Evening star., 1926-04-11

| How. then. could l do otherwise than
Kill anything | aim att"
Then he thought again, biting his
nails. when l asked him why he, be.
ing such an adept with the bow, had
not started out in pursuit of this
tiger.
"Ah, tiger, Great One a
tiger" said he, and his eyes flashed
fire as he spoke, "a tiger is too quick,
for he ever springs before you are
ready"
There was much in his reasoning,
for such is the truth; yet he manifest.
ly was better equipped than L was.
standing with only my two hands,
plus a little gray matter, to fight the
beast. 1 was in a pretty fix, especially
when this man with the bow f1atly de-
c,ined to assist me. He was un-
worthy, he said, he did not know my
ways, and complacently assured me
, that a Great One would not need the
help of one so humble as he.
He would, moreover, not dare to
participate in my plans; he would not
even stalk the enemy for me. for he
knew, as the whole village confidently
believed so great a. man as myself
could not profit from advice from such
dullheads as his co-villagers. Talk as
would, bribe as 1 would, this fellow
was adamant. No cooperation could
be looked for from him, nor from the
others-yet the animal had to be cap
tured, or I would lose face forever in
that neighborhood, and things might
not 60 so we'll with me in other ways.
At last, however, long after dark.
this man came to me and con-
sented, on condition that 1 should en-.
tice the tiger into full view in a place
where no danger existed to himself, to
shoot his poisoned arrows into the
animals body, II directed by me to do
so. This mans name was Loa Futsi,
and he brought with him his father
inlaw, old Sung Pao-chi, who also
consented to place himself and his
bow at my disposal on similar con-
ditions.
This sounded more reasonable. so
we decided that on the following
morning the whole village in gala
spirit would set out to capture the
man-eater.
Just beyond the village, leading in
northerly direction, ran river which
had cut its way through precipitous
cliffs. SO that one could look sheer
down the rocky wall.like river bank
for perhaps a thousand feet to the
turbid stream rushing below. In this
locality, however, bridges as under
SLOCQ lIl luc AII1cIlCdu SeIlS0 are COIi-
spicuous by their absence. If one
wishes to travel, he is compelled to
cross these rivers by swinging him
self over single.rope bridges which
are attached to the sides Of the rocks.
X y X
A BOVE this village spanning the
4 river was one such fiimsy bridge,
and it was necessary for all men and
AtaT AI1~ wH,l-1
of the main road to cross 1t. AS the
natives whose duty 1t was to act as
scouts had declared that the tiger
was prowling somewhere in the neigh
borhood of the bridge, the brilliant
idea struck me that this was the very
place where l should remain in case
the man-eater ran amok.
With ease. then, I could attach my
self 10 the rope, swing myself into mid
stream, a 8 1t were. and remain there
dangling over the river out of harms g
way until the tiger became tired OF
waiting-that is. If the rope did not
snap, in which case it would be diff
ferent story.
I promptly, therefore, took up my
headquarters at the bridgehead,
whence l delivered my orders with
surprising ostentation. To the head
scout 1 calmly confided the informa-
LiOn tndL II LnlS IellS IlSrlS were ais
covered he should be driven or enticed
straight to the place where I stood at
the head of the bridge. and that the
rest should be left to me. The most
conspicuous feature Of this mans face
was the enormous size Of his mouth,
which he now opened in undisguised
admiration Of myself. He stared
agape. He could hardly believe his
ears.
"Ah. an" he blurted out, stammering
as he spoke, ''at last l have found a
brave man-at last. at last" And then
to the others he yelled: See. here is a
man without any weapon, without any
protection whatever, willing and
anxious to meet the tiger on his own
ground. At last we have found a
brave man."
A roar of genuine approval went up,
and then. realizing that I really was
the kind Of person that they imagined
me to be, and that yesterdays objec-
ton was mere horseplay, they all
enthusiastically set forth to drive the
tiger from his lair. wherever that
might be. /
l stationed Loa Fu-tsi up a tree not
far from me, and old Sung PaO-chi,
man of at least 20, with face usually
wrinkled with smiles, nearly fright
ened to death by ordering him to
swing himself out to the middle Of the
bridge and await further instructions.