The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-07

pillar, and then swaying for a moment.
sheam-bcd above which she had been ly-
ing-What could I think but that she was
0eaa, ana, 1oyIui with SO easy conquest,
as the tiger teh back into the nullah /
ran eagerly forward to the very brink
of the bank, and there found the brute
directly below me sitting on her launches
and rocking stupidity to and fro as though
she would fall every moment, while the
blood was running in a crimson trickle
down her neck from broad wound in
her forehead
Like fool I shouted with delight. and
raising my matchbox, which I had loaded
as | ran to give her the finishing shot,
stepped right on to the very brink of the
steep, sandy bank. How can l describe
what followed! my blood runs cold
through my crooked veins even now to
think Of it! AS / made that fatal step
forward and raised the gun to my shout
der second time I felt something give,
the rotten soil crumbled under my heels,
and quicker than it takes to tell ! was
tumbling headlong through a cloud of
dust and rubbish right into the jaws of
that snarllng beast below.
MY un1red rifle was tossed from my
knife hurled from my fist as as
we closed, and then u hardly
know what came next. 1 have a dim rec
objection OF plunging my fingers in agony
and despair into her hairy throat, a wild
vision of flying around in a vortex of dust
and blood and yellow hide, of feeling my
mendous paws and my flesh rip and tear
as we surged to and fro, and then there
was moment or two of oblivion.
when 1 came TO / was lying on my
back on the trampled sand, the blood
patches on either side smoking up to a hot
Indian sun, a purgatory of fierce fires
racking every bruised and broken limb,
and astride of me the tigress was stand
ing painting, her wicked face twitching
with rage within a foot OF mine, While
over one eye was hanging a dripping
arfr of no
head by the glancng of my first msdi-
rected shot. Now I knew why she had 50
quickly recovered after the shock
of that wound. Wah! the knowledge that
she was as sound and well as ever burst
into my heart like a rush of ice-cold
water as / lay there bleeding from many
wounds and staring helpless at her.
But the end was not TO come as soon as
you might have thought. She, that devil
whose name I thus again spit upon, stood
astride of me painting her foetid breath
into my face and covering me with the
trckle of her great raw wound for a min
ute or two; then sitting down on her
launches eyed me with a malicious DELHI
Grafton as though turning some matter
over in her mind. I very soon knew what
she was thinking of. After having gone
up to the top Of the bank 10 make sure
no other hunters were upon her track,
the tigress returned, and when all my
wounds had been smelt with greedy pleas
ure, she stretched me out for greater con-
Venience, as butcher arrauges the car
cass Of a dead sheep, and then driving
her great grinding fangs into the feshy
part of my neck with a sudden jerk and
lift tossed me back over her shoulders
and began to move away towards the
broader nullah and her home in the hills
beyond.
TT was only when she heaved me up
like that / knew for the first time my
leg was broken. But I knew il then, and
as the bones cracked and parted under the
strain and pressure on my throat Of those
piercing teeth half-forced my eyeballs
from my head the full capacity for suffer
ing rushed back upon me, and l screamed
for the first time-screamed till all the
country round echoed with it-screamed
like a rat in a gin-screamed till the dogs
barked in the village Two miles pack, Dut
never by a hairs breadth did that brute
relax her hold.
"Jolting and slipping every moment an
exquisite agony to my torn body, my brOk-
en- limbs, trailing behind till every open
wound was filled with dust and blood, we
went through thorn bushes and over the
dry reed beds 20 where a trickle Of water
ran along the main nullah between broad
sandy levels. Near the edge of the stream
the tigress put me down for a moment
while she drank her fill, and ! had still
had sense enough to scraWl, as I lay, my
name with niger UP on the snooth yer
low surface of the river bed nalf-hOplng,
if a rescue came upon our trail, they might
know by that ] lived. Then on again, car
ried as a cat carries a mouse towards the
rocky hill that lay sheltering in the brun-
ing sunshine a mile away. over the steam
ing rice helds past the hamlets hidden IN
banks Of rustling banana leaves through
The prickly coppices where the green and
gold snakes slipped glistening out Of our
way. and the little birds on the twigs ned
chirruplng desperately TO one another as
the striped terror of the jungle slouched
past them
F"I knew then that she was taking me
away 10 her lair in the hills to be stored
m against the time her royal appetite
should return. but little did ] know how
long that thing would be delayed! we
crossed the fiat country, the ploughmen
behind the teams Of sleepy red oxen drop