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His one room in the Mess began to be overcrowded with trophies of his skill with the rifle. Other tiger-skins had joined the first; and, although he had not secured a second bison, several good heads of sambhur, khakur and cheetul, or spotted deer, hung on his whitewashed stone walls. Thus with sport and work more fascinating than sport Wargrave found the months slipping by.
He gave up contending uselessly and was borne along through the dark forest unresisting. Over the tree-tops floated the long, wailing cry of a Giant Owl circling against the stars. Close to their path the warning bark of a khakur deer was answered by the harsh braying roar of a tiger. Far away the metallic trumpeting of a wild elephant rang out into the night.
Wargrave was anxious to hear more of this girl, in whom it appeared to him Burke was very much interested; but Colonel Dermot broke in: "Talking of orders, have you any for the butcher's man, Noreen?" he asked, smiling at his wife. "Yes, dear; will you please bring me a khakur and some jungle fowl? And if you can manage it a brace of Kalej pheasants," said the good housewife seriously.
"And I've more than once heard a tiger loudly express his annoyance when a khakur barked as he was trying to sneak by unnoticed. There's a barking-deer." He pointed to the well-mounted head of a small deer on the wall of the dining-room. "Whom do you expect up for the Durbar, Mrs. Dermot?" asked Major Hunt. "Only Mr. Carter, the Sub-divisional Officer, and probably Mr. Benson."
"Yes; I always feel the same myself and never kill except for food," replied the Political Officer. "Unless of course it's a dangerous beast like a tiger. Well, the khakur is too dead to hallal; but that doesn't matter, as we're going to eat it ourselves and not give it to the sepoys."
Wonk! in the jungle, Wargrave, get up the nearest tree; for the khakur is warning all whom it may concern that there's a tiger in the immajit vicinity." Frank had already learned to distrust most of Burke's statements on sport, for the doctor was an inveterate joker. So he looked to the Political Officer for confirmation. "Yes, it's supposed to be the case," agreed the Colonel.
Wargrave was dropping off to sleep when he was roused by the sharp, staccato bark of a khakur buck repeated several times. The tired man lost consciousness and was sunk in profound slumber when the silence of the forest was shattered by a snorting, braying roar that rang through the jungle with alarming suddenness. Wargrave sprang up and groped for his rifle.
"We want something we can get our teeth into. No, we expect a khakur from you." "What's a khakur?" asked Frank. "It's the muntjac or barking deer," replied Dermot. "You wouldn't know it if you haven't shot in forests. It gets its English name from its call, which is not unlike a dog's bark." "Whin ye hear one saying 'Wonk!
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