Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1889-10-26

down the almost indistinguishable bar
rels, and | press the trigger. The
binding flash lnnps Eut, Ills answering
rear scarcs even the terrified pig into
silence and blue veil of smoke, hid
ing everything, hangs before us. Nit
turned toward me with Interrogation
or rcproach ~ his eyes, and shook his
head doubtfully.
For two minutes We sat and listened
Then long, hard drawn breath, cx-
PEELED in a painful, heavy sigh. came
ont of the bushas an cur RI Git. | never
heard & sweeter sound in my life. 1t
meant that the tiger was hit SO badly
that he could not get away at once,
and evidently hit somewhere ehout his
lungs. Eynry two minutes Cdr h"lf En-
hour this sdbbing sigh was audible
Then it ceased, but no matter. If he
was hurt as badly as that We should
get him for certain. s" lighted my
pip pc ena .rieu to wait patiently for
| daylight. 1t was so long in coming
that began to think the sun had over
slept itself, but at last Mt > o'clock we
climbed down and stretched our
cramped limbs the coolte arrived at
| almrst tbs sHtiG Infinite with the pony,
! the two natives returned with their
pole, and We started out to reconnoiter.
| First, as to the pig Instead of being
half eaten. as we supposed, he was all
night except for five LONG scratches
down one side, where the tiger had et-
identity PIT out his paw aid felt nf him
with natural curiosity as to what he
was doing there. Just behind him
were two deep footprints. That was
! all. No blood, no tracks, and We
looked cautiously round without seeing
sign. FiftN 'ar1s .ta,t th5re was a
stretch OF grass three feet high where
he vas very likely to be hidden
| Where could the tiger be, anyway ?
| Nit and | walked oyer to the edge OF
the grass and looked carefully all
| along it for tracks. That moment came
very near being the last for one of us.
| While we We're peering about the tiger
suddenly sat up in the grass not ten
| feet from us, and, with Il tremendous
roar, srrnnn clean nut inth the rpen.
He Vas So near that it was out of the
question to shoot. If / had flung my
| ililt lJINdlu IL NOull littNt luiltu on
him. | could see his white teeth dis
tiac,ly and the red gap of his throat.
l remember even at that moment won
| dering how he could possibly open his
mouth so wide. Mitt null / rhrh, per
haps. ter Yards apart, and the tiger
! lcaped out midway between us. In
Sti ctiyely the Annamite made wild
rush away on his side and | on Inine.
The tiger had evidently walked just
far crougii into the grass to be hidden
ard had then lain down. His presence
there took us so completely by sur.
p Use that we were helpless. | may as
well confess that my state Of mind at
that moment was one of dreadful funk.
| If the tiger had hnen slightly less
wounded than he was. 1t is perfectly
certain that in qno her instant he
would have killed one or the other OF
us. We had not die remotcst chance
of escaping him by runTi e away.
| But his first spring was evi-
IDENTIFY all he could manage. tor
| he turned immeaiutcly and sneaketi
back iato the cover. Nlitt fired INFO
| the moving grass ufter him, IN SPITE OF
my shouted protests, tearing piece of
| skin off his flank, a. we attclward dis
covered. We took five minutes to re.
| cover from our scare, aud then as The
beast was practically helpless, We
followed him Though the grass. Ate,
hundred yards, his growlS brought
us up short again. l sent Mitt up a
tree and he reported the sight of Ids
head. SO | beckoned him down, climbed
up myself, pnllcd up the rife after ne,
and there | could distinctly see the
| tiGcr about seventy ynlds away. sitting
on his haurehcs. with his back toward
me. aimed az his s. IKE behind hi
shoulders, and when the bullet struck
he simply got up AID turned hall
round, giving me Il splendid chance.
My second bullet struck him in exact
~ the right place, and he made 4 grab
with his mouth when it entered, then
spun round thee or four times. like a
;erricr chasing his tail, and fell in q
heap. At this moment the three other
men, who had not gone home after all
arrived on their Ionies, 50 We walked
carefully up II him i'll line. There he
lay, or rather She for it was Il fine
tig,c's, Il li.tlr under eight feet long
and yery beautifully marked
--~.S
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