Evening star., 1928-09-09

had no further sleep that night
What perturbed me most was the tigers
apparent disregard Of fire. No longer
were we safe asleep at night.
Time was passing apace and things
were looking desperate. / once more
got in touch with the man-eater to-
ward the end of the month, but it
was very cold and useless scent. A
woman of Chahnda had been seized.
Three others had heard the cry and
seen the long grass waving as she was
dragged away into the forest depths.
The villagers, armed with antique
rnatchlocks and tom-toms, had bravely
returned to the kill and recovered the
body. The woman was a revered vii
lage elder; hence their solicitude for
her recovery.
Then, after three days intense
watching of waterholes in lonely
places at intersection of tracts in likely
nalas and after dangerous perambula-
tionS in high elephant grass, came news
of the killing of the Gwari bait. The
man-eater had wandered down the
Gwari nala toward the village in the
hopes Of meal Finding no humans
out in the jungle that day, the villagers
having at last learned their lesson, he
had suddenly happened on a buffalo,
with which he had appeased his
hunger.
X X X X
MIDDAY saw me recunnoitering the
4'A kill once more al6ne. l could get
no one in the village within even shout
ing distance of the nala. The tiger had
scientifically killed my biggest and
most expensive calf, broken the rope
and dragged it twenty yards into a
small nala under a gigantic tree At
last I saw his tracks; the big broad
pugS of powerful male tiger. There
was water nearby and the wall of
jungle rose north OF the nala and ran
right down to the kill. He undoubtedly
lay in this, gorged after his meal. How
near did not guess.
It was with the greatest difficulty I
got the men to approach the tree to
put up the machan. AL were paralyZed
with fear and mesmerized by the prox-
unity of the forest. After much boot
persuasion got them into the tree and
stood on guard below on the fringe of
the jungle, watching for the man
eaters very probable return.
At three O'Clock / climbed into the
machan. a good twenty feet above the
/, kill, with good, all round view and
/ Ugh enough to miss the concentrated
g we of the most sophisticated tiger.
Tle nala lay like an ampitheater sur
l "a lnded on three sides by hills. Soon
a ter four the sunlight left the slopes
of the valley and a gloom settled down
ovs y: it, a peculiarly sinister gloom sub
con E:iously cast by the presence of the
mai s'eater.
Fo + Some time / watched three Lam
CUR monkeys playing on the far hill
side, and later a peacock in full
pluma ge crept from out the jungles and
lay do, Vn few yards from my machan,
before stalking away uphill into the
gloom. A barking deer
crossed the open glade. bound for its
sunset d link, and foul, bare-pated
vulture ca me on to my tree and scruti-
nized the kill. Surely the most revolt
ing of scsNengers, with its diseased
body, scrasg'ly, blood-red neck and
dirty gray ruff. A cruel, lfVid, Shaven
pate, with heak as cruel and remorse-
less as a steel hook. 1t reeked Of evil.
Darkness descended on the valley, and
the kill faded into the shadows. was
faced with another lonely IL hours
vigil. / dared laI3t close my eyes for a
moment for fear" Of falling 20 feet, and
had to fight to keep awake the long
night through. Once in the depths of
the night I shook out Of long browse,
hearing a movement below, but my
electric light displayed a solitary hyena.
Toward dawn / Thought heard the
far-distant roar of a. hungry tiger.
After Is hours vigil, chilled, numb
and sleep-ridden, descended from the
machan. The man-eater had scored
of me once again.
X 4 X
A ND now the final reckoning! 1t
had become a duel of wits and
daring between myself and the jungle
scourge There was a shade of odds ON
his side, as he was talsing me on in