The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-07-10
60;
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THE A OF E
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:. BY R. HOLT.L0MAX. 4
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Bowman Livingston had been back
from India only a week, yet the fell
lows at the Colonial Club, among
whom he used to bask in an atmos-
phere of high regard, were already
commencing to look uneasy when he
began-no; not began; resumed his
interminable stories about tiger hunt
ing.
1t is not given to every man who
carries big guns to India to bring
down three fine tigers, and everybody
felt that Livingston should be al
lowed a little pardonable swagger,
but it is wearisome to have to follow
through dinner after dinner an en-
>tnusiast's long tale about howdahs
and shikaris and dak bungalows and
all the Hindustanee rest of it. So it
was with gratitude that we all list
4 ened to the interruption of Lieuten-
ant de la Roche when he told a tale
that stopped poor Livingston's tiger
"reminiscences forever. Our buoyant
friend was laying down the law that
the tiger takes to man eating only
when he is too aged and decrepit to
hunt wild animals. De la Roche, a
dry, brown little fellow late of the
French army in Tonquin, begged his
pardon most deliberately, and said:
Il know you will believe that l am
not animated by a spirit of captious
contradiction when / tell You of my
experience to the contrary. The Incl
dent was so awful that I am reluc-
tant to speak of it. I assure you that
every time I hear or read the word
tiger the air about me seems to VI
brate with the shrieks that I shall
never forget.
II was leading q surveying expe-
-dition last year over the Pou Cha
Hong Mountains, on the way into
China, when we suddenly found our
selves menaced by a horde of tigers.
Nothing I had eve heard prepared
me for such a siege as this. In the
daytime we could see the huge, 81
lent, black-and-yellow beasts sinking
through the bush not far from our
column. They eve came near
enough to attack us in force, but they
trotted and walked watchfully along
q course parallel with ours, and
seemed to be always waiting for a
chance to pounce upon any stray
.gler. You may believe that we adj
vanced with absolutely unbroken
unity.
Il had always believed that the
tiger is a solitary creature, that hunts
alone, or, at most, in pairs. But here
they were actually stalking u in
numbers-we often saw as many as
seven or eight at N time. Although
they only menaced US at long range
in the day, the tigers were very dan
gerous at close range after night
fall. Under the advice Of our tai
pan, or head man, I made the camp
very compact, and always ended the
days march at least n hour before
the brief twilight. Then we built a
ring of camp-fres around our stop
ping place to keep the tigers away.
You Americans have heard of the aw-
full temperature in the Philippines.
Believe me it Is still hotter and more
moist in Tonquin. Add to that the
warmth from the campfres, and you
shall derive from the sum total some
idea of the awful heat we had to
undergo every night. The air was
sitting. We slept very little, and
then only ftfully.
zone night, as we were doing in
side our ring of fire In the Wang
Hos Forest, we were aroused by the
cries of human beings in awful dis
tress. My friends. I have heard at
the opera and in the theatre sounds
which represented the sounds Of
many souls in agony, but never have
I listened to such skrieks as those.
The number of voices seemed to be
myriad. There could be no doubt of
the dire extremity Of the people.
In a moment every m in our camp
"a wide awake. I called the tai
pan.
"'Get the boys ready I ordered
him. We must save those people
"?dy lord he replied, 1T is mad
ness. Do not lead US outside of the
ring OF fires. If we go we shall die.
Tho tigers will devour US. They are
at work now. 1t is the cries of their
victims that we hear. We can do no
good, and II We go we die .
"Gcadually the cries diminished in
volume. died into silence. I felt
rather than heard the rustic of every
leaf in the forest. Sleep was i'm
possible for any of US. We tossed
on our cots, oppressed by the
etiAing heat of our protecting fires.
and frightened by the screams that
still rang in u ears.
1T was safe to venture out at
daybreak; so, with my subaltern,
the tai pan, and a dozen ma foos, l
proceeded in the direction from
which the sounds had come. We
broke suddenly into a clearing in the
forest, around which stood a grove
Of stout camphor-trees.
Fastened to the trees by thick
ropes were the tattercd remnants of
what once had been human beings.
bow savagsfy they had been mangled
I shall refrain from telling YOU. l
knew at once the history OF that
tragedy. And even rs the thought
flashed through ny mind the tat pan
uttered it in words.