-day, and his