The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-06-22
TRmuNE-ruEsDAY MORNING, JUNE y. 1897.

tible night breeze. It flashed into my
mind that must have reached the
great gorge which had heard such
tales. With the thought a cold feeling
passed down my spine, and involun-
tarily I threw quick startled glance
over my shoulder-tigers
The shudder was followed by a quick
rush of blood that tingled all over me
from head to foot, and / shook myself
to throw off the feeling, which / knew
to be one of fear. 1 partly succeeded,
! but It was creepy still. The moonlight,
ON which / had been congratulating
myself so heartily only few moments
| before, seemed now to make Il worse
The gray. livid light had something
about it that was surely CHASTITY; the
little trembling shadows that were
thrown by the gray clumps and palms
suggested something alive: there was
| something ghostly in the whisper Of
| the night air through the leaves. As
the thought passed through my mind
started-I hardly knew why. but vet
l started, and again that cold shiver
ran down my limbs-nothing, that is,
but the moving panorama of leaves
and gra asses-nothing to be heard but
| the soft sigh of the night wind. ] lis
tened! Listened with the intensity
which is impossible except in moments
when the nervous tension is almost too
great for endurance is almost too great
for endurance. Yet there was surely
| something-there must have been-I
knew it, though could see nothing and
couldn't even fancy 1 had heard any
suspicious sound.
Yes. There was something-some-
| 1a %
as strange-a soft, low, rustling sound,
that was not the movement of the tall
bamboos, nor the whisper of the breeze
in the jungle grass. My heart stood
still for moment, but it was for a
moment only. Then the hot swift
blood rushed through my veins in a
fiery tide. / didn't think. but l knew
that my one hope of escape lay in the
speed of my bicycle. 1 had flattered
myself that I might do wonders If l
chose on a track, but no racing track
could possibly have held out such a
prize as was before me now.
l bent forward over the wheel. !
strained each nerve and sinew to its
utmost tension, and still each nerve
and fiber of my body seemed to listen
/ could hear it still-swift, stealthy
untiring, cruel as death, it seemed tC
| fit through the jungle-no sound-only
a soft brushing sound, but more ter
rible in its stealthy quietness than the
loudest and most startling noise. On,
on! The slope was down hill and
seemed even to myself to fly, but was
L really going at a rate that could hope
to outstrip that pursuit? Suddenly OF
the right where the higher GROUND
came down to the side of the road 6
great clump of jungle grass that
looked livid in the pale light waved
with a quick motion. There wa.
fash-it might have been tn,
light from living eyes or only
the light from the shaken grassland
a bar of something dark shot ou
of the jungle with a low fierce, hissint
snarl. / crouched together instructive
ly, as If L had been struck, and at tn,
same instant something passed me
l seemed to feel a sudden warmth upor
my shoulder, and it was gone w,
rushed on at the same headlong speed
and yet as we went L heard a sof
crash on my left-the tiger had sprung
and he had missed!
| L hardly know what followed my es
cape. l have vague remembrance o
enduring the fierce strain of a long eff
fort-a sense of overpowering relic
when 1 was met by the first challeng,
as I reached the edge of the canton
ment at Koondewalla. 1 can remembe
the astonished face of Colonel Gibson
as he looked from me to the note 1 haC
given him and back again. His voice
however, sounded far away to my ear
as he said: Good God, major, here's
nice business! We mustn't lose mo
ment; but ask the doctor to look afte
Mr.. Hall-Im afraid he has overdon
it,"
THE END.