The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-09-11
ing removed %he barrier, obviously
placed there by themselves, the rob-
bers vanished as rapidly and silently
as they had appeared on the scene.
A TIGER IN THE DARK.

[ have had in hunting occurred while
China. A friend and myself had de-
cided to try our luck with "stripes"
/ in the Annoy hills, where we were
told there were lots of tigers. We
had out searching for game several
Chinese hunters who promised to let
us know as soon as they found out
place frequented by tigers.
One day in March two of them
called and said they knew a place
where we were sure to get a shot at
tiger We asked the hunters
where we should spend the night.
They said they had made arrange
ments with a priest for us to stay at
a temple. After ride of about three
hours we arrived at the foot of
range of hills, and good way up
saw the small temple where we were
to stay that night. Our beds were
soon made and arrangements made
for dinner. The Chinese seem tc
have no scruples at all. as we slept
close alongside the altar. This did not
prevent the villagers from coming in
the early morning and burning theiI
joss sticks to Buddha quite uncon
cerned at our presence.
At the first sign of dawn with oul
ed to the valley. AS soon as it was
possible to see we eagerly scanned
the tops of the hills for a sign of the
tigers. In this part of the country II
is customary for them to return to
their lairs at the break of dawn with
sighted he was carefully watched tc
see if there was any opening in the
cave other than the one he had en-,
tered. After few anxious moments
the hunters returned and said there
was no other entrance. We then
rule, in these caves one man only
gets a shot. We proceeded to the
place where the tiger had entered the
cave, the Chinese hunters lighted
their torches and proceeded to search
for the tigers.
the cave, as it was not desirable that
all of us should enter it once; il
would make too much noise. After
a little time the man returned and
said the tiger had been located and
that it was a tigress with two cubs.
This made it much more interesting,
as the tigress was sure to show fight
on account of her cubs.
We proceeded silently and in sim
gle file to enter the cave. Some parts
of it were so low that we had to put
our rifles through first and crawl on
our hands and knees. In other parts
it opened out fairly wide. In the sand
at our feet we could see the foot
prints of the tigress and her cubs.
After about ten minutes travelling in
this manner, with the torch man
ahead, he pointed out and nodded to
show where the tigress was. At this
time we were in chamber about ten
feet square, just room for the four
of us, two Chinese hunters with their
torches and spears, my friend and
myself. My friend, as he had first
shot, was just in front of me with
one Chinese hunter on each side of
him. He leaned forward to look
down the cave toward the tigress
when she suddenly made dash, put
spH& the two torches and sprang at
my friend.
The moment the tigress did so
my friend slipped and dropped his
rife, so he could not fire. I took a
rapid shot as the tigress sprang and
luckily brought her down. The sit
uation was exciting to say the least.
l could not tell if I had killed the
animal. Part of the body was ac-
tually across my feet. 1t was al.
most dark, the torches were just
smouldering and there were four OF
us in the small chamber with the
creature lying in our midst. The
Chinese hunters gradually got theiis
torches alight again and was able
to take stock of the situation. MY
friend had been terribly mauled on
the chest and was bleeding badly.
but the tigress was stone dead.
After awhile 1 got my friend out
and then the tigress.. From the time
the tigress made her spring till the
torches were. ialight again was only
a few seconds, but 1t seemed ages
Forest and Stream.