Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-22

Eagerly we waited for the stars.
Below us, the little dogs full of our suppers,
curleu up into coZy nest of fern and went
to sleep. The goat settled down philosophical
ly and the bull stood silent meditating on his
wrongs.
WHY, he seemed to ask, was he here in
this dark. lonely jungle, instead of in
his nice matched house at home? We waited
for him to ask aloud; when he began paving
and lowering his head we quivered hopefully.
But every instinct in him told him that this
was not the place to demonstrate
The stars had not come but the MOSQUITOES
were there, methodic inSstent, and we tried to
crush them softly and quietly so as not to make
any noise to betray our presence.
My knees had begun promptly to feel the
irregular pressure of the boughs beneath them
and I yearned to relax and settle back but
there was always the lettering thought that
the very next moment might be the one when
the striped face would peer out of thickets and
the 1.-the, sinewy form steal near
Darkness and nothingness. Hours of it. in
silence and mosquitoes The night clouded.
Rain poured down in torrential outbursts We
got our guns under our raincoats and kept
them dry while the floods washed over U.S.
1t seemed to rain forever. I surmsed that
tigers did not hunt in the rain and 1 thought
enVlously OF our elusive tiger curled up COM
1ortably In some dry retreat I began to feel
genuinely murderous- minded toward him for
out Tor him should never have been roosting
up tree in Malay jungle, drenched by rain
and stung by mosquitoes, my knees cut through
by sharp branches, my bones stiff with cramp
The downpour ceased and we got our guns in
position again and tried cautiously to stretch
our aching limbs without making the mechan
rattle. Grimly we continued the vigil
The stars were out now, sending a soft
radiance down into our tiny pocket of
world The ants were out, too. crawl
ing up in joyous procession, and though
slaughtered armies of them was pitifully out
numbered. They came up on my side of the
platform, on the tree which formed one of its
supports, but from certain SpaSmodic move
ments on Herberts part judged that he, too,
was not being neglected
it seemed to me that the night would never
end. But was determined to hold out :.
AT last felt that 1t must be over. Surely
morning must be about to dawni The night
watch had been in vain-but at last it was
done.
Cautiously edged my wrist watch out from
the cuff, where it had been hidden to keep its
phosphorescence from winking down a warning
OF our presence, and studied the dial
1t was half-past eight.
1t did not seem possible that so much human
agony had all happened in two hours and
half
The glorious night was all ahead of me-
For comfort Rugged the thought that tiger
might come in. Draggingly the hours passed
II we could have stretched out in comfort we
would have delighted in the mystery and
strangeness of the night, for even as it was we
felt the Somber SPELL
Sometimes tree rustled; sometimes bush
Often we heard things stirring not far away
In the dark, wild pig, perhaps snuf1ing for
roots, or little black bear a weary deer.
There was time when the feeling gained on
us that tiger was near. We smelt that ex-
citing, unmistakable animal smell.
The bull began to breathe heavily and drew
back to the end of his tether. while the goat got
to his feet and stood motionless. The
moment passed uneventfulIy
THE lamp waned and died; SO did, at last.
our hope. Came, as it were, the dawn,
and, at its breaking, we clambered stifiy down
the bamboo ladder almost as q file Of natives
came streaming out from the jungle trail, full
OF hope for they thought that they had heard
shots in the night
Back at the rest house we consumed some un-
sailed rice for breakfast and had Just had a
bath-one of the stand-up- throw-cold- water
over-yourself baths of the Indies-and Herbert
was preparing to take one, and we were looking
forward to good long rest. when an excited
lot OF Malays came streaming in to tell us that
there was tiger asleep by tree.
He was two hours away. they said. They
had seen him at dawn as they went into the
fields to work
It did seem possible that they had elimpsed
living tiger asleep under a tree, and it was
also possible that the tiger was still there
They had left man on watch and, anyway
there would be the tracks the chance of a real
hunt. This looked like old times in Africa We
shouldered our guns and set out hurriedly after
the guides.
They led us through rice fields, through light
forest and denser forest then through more
rice fields and the clearings of little jungle
settlement. 1t took considerably more than two
hours even at the rate we were hurrying Then
q ad yVSaoo