Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-20

everything you have recently forgotten.
You repeat to yourself . long poem At
sure some two hours have elapsed. You
look at your watch. Fifteen minutes We
loaded our rifles ut half past six. Till half past
ten we sat side by side like two stone Buddhas.
water 10 drink, which was an intensely welcome
break in the monotony. At half past eleven
Aiitt made signs to me TO 60 to sleep for while
| and he would watch. At half past twelve he
woke me and Immediately fell back in his turn,
fast asleep. The rest and the consciousness
that had no longer the sharp eyes Of my COM
panion TO rely upon made me doubly attentive,
and watched every twig. II had been moon
light, but the moon was now hidden behind
clouds. On the horizon before me broad
flashes Of summer lightning were playing.
There was chorus Of frogs in the distance,
night birds were calling to one another. the
great lizards were making extraordinary and
grotesque noises, and IL vas so dark that could
no longer discern the black patch of the pigs
body on the ground twenty yards away. Not
single glimmer reflected on the diamond
sights, and could scarcely see the chalked rib
of my barrels. But stared all around into the
darkness till my eyes stuck out of my head.
AT LAST.
Suddenly, in perfect silence and without the
slightest warning, big black object flashed by
the far side of the little pool It was like the
| swoop past of an owl in the starlight, like the
| shadow OF passing bird, utterly noiseless and
instantaneous. Every nerve in my body was
athrill, every muscle stiff with excitement
Slowly put out my left hand and grasped my
| sleeping companion hard by the leg. If he
made the slightest noise we were lost. Like a
| trained hunter he woke and lifted himself into
sitting position without q sound. Rifle to
shoulder we peered through our peep holes. A
moment later blood-curdling scream broke
the stiffness, followed by yell after yell of utter
terror: 1t was the wretched pig who had woke
| to find himself in the clutches of the tiger, and
| the effect on nerves strained in silence to their
utmost tension was electrical. l shall never
| forget that moment
THE TIGER WAS THERE
before me; he had the pig in his grasp; in an
other second he would probably be gone. And
could see nothing, absolutely nothing It was
pitch dark in the depression where he was
standing, and might as well have fired with
| my eyes shut. Stare as l would, could not
distinguish the least thing at which to aim.
ana all the time the pig was yelling loud
! enough to wake the dead. Suddenly saw the
same black shadow pass up the little incline for
dozen yards. The pigs screams dropped into
| a long howl My heart sank. Had the tiger
gone? No, for an instant afterward the
| shadow shot down the slope again and the yells
broke out afresh.
THE SITUATION WAS AaoNrzrNa.
could hardly resist the temptation to fire
both barrels at random into the darkness. Do
see something? Yes. the black mass of the
pig, spinning head over heels on his ropes like
a butterfly on pin. And Just above him a
very pale, faint curved line of white. 1t is the
white horseshoe of the tigers chest and the in
side of his forelegs as he has turned for a mo-
ment in my direction. Now or never. A last
! glance down the almost indistinguishable bar
rels and 1 press the trigger The binding
| flash leaps out, the answering roar scares even
the terrified pig into silence, and blue veil of
smoke, hiding everything. hangs before us.
| Mltt turned toward me with Interrogation or
| fully.
| SWEET SOUND.
For two minutes we sat and listened. Then
a long, hard-drawn breath, expelled in a pain
| full heavy sigh, came out of the bushes on our
right. 1 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 evil
| IDENTIFY hit somewhere about the lungs Every
| two minutes for half an hour this sobbing sigh
was audible. Then it ceased; but no matter.
| If he was hurt badly as that we should get
him for certain. So 1 lighted my pipe and
| tried to wait patiently for daylight It was
SO long in coming that began to think the sun
had oversight itself, but at last at O'Clock we
climbed down and stretched our cramped
| limbs; the coolie arrived at almost the same
| minute with his pony, the two natives returned
| with their pole, and we started out to recon-
| hotter.
First, as to the pig. Instead Of being half
| eaten, as we supposed, he was all right except
| for five long scratches down one side, where
the tiger had evidently put out his paw and
felt of him with natural curiosity as to what
he was doing there. Just behind him were two
deep foot prints. That was all. No blood, no
tracks, and we looked cautiously round without
ciey ftp uard, H.
stretch of grass feet high, where he was very
likely to be hidden. But knew from books
| that to walk upon a wounded tiger, practically
single handed, for could not tell how far the
Annamite could be depended upon at a critical
moment would be for an inexperienced man
an act of objectionable folly So, reoollecting
that two or three men from the telegraph sta
ton had spent the night a mile away, sent
the coolie to fetch them. He returned, saying
they had gone home. This was annoying for
the sun was already hot, and to send back for
help meant delay OF several hours. Where
could the tiger be, any way? Nit and
walked over to the edge of the grass and
ooked carefully along it for tracks.
NARROW. ESCAPE.
That moment came very near being the last
for one Of us. While we were peering about
the tiger suddenly sat up in the grass not ten
feet from us and, with q tremendous roar
sprang clean out into the open. He was 30
near that it was out Of the question to shoot
If had thrown my rifle forward II would have
fallen on him. could see his white teeth dis
tinctly and the red gap of his throat I remem-
Der even at that moment wondering how he
could possibly open his mouth 80 wide. Nit
and were perhaps ten yards apart and the
tiger leaped out midway between us. Instinct
lively the Annamite made q wild rush away on
his side and l on mine. The tiger had evil
IDENTIFY just walked far enough into the grass to
be hidden and had then lain down. His pres.
ence there took us so completely by surprise
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 been slightly
less wounded than he was It is perfectly certain
| that In another instant he would have killed
one or the other of us. We had not the re-
hottest chance Of escaping him by running
away. But his first spring was evidently all he
could manage, for he turned immediately and
sneaked back into the cover.
HOW Nh. STRIPES WAS KILLED.
Nit fred into the moving grass after him in
spite of my shouted protests, tearing piece Of
skin off his flank, as we afterward discovered.
We took. five minutes to recover from our scare
and then, as the beast was actically helpless
we followed him through the grass. After a
hundred yards his growls brought Us up short
| again. sent Nit up tree and he reported
| the sight of his head. So I beckoned him
down, climbed up myself, pulled up the rife
| tiger about seventy yards away, sitting on his
at his spine behind his shoulders and when
ftak 01l ak ho