Evening star., 1936-01-05
Magazine Section

time had come Wnen ne ndu W OcheNC
that a nail driven into a tree could
lock a man-eating tigers jaws and
cause it to starve to death - Well. he
hadn't yet reached that point. If he
ever did, it would be time to leave
India! Something had evidently hap
pened to this Rangapoor man-eater,
but it wasn't what Bulbud believed.
McGregor rose suddenly and picked
I'D the heavier of his two rifles. dou-
BILE .45O express. II the tigers body
could be found, it would be discovered.
of course, that the beast had been
killed in some natural way - some
accident perhaps. There wasn't one
chance in five of finding it IN the
Jungle: nevertheless. he couldn't SIT
down idly 80.
He took, almost without realizing it.
the hill path that circled back above
the village. Coming to the karnda
thicket, he remembered that Bulbud
had described the abandoned shrine
as being just above the path - the
tomb which was supposed to be the
abode Of the Chedipee, the tigers
woman. He made his way through the
karindas, then amid the tamarisks
around the pool and up the slope be-
yond. The shrine, he saw. stood among
trees on the rocky brow of small
plateau: two broken marble columns
and a section of low wall in front OF a
slab of black basalt-like stone cracked
across the middle.
To the ruin itself McCregor gave
scarcely a glance; he had seen scores OF
these forgotten monuments OF the once
powerful Rajput princes whose crum-
bling palaces and temples had been
swallowed by the jungle. Between the
two marble columns stood a large
bahera tree and in the trunk. twenty
feet above the ground. he saw the nail.
He had a queer impression that the
thing had drawn his eyes like mag
net. but that. he reassured himself.
was mere fancy. This tree directly be-
tween the columns would have been
the logical one for Bulbud to choose.
Logical! There wasn't anything log
ical in this whole ridiculous business.
An iron nail driven into tree to lock
a tigers jaws and keep woman from
coming out of her tomb. A Chedipee
"a woman who belonged to tiger!
He remembered suddenly that Bulbud
had mentioned an inscription, some
writing in an unknown language. After
a minute he found it, on the front of
the low wall. He saw at a glance that it
was Persian; Persian, he recalled. had
become the official language OF the
Moghul Empire in the time of Akbar
the Magnificent.
He had fair knowledge of it. picked
up during his studies of the native
superstitions and religions. The letter
ing was badly worn in places: he
worked the meaning out slowly. word
by word:
''SHE THAT WAS CALLED TARA RANEE,
QUEEN OF THE STARS. BECAUSE SHE
WAS PALE LIKE A STAR, LIES BENEATH
THIS SHRINE IN THE UPPER GARDEN OF
RAwUL THE KING WHOSE LOVE SHE
BETRAYED IN A DARK HOUR. HERE
MUST SHE LIE FOR UNTOLD CENTURIES
UNTIL kAwUL, TAKING TIE FORM or
HIS FIRST ANCESTOR. WALKS AGAIN.
THEN WILL SHE COME FORTH"
McCregor Strengthened slowly. The
rest was illegible. but that didn't mat.
ter; what he had read was more than
enough. There wasn't any doubt about
what was meant by Rawul's first an
cestor: McCregor knew enough about
Rajput history to understand at once
Rawui had been one of the mors
famous princes of the Daghel line; ans
the Daghel clan. like several other o
the ancient Rajput families claimet
descent from royal tiger.
He looked up at the long nail drives
half way to the head in the bahera tire
between the broken columns. He had