New-York tribune., 1921-04-10

his own country.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
"'Then lift it up and rest it across my body.
Thou knowest how it is held"--
Little Shikara didn't know exactly, but he
rested the gun on Warwick's body, and he had
seen enough target practice to crook his fin
ger about the trigger. And together, the
strangest pair of huntsmen that the Indian
stars ever looked down upon, they waited.
s.TT IS Nahara, and thou art man, War
wick said again. "And now thou must
wait until thou seest her eyes,
So they strained into the darkness, and in
an instant more they saw again the two cir
cles of greenish, smoldering fire. They were
quite near now-Nahara was almost in leap
' ing range.
"Thou wilt look through the little hole at the
rear and then along the BARREL" Warwick or
dered swiftly, "and thou must see the two eyes
along the little notch in 'front.'
II see, Sahb-and between the eyes," came
Che same breathless whisper. The little brown
body held quite STILL Warwick could not even
feel it trembling against his own. For the
moment, by virtue of some strange prank of
Shiv, the jungle gods were giving their own
strength to this little brown son Of theirs be-
side the ford.
"Thou wilt not jerk or move?'
"Nay, Sahib.' And he spoke true The
world might break to pieces or blink out, but
he would not throw off his aim by any terror
motions They could see the tigers outline
now-the 1.-THE, low-hung body, the tail that
twitched up and down.
"Then pull the trigger" Warwick whis
pered.
The whole jungle world rocked and trembled
from the violence of the report
WHEN the villagers, aroused by the roar
of the rifle and led by Khusru and Juran
and Little Shikara's father, rushed down with
their tirebrands to the ford, their first thought
was that they had come only to the presence of
the dead. Three human beings lay very still
beside the stream, and fifty feet in the shadows
something else, that obviously was not hu-
man being, lay very still, too But they were
not to have any such horror story to tell their
wives. Only of the three by the ford
Slnghai, the gun-bearer, was even really un-
conscious. Little Shikara had gone into a
half-faint from fear and nervous exhaustion
ana Warwick Sahib had merely closed his eyes
to the darting light OF the firebrands The
only death that had occurred was that Of Ma
hara the tigress-and she had neat hole
bored completely through her neck.
The words that Warwick Sahib said. the
short vernacular words that have a way of
coming straight to the point established Little
Shikara as legend through all that corner
of British India. 1t was Little Shikara who
had come alone through the jungle, said he:
it was Little Shikara's shining eyes that had
gazed along the BARREL and it was his own
brown finger that had pulled the trigger. Thus
said Warwick, he would get the bounty that
the British government offered-Brtish rupees
that to childs eyes would be past counting
Thus in time, with Warwicks influence, hi.
would be great voice through all of India
For small as he was, and not yet grown, he
was of the true breed.
After the shouting was done Warwick turned
to Little Shikara to see how he thought upor
all these things. Thou shalt have trainine
for the army, little one, where thy good nerv,
will be of use, and thou shalt be native officer
along with the sons of princes. myself vii
see to 1t, for do not hold my life so cheap tha
will forget the thing thou hast done tonight
And he meant what he said. The villager
stood still when they saw his earnest fss.
"And what, little hawk, wilt thou have more.
he asked.
Little Shikara trembled and raised his eyes
"Only sometimes to ride with thee, in TIL
howdah, as thy servant, when thou agar
seekest the tiger"
81 would not dare go without thee now.
Warwick told him.
And thus Little Shikara's dreams came tru
to be known through many villages as
hunter of tigers and brave follower an
comrade of the forest trails.