Litchfield enquirer., 1876-08-03
The Man-Eater.

dia office. to stop the works. It IS hard case, admit, but have no option. am to pay up your salary to the date of lega notice, that is all.
 l, Raymond Edwards, was then Q sur. veyor employed in laying out the Rance pore branch. of the Carnatic and Malabal railway, and the sudden decision of my superiors came upon me with all the start ling audiences of death blow. Poor and encumbered with a sick wife and child, I could not hope to reach tho nearest presidency town, Bombay, or the meagre travelling allowance to which was entitled. We therefor fingered on il hired bungalow, built on one of the lower spurs of the Westen Chants, awaiting the result of an urgent appeal for temporary aid, which had addressed to friend high in military command in central India
 Time passed on ; the works were sus- pended, the arrears paid up, the laborers dismissed, and yet perforce we remained residents of that unhealthy station o1 Chota Mahal, the primeval forests stretch ing on one side to our very doors, while on the other scared aloft the peaks of the mountain range, rising giant wall be- tween us and more civilized regions.
 How often did upbraid myself for the folly which had induced me, on the strength of mere temporary engagement to bring my delicate wife and the boy into district so unfavorable, now that the cold season was at an end, to health. But hopes had been held out to me of fal better post at Oodeynnggur, and Ernes tine had made light of the risks of the Mofussil. rs
 Now was poor, and unemployed, and the small hoard of rupees was lessening fast, for Ernestine required comforts that 1t was hard to provide in that remote cor her of wertern India. Little Arthur was we'll as yet, but the sickly heats of trop. ical summer were coming on, and, "News, but not good, Edwards" sad the kind hearted doctor, as he came to pay his dai- lY visit to my alling wife. "This post brought me letter from my brother al Jhansi. General Morris, your friend, you know, had started, on sick leave, fol England. I am afraid your letter will have to follow him to Cheltenham."
 This was bad news indeed. Months must elapse before could receive a re- ply. The other minor officials, were needy men, and unable to lend me the where withal to-
 ''Sahib, another death r reported a policeman, lifting his hand, in salute, to his turban, as he passed my door. '"This time. it was decent man, a shroff from the bazaar, that the man-eater pounc- ed on. That makes nine-and twenty deaths that the cunning brute-accursed be his sire and grandmother !-has to an- swer for. And the reward is to be raised, our lord the magistrate says, to fifteen hundred rupees ;not that any one is like ly to venture in upon that four footed fiend. On Monday last he killed the sixth ferryman at Nagal Jat" .s
 The animal of which the policeman spoke was famous man-eating tiger that had for months been the terror of the neighborhood, and that haunted the out skirts of the village, carrying off now { herdboy, now girl filling her brass water pitcher beside the tank, and especially molesting the solitary boatman who piled at the Nagal Jat ferry, no fewer than six of these poor fellows having perished ir the course of ten weeks through the nal ice of the man-eater, whose den was be- lieved to be among the rocks near the riv CT. Extra rewards besides the usual head money granted, had been offered by the government for. the destruction of the beast, but he was too wary to be trapped or poisoned, while the shikarries did not care to risk their skins on such an errand as tracking the enemy to his lair.
 But fifteen hundred rupees That hun dred and fifty pounds meant much to a man in my case meant Ernest1ne's safe removal tD the breezy seacoast near Bonn bay, where comfort and change and med ical skill would bring back the hue o1 health to her pale cheek, and escape for little Arthur from climate unfit for Flu ropean children. It was desperate ven- ture, but still the idea of it took hold oi my mind, and resolved to stand the haz. ard
 There were not, in that station, sports men provided With the necessary outfit for tiger hunting, but, had there been, the country was too rough for the use of elephants and beaters, and craft for craft could alone obtain an advantage over the skulking man-eater. Telling Ernestine that I was obliged to absent myself on business, and might not return until late, l left her under the care of her ayah, and set off for the ferry of Nagal Jat. A wild spot it was, amid hugh trees and tall grass and bushes, and jutting rocks that overhung the river, where stood the ferry mans lonely cottage Six of his prede- cessors had fallen victims to the tiger, and found the new occupant of the post in somewhat low spirits, but resigned, with the strange fatalism of Orientals, to die, eff it were so written" could talk fuently in the vernacular, and easily, by the means of rupee or two and little persuasion, brought the man to agree to what 1 proposed.
 An hour before sundown there arrived a party of native travellers to be .ferried across, all of them with faces blanched by dread of the terrible foe that might take toll of their numbers, and all of them shouting and singing, and clattering their swords and clubs, or beating on goUrds and drums, to scare away the mon- ster. With this noisy company I crossed the river, and, when they had departhd on their route, prepared to return, alone.
 I we'll remembered that the ferrymen who had been killed by the man-eater had always been assailed on their way home they dwelt. On this fact I had passed my simple strategy. Just before sunset, at the hour most propitious for tigers dbIdCh, SteppGu alOH6 HUG the neaVY boat, and, leaving it's owner on the bank, grasped the rude oars and rowed hastily toward the other shore. knew too well the habits of man-eating tigers to be, on this occasion, in European garb. Had worn my customary attire. it is probable that I might have passed close by the am- bush of the striped foe untouched, for man eater excels tue fox in suspicious caution. .. s- AT
 wore, now. the scanty attire of a na- tive of low rank, and had even the precan- tion to daub my neck and shoulders with the red ocherrus clay from the river, lest my white skin shonld awaken doubts Tn the mind of the lurking brute On land ing, l made fast the boat, and, selecting the narrowest and least trodden of the pathes that led through the bushes and tall jungle grass. advanced with leisurelv step toward the hut As'I dld so, I pass ed my hand within the broad cotton gir. dle that wore, and beneath which were concealed my weapons-a large sized Colts revolver and a heavy hunting knife. The pistol was cooked and ready for in stant use In such case as this all de- pended on the judicious employment of moments.
 had not proceeded far before I felt, as