They had come to where the open plain gave way to patches of jungle and
rolling land clad with oak and rhododendron.
The other elephant came alongside, and Finnerty suggested: "We might
walk back to my bungalow from here on the chance of getting some game
for the pot. There's quail, grey and painted pheasants, green pigeon,
and perhaps a peacock--I heard one call up in the jungle. I've got
shells loaded with number six for my 10-bore."
"Good!" Swinton answered. "I'm cramped sitting here."
"I'm game," Lord Victor agreed.
Finnerty sent the elephants on, keeping Mahadua, the shikari.
A hot sun was shooting rapidly down close to the horizon, glaring like a
flaming dirigible. A nightjar was swooping through the air like a
swallow, uttering his weird evening call, "Chyeece, chyeece, chyeece!"
as they went through a fringe of dwarf bamboos and up into the shadow of
the trees.
Here Finnerty checked, saying: "I'm afraid I'll have to keep in the
lead." He lifted a foot, showing a boot made of soft sambar skin with a
cotton sole. "Every creature in the jungle is on the qui vive, and for
stalking on foot one has to wear these silent creepers."
They had not travelled far along the narrow jungle path that had been
worn smooth by the bare feet of natives crossing from village to village
when Finnerty stood rigid and beckoned gently with a forefinger; and
when they had reached his side they could hear the jabber of monkeys
scolding angrily far up the path. Between them and the jungle discord
was a large monkey sitting on the limb of a tree, with his face turned
away and his long tail hanging down.
Finnerty put a finger to his lips, and, slipping forward with the soft
stealthiness of a leopard, undetected by the monkey, who was intent on
his companions' squabble, gave the tail a pull. The startled and enraged
lungur whisked about and thrust his black face, with its fringe of
silver-grey whiskers, forward pugnaciously, pouring out a volley of
simian oaths. Seeing a sahib, he stopped with a gasping cry of fright
and raced up the tree to take a diving flight to another.
"No end of a funny caper!" Lord Victor laughed.
"No use of keeping quiet now," the major declared; "those noisy devils
have stirred up everything. If I were following up a tiger I'd know they
had spotted him."
"Behold, sahib!" And Mahadua pointed to the trunk of the rhododendron.
When Finnerty had closely examined some marks about the height of his
head in the tree, he said: "Even if our friend Pundit Bagh hasn't an
evil spirit, he has a sense of humour; he's sharpened his claws here,
and not long ago, either."
"Really? Oh, I say, old top, you're spoofing. No end of a good draw,
though." And Lord Victor chuckled.
"I'm in earnest," Finnerty declared crisply. "A rhododendron has a bark
like rough sandpaper--it's a favourite whetstone for the cat tribe; and
this was a big tiger, as you can judge by the height of the marks."
"There are no pugs on the path, sahib," Mahadua advised, after a search.
"We'll keep close together for a bit," Finnerty advised, starting on.
At Finnerty's elbow the shikari whispered: "Tell the sahibs to talk, so
that we come not in a startling way upon the Pundit, that he may escape
in peace."
The major conveyed this message to his companions.
For a hundred yards they walked through a jungle that was now silent
save for their voices and the slip of their feet on the smooth earth.
From a tangle of raspberry bushes ahead a king crow rose in excited
flight.
"That's a bird that always gets in a rage when tiger is about," Finnerty
explained; "so keep your eye open--the jungle's thick here."
The major had taken a knife from his pocket, and he now ran its sharp
blade around two 10-bore shells, just between the wads which separated
the powder from the shot, saying, as he slipped first the shot half and
next the powder half into his gun: "That is now practically a ball
cartridge, for the shot packet will carry like a bullet for a good many
yards. I don't think we'll see him, though. Ah! Mistaken!"
A magnificent striped creature slipped without noise from some thick
undergrowth twenty yards ahead, and now stood across the path, his huge
head turned so that the questioning yellow eyes were full upon them.
"Pundit Bagh--see his spectacles, sahib!" Mahadua gasped.
The curious black oval markings added to the sinister malignity of the
unblinking eyes.
"Don't move, you chaps; he's only bluffing. If you weaken he'll charge,"
Finnerty cautioned.
"I will speak to Pundit Bagh," Mahadua said, stepping a pace forward.
"Kudawand, Protector of the Village, go in peace. Did not the sahib this
day give you back your life? Did not the sahib put down the rifle and
take up the bird gun and shoot in the air over your head? Go in peace,
Kudawand, lest the sahib now smite thee with the ball gun."
"Have you a box of matches, Swinton?" the major asked, a quick thought
coming to him that probably the tiger, in his migrations to the hills,
had learned to dread the fire line of the burning grass.
Something of this scheme registered in Swinton's brain, for he answered:
"I've got a newspaper, too."
"Give the paper and matches to Mahadua." Then to the servant he added:
"Roll the paper like a torch and light it."
The tiger watched this performance with interest. There is no dweller of
the jungle but is a victim of curiosity--the unusual will always arrest
their attention; and the tiger's attitude assured Finnerty that he
really had no fixed purpose; it would take very little to make him
either attack or retreat. If it had not been for the Banjara's buffalo,
killed out of pure deviltry, and the mauled native, Finnerty would have
had no hesitation in thinking the tiger would turn from the path if they
kept steadily advancing.
When Mahadua struck a match on the box, its snapping hiss and flare of
light caused an uneasy shift of the spectacled eyes. When the paper
showed its larger flame, the look of distrust and suspicion increased;
the bristled lips twisted in a nervous snarl; the powerful tail that had
been swinging in complacent threatening from side to side now stilled
and dropped.
"Move on!" Finnerty commanded, stepping slowly forward, the 10-bore held
waist-high, both fingers on the triggers.
Mahadua, holding the burning paper straight in front of him, kept pace
with his master, Swinton and Lord Victor following close.
The sinister ominousness of this performance, its silent aggression,
wakened in the tiger's wary mind the dominant thought of his
lifetime--caution, suspicion of a trap. It was a supreme test of
unheated courage between two magnificent creatures, each of his own
species--the gigantic man and the regal tiger; and the physical
advantage was with the beast. Step by step, slow-measured, Finnerty and
the shikari pressed forward. The Pundit now swung his lithe body with
sinuous grace till he stood aggressively straight in the path, his head
lowered so that a little furrow showed between his shoulder blades and
the red-green eyes slanted evilly upward through the spectacles.
Finnerty read the sign. If the tiger crouched flat to earth, ready for a
spring, it would be well to halt and try still further his courage by
calmly waiting his attack. The big tail had ceased its rhythmic swing,
but did not stiffen in ferocity; it curved downward. Even that beat of
the pulse of events Finnerty gauged.
At ten yards Lord Victor had ceased to breathe; he wanted to scream
under the cracking strain. He felt a hand on his arm--it was Swinton's.
The paper torch palpitated in the native's trembling hand; but he
faltered not, though the vicious eyes were ever on him and the fire.
Nine yards, eight yards--all a hell of silent, nervous strain. Seven
yards--the tiger turned in a slow, voluptuous glide, his ominous eyes
still on the torchbearer, and slipped through the bushes to the jungle
beyond.
Finnerty quickened his pace to a fast walk, saying: "Put the light
out--save the paper."
Presently Mahadua touched Finnerty's elbow and held up a hand.
Listening, the major heard the "miouw" of a peacock--not the usual,
droning note, but a sharp, angry screech. Immediately the alarmed
belling of a sambar came from the direction in which the peacock had
called, followed by a short, muffled roar from the tiger.
"Missed him!" Finnerty commented. He turned to his companions. "Our
shooting has been spoiled; we'll just push on to my bungalow."