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Updated: June 18, 2025
For two or three minutes they heard and saw nothing, then the shikari pointed beyond them, and they almost started as they saw the tiger retreating, and knew that it must have passed almost under them without their noticing it. At last it reached the spot at which they had first seen it. The child's cry, but this time low and querulous, again rose.
A solitary Arab, driving a tiny, overladen donkey, was advancing towards him, his white robes flickering in and out among the tree-boles. Hillyard looked at his shikari. But the shikari neither spoke nor altered the regularity of his face. Hillyard put no question in consequence. The Arab was ten days' journey from the nearest village and, even so, his back was turned towards it.
I had placed my shikari with a rifle in a convenient position about 200 yards in advance, upon a mucharn or platform that had been constructed for myself. Having after some trouble arranged the beaters in a proper line, I gave the order for an advance. In an instant the shouts arose, and three or four tom-toms added to the din.
Shere Ali had started with every man he could collect to take up the position where he meant to give battle. "I must hurry or I shall be late," said the shikari, and he crawled away through the orchard. Phillips closed the shutter again and lit the lamp. The news seemed too good to be true. But the morning broke over a city of women and old men.
"Well, Rujub, if you go on to Deennugghur tomorrow say nothing to anyone there about this affair with the tiger; it is nothing to talk about. I am not a shikari, but a hard working official, and I don't want to be talked about." "The sahib's wish shall be obeyed," the man said.
There were no trees, nor any timber that was suitable for the construction of a mucharn; it was accordingly resolved that four deep holes should be dug, forming the corners of a square, the body lying in the centre. Each hole was to be occupied by a shikari with his matchlock. The watchers took their positions. Nothing came; until at length the moon went down, and the night was dark.
As I had of course leggings and was fully clothed I had much the best of it, but my shikari with his bare limbs got a pretty good roasting. But the fire seemed no sooner to have reached us than it was swept onwards quite away, and I was astonished at the pace it travelled, which one can have no idea of when one witnesses these conflagrations, as one usually does, from a distance.
Our English friend was much annoyed, Rashîd and the shikâri and the cook laughed heartily. No one, however, was for going back. Upon the following day our friend destroyed a jackal and two conies, which consoled him somewhat in the dearth of tigers, and we rode forward resolutely, asking our question at each village as we went along.
My men were up the trees; the shikari had thrown a mighty spear upon the ground, and had gone up the branches like a squirrel, as he did not see the fun of meeting the bear's charge.
My shikari, writhing with extreme excitement, hissed, "Baloo, sahib, baloo!" and began aimlessly running to and fro, apparently hoping to meet the bear somewhere. It was truly gay for a few minutes, but as nothing further occurred, and the beaters grew very hoarse with their prodigious efforts, I hurried on to Walter's post to learn what had happened.
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