The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-10-17

of my nerve in case of another meeting.
The native had described this tiger as
an old man eater, who had carried off
many villagers, and, as I must visit the
ruins by day, he would certainly be at
home. Bright and early next morning
I was ready to start. My excuse to the
Professor was that intended to look for
certain bird which he had been very
anxious to secure, and he never noticed
that took nv heavy rife instead of shot
gun. also had revolver and knife, and
it was not more than an hour after sunrise
when I set out. l followed the creek down
to where it branched, and there struck
the path which the native had described.
As near as ! could e:ermine it had been
made by wild animals coming and going
between the Jungle and the creek, and
at the first soft spot l found the i'm
prints of the tigers paws. They were
fresh, too, and there was no doubt of his
being at home. AS l proceeded, the
path wound about in the most eccentric
manner, while the Jungle grew thicker.
One could not see five feet in any direc-
ton, and the air was shut off.
The first hint that l had reached the
ruins came in the shape of block of
DIRE .scd stone lying right across my path.
AS l stepped upon it a great cobra
wriggled slowly away from my feet, and
l saw half dozen columns and lengths
of wall arising among the bushes.
Fifteen years before here had been a
clearing of perhaps hundred acres, with
a village of several thousand people, and
a temple covering half an acre of ground.
A man eating tiger now held sole pos
session, while the clearing had grown up
to Jungle, and fire or explosion had laid
the great temple in ruins. Ten feet
ahead of me was a second block. l
passed to that, and then the path turned
to the right and ran over a fallen wall:
AS reached this latter place and locked
around, the tiger was stretched out on
the earth before ME in a little open
space. His legs were drawn up and he
was gasping, and though I was greatly
startled for a moment, / soon realized
that he was dying. Indeed, he did not
live above two minutes after I set eyes
on him. AS I afterward learned, the
natives had poisoned the body of man
he had killed and only half devoured,
and in finishing his repast he had met
his fate. He had doubtless just returned
from satisfying his thirst at the creek.
1t was we'll for me that did not come a
few minutes earlier I examined the
body closely, and found the tiger to be
old and NANCY, with many of his teeth
decayed. These were sure evidences that
he was SOLITARY" and had no mate.
I need, therefore, have no fear that any
other animal more savage than a hyena
was concealed in the near vicinity.
The temple seemed to nave been blown
up with gunpowder. The walls were torn
and rent and knocked down in every di-
rection, and column and block and
carved work lay heaped together in
strange confus on. l was bewildered to
see the vegetation growing up through
the ruins so profusely, and it stood me
in hand to move carefully in such a
snake-infested spot. I picked my way
carefully to the center of the ruins, and
here l got pretty fair idea of what the
building had been. Here were the re-
mains of shrine or altar, which had
once been the cleanest of marble. 1t was
now stained and moss-grown and COW
cred with creepers. To look for buried
treasure in such a tumble was like look
ing for needle in haystack; bat I had
come for that purpose, and felt that l
must make beginning. Flinging sew
eral stones into the bushes to frighten
any lurking serpents away, I put down
my gun and began at the creepers. In a
little while uncovered what said was
an altar or shrine. 1t may not have
been. From the stone floor there was
solid wall, about six feet high, enclosing
a space about six feet square. The stone
which rested on these four walls was
foot thick, and carved around the edg ges.
I could not tell whether the walls en-
closed a space or the whole cube was
solid as support for pillar, but after a
close inspection I discovered spot
where the end of lever might be in
serted. I..had brought hatchet to help
me through the jungle. With this I
cut and trimmed small tree, and after
much effort loosencd the capstone until
could see that the walls enclosed a
space. On the surface of this capstone
I clealy made out where the foot of
pillar, which had probably helped to
support the roof, had rested. 1t lay
near by, but was broken by its fall.
! 1t was not more than eight o'clock in
the morning when I reached the ruins,
but it was two O'Clock in the afternoon
before had the heavy stone slowed
around far enough to upset its equi-
librium and force it to fall off. l was
in a tremble of excitement from the
first, and as slewed the stone further
and further around felt more and more
sanguine of a large cavity beneath. l
would not look in, however, until the
stone was clear of. When did bend
over the wall and look down it was to
find wooden chest occupying nearly
all the space. 1 sounded it with pole,
and it gave back such a solid echo that
I saw must pull the wall down to get
at it, This took me an hour or more,
as the plaster wa, as hard as the stone,
but at length l was at the chest. 1t
was closed but not locked, and as I
threw up the lid my eyes behcld such a
sight as will seldom come to man. That
chest held good solid ton of loot,
how many tens of thousands of dollars
worth cannot say. There were all the
gold coins of India. There were brace
lets and rings, and earrings and
charms and bars of gold. There were
diamonds and pearls and rubies and
other precious stones. Some were in
leather bags, some in parcels, some tied
touether and on the lid of the trunk
was Il list of articles with the names of
owners.
hung over the chest for perhaps half