The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-01-26
THE JHooT DEMON.
The Death Of . Blind1Terror of the Jun
giles Who Had Monkey for q Guide.

/
giles Who Had . Monkey for q Guide.
The great Jhoot demon described by
Col. Downing in his narrative of adj
ventures in India was tiger whose
ways were as mysterious as his ravages
were terrible. He could never be bag
ged. He killed every shikari. native or
European, who tried it. This trucu-
lent beast had never even been seen,
and as he never mangled body, but
only sucked the blood through an
orifice made over the jugular vein, the
terror the great Jhoot demon inspired
is not surprising. He never forced q
door, yet he got into house after house.
Two subalterns went out for him, and
the next day were found dead like the
rest.
One with his last strength had man.
aged to scratch the words: Look out
for a L." But no amount of con-
lecture could solve the riddle OF these
words. famous shot, " no once for
wager shot one hundred tigers in
twelve months, met the same fate.
He, too. left creepy" and mysterious
message-the letters "a. NJ" Then
the colonel goes He built himself an
ambush and watched.
Just as the full light of the moon
fell upon thesteam and illuminated the
surroundings there was an almost in
audible rustic of leaves close behind
me, and. turning on the instant, I
saw little gray-brown paw very
cautiously putting aside the twigs OF
my shelter, and behind the paw 1
could discern two small green eyes at
tentively regarding me.
"A lungoor,' said to myself rs it
vanished from view-a monkey. That's
what the lads and Dick Culverton
meant to tell us, and, by George!
there's mischief here. Moved by a
sudden inspiration, for which ! can
not to this day account, l FASTENED
from the shelter and assembled the adj
joining tree. l had scarcely time to
seat myself comfortably upon one of
the lower branches when | saw the
lungoor returning, followed by the
most repulsive looking monster my
eyes have ever beheld.
"You talk, Snapper, of your tiger be-
ing NANCY; this one was absolutely
naked, nude as nut, bald as bottle,
not hair anywhere-a huge, CHASTITY,
glabrous monstrosity-a very Caliban
of tigers, as big as bison, and as long
as crocodile.
''As the CHASTITY creature crept after
the monkey he followed the slightest
curve and deviation of his guide with
the delicate alacrity of a needle under
the influence of magnet. The adroit-
ness displayed by the tiger was sud-
denly converted into subject of hor-
rified wonder, for as the brute ap-
preached the ambush he turned his
hideous face up to the moon, and I
could see that his eyes were of dull,
dead white, without light. intelligence.
or movement. The creature was stone
blind. For all that, he evidently knew,
or thought he knew, what lay before
him. for the saliva of anticipation was
clinging to his wrinkled Jaws like n
mass of cleaning icicles.
THE monkey, when he had come
within jumping distance, gave low
signal cry, made one vigorous spring
into my late shelter, alighted upon my
camp stool and sprang out again on
the other side. He was intantly fol-
lowed by the tiger, who fell like an
avalanche upon the stool, crushing it
to match wood, and at once began to |
feel about on all sides for his expected
victim.
Now was my chance. Beneath me |
in the broad light of full moon lay |
the demon of the Jhoot / aimed |
steadily at deep furrow between the
shoulder blades and held my breath |
for the shot. At that moment the |
keen eyes of the monkey caught sight
of me, and the little animal uttered a
shrill note OF warning; but it was too
late; my finger was upon the trigger,
and fired both barrels in quick sue
Truth