Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1894-09-07

die of story to which he was listen
ing, he would turn his head quickly
and lift his left hand, or, rather, the
remains of it, with a quick, involun-
tary action, and drop it again as il re-
assured. When waiter came behind
him Unexpectedly, he moved uneasily
and restrained himself from rising by
a strong effort of will
Its Arbuthnot's turn now" said
Anderton, the Junior of the three. "He
looks like man who has been badly
scared by tiger. Wen give him ten
minutes, and then be off,"
Arbuthnot gulped down his liquor.
II was badly scared once" he ad-
mitted. "And, what's more, / shall
never get over it. was living with
three other men at Nigriting, which
had very bad reputation indeed In
the way of tigers. Of course, that
didn't bother me very much until the
Man Eater stole my chokidar watch
MANI and eat him. The tiger liked
my fellow SO well that he came back
shortly afterwards, and walked off
with new chokidar. When choltidar
number three disappeared the matter
began to be serious-and expensive.
There was panic In the land. l
couldn't get another chokidar for love
or money, and the relations of the de-
funct chokidars would come and sit on
the bungalow veranda in rows and
solemnly heap upon my innocent head
all the curses they could think OF or
invent; and, what was worse still, they
did not confne themselves to cursing
me, but cursed my ancestors and
ancestresses for five generations back
with patient persistency and copious-
ness which | had never before ex-
perienced, and have no wish to again
undergo. Not content with cursing
me, one of them resolved to die on the
veranda, and made elaborate prepare
tions for starving himself to death.
Suddenly, one of his friends pointed
out to him that the only drawback to
such policy would be the fact that
the tiger came every evening, and that
no mortal with any self-respect likes
to die in less than twenty-four hours.
If native, who had made up his mind
to die, did it In hurry, he
would lose all the qualification
of knowing that the Sahib in
side the bungalow was being
worked up to pitch of madness in
the end savor to think of something to
keep him alive. You all know the mar
velous manner in which native can
eliminate himself from this world by
simply making up his mind to go
hence. | didn't want to have the gov
eminent come down on me for causing
the loss of an entire village of natives,
which would assuredly haze happened
after they had once started dying off
like flies. 1t is very like an Albanian
blood feud. A kills b, whereupon BIS
relations slay A, and AS relations
slaughter as many of BIS friends as
they can conveniently get hold Of
When chokidar number one disap-
peared all his friends demanded com
pensation, and when chokidar number
two was carried off the friends of choki-
dar number one thought it extremely
indicate that the friends of number
two could not wait until their claims
had been satisfied. OF course, when
chokidar number three was waited
into the jungle you can imagine the
further complications which ensued;
they were something awful. The only
way out of the situation was to COM
pensate the whole lot of natives and
settle the tiger before he killed any
more. was anxious to do this
for another reason; every native
In the village who had decaying,
sem:-defunct relative of whom he
was anxious to be rid put him
forward as candidate for the vacant
post The more infrm the proposed
Waterman was, the better chance
would there be of his not escaping the
tiger and thus bringing in little CON-
pensation to the relatives and, at the
same time, freeing them from the bur.
den of supporting him In idleness. OF
course, this was all very we'll from the
natives point of view, but did not
see why should be mulcted so heavily
because man-eating tiger did me the
honor to eat my chokidars. was
quite content to pay extra wages II
the natives would take the extra risk,
but they didn't seem to see 1t in that
light, and wanted higher money as a
sort of insurance to go to their rela'
tives in case of accidents.
1.-THE matter at last grew to be SC
serious that something had to be done,
did not much care about tackling the
: tiger single-handed in the lone black
ness of the night The intense gloom
In which you can't see your fingers be-
fore you, is apt to unnerve man, es
pecially if there is every probability
Of the beast sneaking in upon you
when you are half aisle ep The mere
act of straining your attention on the
effort to keep awake gradually send:
: you into a semi-torpid state. Then
comes the tiger. and after the tiger
oblivion.
AT length, | determined TO ash
three other fellows to come over ant
watch with me through the night un
I'll we could settle Master Stripes
Like all Englishmen who get together
in India, we had good dinner, plenty
Of liquor. and cards afterwards
About eleven, we all went into tn,
veranda of my bungalow to watch
There wasn't n star to be seen any
where. and of course all the lights il
the mousse had been carefully put ont
One or two of us started telling stor
les. hut, as we yarned, somehow on
eoursge seemed TO evapoFate. It wa
an easy thing t. talk OF Tiger hillinl
when we were sitting round tie din