The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-10-19
A Tigers PlsythlnR.

you've come to the right place, for this
and the bit round Fort Perovski are almost
the only spots OIL the whole river where
there are any left; indeed, might say the
only spots IN all Central Asia, except the
great jungle of the Iii. two days Journey
north Of this"
! SO spoke Col. Pctroff (thc Russian com.
mandant of the little outpost of Tchnaz, on
the Upper Syr-Daria), to his excited Junior
officer, Lieut.. Galkin, who had made up
his mind that the first duty of every right
minded officer was to shoot tiger single
handed, and that life would be blank to
him till he had done 80.
"And what's the best way to got at
hcm?" asked the young man, with tlasl,
OF excitement on his handsome face.
"Well, If you're 80 anxious to make
their acquaintance. said tho veteran, sm,l-
ing at the lads eagerness, 'therc are sew
eral ways of doing 1t. First and foremost,
you can just follow the beasts trail till yo,
| come upon him, and then shoot him down:
but that's rather dangerous, and not very
certain either, for the trails apt to get
blurred In among these big reeds"
"Well2"
"Well, secondly, you can drift along the
bank in a. boat, and fire at 'em as thew
! come down to drink: but that's not always
| certain, because, if there's u moon, they
| see you and run away, and if there's not,
| you can't see them at all. Thirdly, there's
the cage"
''The cage2'
"Yes; you shut yourself up in all iron
cage among the reeds, with big bit of
horse. flesh beside it by way of bait, and
when the tiger scents tho meat, and comes
after tit, you fire at him."
"Capltal ~ shouted Gallkin, with loud
laugh; "thnt's quite a now idea. The care
be it by all means"
"Wcll, wouldn't begin with that, if l
were you, my boy,' said the Colonel,
| gravcly, ''for it's risky business at best
a tiger-hunt's very good fun 80 long as it's
you who are hunting the tiger: but when
the tiger takes to hunting you, 1t alters tho
| case q good deal"
However, Galkin was not to be moved.
and daybreak next morning found him in
| his cage among the huge reeds (tall
enough to overtop siX-foot grcnadicr with
his cap on), through which, as they sway
cd in the morning breeze, he caught pass
ing glimpse, every now and thcn, of the
broad, shining river, and tho little tumble
down mud novels and clustering trees on
the opposite shore.
The most trying part of al exciting ad-
venture Is the waiting for 1t to begin, and
30 our hero found it; but, luckily, lie had
not long to wait. The Central Asian tiger
has keen scent for prey Of any kind, and
the warning cracklc of the reeds was
speedily followed by the gliding out of
huge gaunt yollow body, straight toward
Galkin's ambush.
D spite his perilous ros ltion(for the ca, 9
wnsaprettyoldone, and It's rusty bars seeme.
hardly to he trusted against the rush of n
full-grown tiger), Galkin could scarcely
help laughing ut this curious reversal of
menagcrie rules-the man in the cage, and
the wild bcast walking round it to look at
him. But he was not the man to let either
the joke or the danger unsteady his hand.
He AIMED carefully at the vital spot behind
the efore-shoulder, and let fly.
The huge beast leapcd high into the air,
rolled over Oh its back, and, after a few
convulsive kicks, lay dead before him.
| Hurrah! Up sprung Galkin quite forget
ting the cage in his excitement, and hit
his head such bump against the bars that
for moment hardly knew where lie was.
The shout was answered by long snarl-
ing cry, and out from the reeds broke a
second tiger, evidently young one, al
though quite big enough to have finished
our TREND with one bite. Galkin felt for
his cartridge-pouch, to reload for second
shot, when, lOl no pouch was to be found.
And now, to his dismay, he perceived that
1t had been OFF when he jumped up, and
was lying outside tho cage, where it had
rolled over slight descent Of the land
quite out of his reach.
Here was a pretty piece of business.
But, II the hunter was at q nonplus, the
tiger himself seemed to be no less 80. This
cross. barred machine, with a motionless
human figure inside of 1t. (for Galkin,
finding himself defenseless, remained as
still as a statHc), was a complete puzzle to
him. lie had never seen anything Of the
kind before. 1t might be trap. Who
could tellY" On tho whole, he appeared
to think that his wisest way was to begin
with the horsc-tlcsh, which he soon dis.
posed of-a somewhat disagrccablc hint to
dalkin of what might shortly bcfull him.
| Breakfast over, the tigcr-kittcn seemed
to wax frollcksomc. He lcap"d up against
the cage, and put his forc-paws on the top
OF II, bringing his face so near Galkin's that
the poor Lieutenant almost felt the hot,
rank breath. Suppose the bars were to
| give way |"
But what did happen was almost as bad.
Ovcrbalanced by the beasts weight, the
cage rolled over, and tho unlucky officer
along with it; while the tiger, delighted
with tho sport, and evidently thinking the
whole affair a toy meant for his own
special amusement, pattcd it about with
his huge paws like cat playing with a
mouse, tumbling it over once or twice, and
bumpling poor dalkn against tho bars till
he was pretty well bruised. AL at once
there came tremendous crash, as thick
clunlp of reeds gave way, and splash down
into the river went cage. Galkin and all
Fortunately for our hero, there was Il
mud-bank close to the shore, 80 that the
water only came up TO his bolt; bui, even
so, to sit walst,dcop in cold river for an
indefinite time, with tiger mounting
guard over him, was anything but plea
SAINT prospect. Moreover, tho tiger, which
was standing or tho bank above, with a
lace Of great disgust ut the loss OF It's toy,
seemed strongly inclined to leap down after
1t; In which case the sportsman would be
rolled over IN deep water, and drowned at
once.