Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-06-24


oke. and if l we're you / would ride to
Poonahjar and get Simpson and Dever
to 60 too,
"'No,' said I, Twentyman. This
Is an affair of danger, and III stalk
the beast alone. There shall be no
Englishman but myself to share the
glory
You are plucky fellow. Monsoon,
said Twentyman. AS you like, but
Tor my own part, I'd rather have one
Engiishman than a thousand of those
noisy devils, with their Internal drums
and horns. They'd spoil an angels
shooting.
"The rest of that day spent in pre-
pairing for the tiger campaign at Moon
le. i put on my red-brown shooting
coat, made OF stuff of that peculiar
dry leaf color usually worn by Indian
tiger hunters, and which / was the
hrst to introduce into the presidency.
The plan of this coat was my own in
yention; it had fourteen pockets, each
designed for a special purpose, and new.
er used for any other. 1t held caps,
gun picker, tigers fat greasing locks,
spare nipples, gun.screws a small boot
jack 1.-THE use of which / will tell you
presently "a knife with sixteen blades,
creased patches, iron bullets. cartridg-
es, a pocket revolver, hook, dried
tongue, fusees, sketch book, cigar
case. a powder horn, small key bu-
gle, a camp stool, and few other
items, useful to a man of several re-
sources.
"As this white tiger / was to fight
had escaped the native pitfalls, poison,
spring guns, and other strategems OF
the crafty natives of the jungle village,
felt that at last / had met a foeman
worthy OF my arm. and prepared for
q gigantic effort. filled Ramchunder's
howdah with tulwahs keen native
swords), double-barrelled guns, rock.
cts and boar spears; so that, keeping
that sagacious animal near me fasten-
ed to tree, could return to him at
any time for fresh weapons and for
lunch; for, even in my enthusiasm fer
the chase, did not forget some cold
fowls and two or three bottles OF
champagne, etc; my khansamah, or
butler, was to sit in the howdah and
attend to the commissariat and gener-
al stores.
''The day came. Ifelt strange glow
OF pleasure, mingled with q strange
presentiment of danger which l could
not shake off, do what might. How
ever, said nothing to Twentyman,
who wished me every success. and off
| went on Ramchunder, who seemed
proud to share in the adventure; which
was more than the cowardly khansa-
nah was, for his teeth shook like cas-
tanets, aud he dropped bottle OF
bitter beer in sheer nervousness III
packing. At last we were ready.
"Juhlde jao!' Ego quick cried ]
to the mahout; and off trotted old
RamcEunder to the side of the Moon
je jungle, where all the heaters had as
sembled.
"If you'll believe me, even at the
taking OF Mooltan there wasn't such a.
gol mol II am again talking Hindo-
stanee-I mean, in pure English, row
as when about 200 of the native TEL
lows began to break into the Jungle of
praus trees and korinda shrubs, firing
matchlocks, yelling like fiends broke
loose, rafting metal pans, ringing bells
and blowing horns; while half a dozen
OF the boldest and most active OF the
beaters were sent on to climb trees
and give notice If the man-eater stole
away in their direction. 1t was ar
ranged that was to lie in wait, with
Ramchunder, opposite to one of the
most tigerish places; a crossing over a
dry nullah, or ravine, where three ma
tive postmen had been carried of on
consecutive days by the same tiger.
"And now again the presentiment
weighed upon me as soon as | found
myself alone with that miserable funky
mutter prayers from the Koran and
look at his amulet of tigers claws.
tell you, sir, all sorts OF disagreeable
anecdotes came fermenting up in my
mind. thought of how Major Bun
sen, in the Forty-third, had died in
four hours of lockjaw from scratch
he received from tigers claws; and
of how Captain Charters, of the
Fourth Light Infantry, was found
dead in the jungle from tiger bite.
II had beeHparticularly careful with
Dostee Pooloo, the captain OF the
bearers, as 30 tigers, for these rascals
generally frequent the same spot, and
had every reason to suppose that
should soon have my hands full.
"Dostee Pooloo, my boy said /,
handing him a cheroot (for the niggers
like you to be civil, be sure and drive
everything that is in the jungle SOU
westerly, for if | am far away from
Ranlchunder and the guns, when they
break covert, therell be blank space
left for me at the mess-table to-mor-
row. When said this, Dostee Poo
loo showed all his box of teeth, and /
saw that he was game to do just what
/ wished, so long as he hadn't to fight
the tiger himself.
Having planted my old khansamah
with Ramchunder and the cold fowls,
champagne, and the doubled barrelled
rifles near an old palm tree, with strict
injunctions not to move, ] stole off
down the nuliah whish-whish, as the
natives say-which means very gen.
tly.
al suppose / had not gone more
than 800 yards from where left the
khansamah, before path to the
right, trodden down as if by wild boars
through tract of tall, dry, dusty jun
gle grass, burnt by the sun to pale
straw color, attracted my attention.
The beaters seemed to rouse nothing,
and / began to think the story of the
white tiger all humbug and sham.
1.-THE path led on past little tope
OF cocoanut palm, strung with fruit.
Curiosity and a natural love of ad-
venture carrying me on, / followed it
for some hundred yards till saw the
patch few yards before me open out
into sort of natural amphitheatre,
beyond which lay the dry bed of a
small intercourse, the surface of
which, if you'll believe me, sir, was one
vast tangle of enormous jungle flow
ers-great crimson fellows, big as tea
cups, and smelling of musk and patch
ouli; ropes of creeping plants binding
tree to tree, and strung with scented
yellow blossoms and trails of things
like tulips, only as large as my hat,
and with purple-bell flowers every
bali inch down the stalk.
'In a small open space surrounded
by deep Moonie grass, and only visi-
BILE from the higher clqmp OF ground
where they summed themselves, strut
ted half dozen peacocks. had just
knelt down and covered the biggest of
them with my rihe--a splendid fellow,
with great fan-tail, all green and
purple-when, 10 and behold what
should come skipping from tree to
tree but n whole tribe of monkeys,
chattering, chasing each other, hold
inc each others tails, and cutting such
capers that it was all / could do to
keep from laughing out and spelling
the whole game.
81 had scarcely readjusted my aim,
which these monkeys had thrown out,
hafora from out of the innrle close 70