The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-09

He was a fine specimen of Toda
who walked toward me this morning as
| indolently reclined in an easy chair
in my veranda, luxuriating in the fumes
of one of Spencer's incompatible CT
CARS, and as | noted his shapely limbs,
clear-cut features and curly hair, he in
dulged in a cultural account of some
thing which had engaged his interest,
to the accompaniment or an express
i've pantomime. Evidently he was
/ poured out some whiskey wherewth
to beguile the time until an inter-
prefer should appear to make known
to me the Toda's reason for seeking me
out, the stalwart mountaineer signified
his wish likewise for some zoos oos
thuney" Qizzing water, which was
the expressive term by which he desi9-
mated soda water. My boy eventually
explained that tiger had killed one of
the Toda's buffaoes at dawn, and that
he had been marked down in a shola
near Ubadallah. | did not allow the
grass to grow under my feet, for within
an hour of having received the khubber
/ had the shola surrounded by beaters,
and had posted myself in command
ing position. To my surprise, the drive
hardly began when the tiger broke
cover, and this was so unexpected, and
found us so unprepared, that Stripes
escaped with whole skin for the time
being. 1t was in this wise: | had just
given directions to my two shikaries to
bring on the line of beaters straight
toward me, and they had gone away
from me about twenty yards in pursu-
ance of my instructions, when the tiger
put his head through bush and walked
right out between us. For me to have
fired would have been TO insure the
death of one or both of the shikaries,
as the tiger had his face turned toward
them, and would Immediately have
sprung on the men if molested, so that
1 was obliged per force to let him
pass. He did not 90 far, but lay up in
a small detached shola some few hun
dred yards away. A little time elapsed
before | got my men away from the
other shola, and in line to beat the
small one. Having accomplished this,
took up my position and directed the
shikaries to bring the heaters right
through toward me. This they accomp-
lished with tremendous uproar, the
beating of the drums and the firing
of blank cartridges; but | was not
little amazed when the shikalies and
heaters emerged at my end of the shola,
and declared that there was no tiger
there! | was fairly perplexed; the
men had certainly beaten right through
the shola, and could scarcely have
missed seeing the tiger if he was there,
and yet how could he have broken
cover unobserved through so strictly
guarded line? In this dilemma l re-
solved to enter the shola myself, and in
vestigate the mystery. | took the two
shikaries with me, and we almost i'm
mediately hit off the pugs of the tiger
in the bed of stream with high banks.
We followed these for about hundred
yards, when they mysteliously disap-
peared at the foot of large tree with
thick spreading branches. Again and
again we tried back TO trace out the
tigers line; but the pugs always brought
us back the same route to the tree. AS
we were peering into the last discern
IDLE pug, as if to derive inspiration from
it, one of the shikaries happened to
look up, and Immediately pointed up
ward with a startled shout, and before
| could realize the situation, Stripes
bounded clear over our head and disap-
peared in the underground. The brute
had actually climbed or sprung into the
tree, whose branches swept out close to
the ground, and remained hattened
into the smallest conceivable compass
against bough the whole time that we
were trying to puzzle out his trail under
meath. 1t is fortunate he did not drop
upon any of us, as he would have taken
us so entirely at disadvantage that some
of the party would infallibly have come
to grief. OF course we never dreamed of
looking into the trees, and as we re-
stricted our gaze persistently to the
ground, we should not have seen the
tiger at all had not the shikarie accident
ally happened to look up. When he
jumped off the tree, Stripes broke
through the line of beaters, and re-
entered the big shola, where it was too
late to follow him.-E. H., IN Exchange.