"A mighty hunter, and his prey was man!"--_Pope_.
It was the second evening and they were nearing the ruined temple.
Walking silently and in single file along a faintly discernible track
is an eerie proceeding if you are not used to the Sunderbunds.
True, in this jungle there are no serpent-like creepers festooned from
tree to tree to impede your progress, or luxuriant and rank vegetation
to hide snakes and other poisonous reptiles; neither is there a canopy
of thick dark leaves above to obliterate the light of day, or the stars
at night.
But the space between the crowding sundri trees which predominate, is
packed with an undergrowth of light shrubs through which you have to
force and tear your way if you lose the track; and you trip and twist
your ankle at every step on the abominable sundri breathers which
thrust themselves through the soil at every inch, and vary in thickness
from a stick of vermicelli to a good stout bough.
"Look," will whisper your _shikari_ as he sinks silently to the ground;
and look you do with all your eye-power, and yet fail to see the
spotted deer gazing at you, motionless from sheer fright, only a few
yards away in the undergrowth, so at one is the animal's colouring with
the dappled shadows on the leaves.
What depths of humiliation you plumb when the deer flees to safety
through the trees and your _shikari_ sighs.
Leonie as a gun had proved a dire, undiluted failure.
As a companion no one could beat her. Nothing tired her, nothing
dismayed her. The terrific heat, the untoward hours and meals, the
sting of mosquito, and the rip of the thorn left her unmoved.
She and Edna Talbot had gleefully climbed the ladder up to one of the
two _suapattah_ huts, which are a kind of shelter of leaves built for
the sundri wood collector upon high platforms near the water, and in
which they had passed their first vermin-stricken night. They had
climbed cheerfully down the next morning without a word of complaint
about the hours of torture they had endured as they sat at the hut door
in the light of the moon, whiling away the time until the jungle cocks
should crow by watching various shapes come down to the creek to drink.
But the first time a deer, hypnotised by fear or curiosity, had stood
stock-still before her, simply asking for death, Leonie put her gun
down and shook her head.
"I can't," she said sturdily. "I simply _could not_ kill except in
self-defence."
And although young Dean sighed lugubriously over his lady's
defalcation, Jan Cuxson adored her utterly for her womanliness, and
translated the remark the head _shikari_ made as he handed back to the
mem-sahib the rifle he had examined.
"He says he knows that in time of need you would be brave, and would
have no fear even of a man-eater, but he says that you _must_ carry
your rifle because you can never tell in the jungle what may be
awaiting you round the next corner."
As none of the party knew that the temple stood well hidden but quite
close to the edge of one of the smallest creeks, open only to the
narrowest native craft, they had no idea they were being taken there by
a most circuitous route; and the _shikari_ who did know thought that
the silent guide was doing it purposely in order to give the sahibs an
opportunity to add yet more to the ever-increasing bag of
odds-and-ends, also to his backsheesch later on.
They were all longing to get to the ruins; more than desirous for their
evening meal; aching to remove their boots, and the dust, and other
evidence of a hard day's tramp.
"We are almost there, mem-sahib," said the very fine old _shikari_ who,
by the way, is a real personage, as he noticed a certain lack of
elasticity in Leonie's movements. "Let us hasten, because at the fall
of the shadows, all that is evil will come down to the waters, and
behold! as this jungle is cut across and yet across with water-ways,
the evil ones may even cross the sahibs' path."
"How much farther is it?"
"Another half-mile of this path, sahib, then through a glade without
trees, then another mile and we find the outer wall of the temple."
The perfect English came from a small knot of natives difficult to
distinguish in the shadows.
Leonie swung round and stared, and turning to Jan Cuxson put her hand
on his arm.
"Funny, isn't it?" she said softly. "But do you know I am sure I have
heard that voice before, and all this"--and she waved a hand
vaguely--"seems so very, very familiar."
The head-man halted them once more at the edge of the clearing.
Strange bare spots these clearings which occur now and again in the
Sunderbunds, looking for all the world as though they _had_ been
cleared by man some time or another for building purposes. Well, who
knows if that doughty adventurer, Khan Jehan, did not prospect
thereabouts centuries back.
"We will now place the mem-sahibs in the centre of a widening circle,"
said the _shikari_ patiently, showing no sign of the detestation in
which he held all sports-women, and the amount of trouble and anxiety
their presence always entailed in a _shikar_, however insignificant.
To lose a sahib would be bad enough, but to see a mem-sahib seized and
carried off before your very eyes, well, by the power of all the gods,
that would mean ruin if not death; for, being a very wise old man,
however good the news, he always prepared for the worst.
"I dislike these clearings at the setting of the sun, O defender of the
poor!" he explained to the major, who kept his wife close and was
beginning to wish he had not brought her, even if she were far and away
the better shot of the two. "The trouble is upon one without even the
warning of a cracking twig. Neither have I any love for the temple,
for behold! one, even a great _guru_ up to within a few moons of this
day, lived there in worship, making sacrifice to the Black One. Yet is
he not there to welcome us. Maybe he has fallen victim to the _bhoot_
of the great cat whom he once fed."
Luckily for their peace of mind the sahib log only understood a quarter
of a man's lament, and did not trouble their heads about ghosts.
"Aye, verily am I bewitched to allow of such tarrying, likewise to let
such fear enter my head," he muttered to himself, and as a cloak to his
misgivings sharply ordered ten men to proceed to the centre of the
clearing in a semi-circle, and there await further orders.
They did as they were ordered, and were standing motionless when
suddenly without a sound a great striped body leapt straight from the
shadows of the surrounding trees upon a boy who had out-distanced his
companions.
The instant double report of Jan Cuxson's rifle deadened the lad's
horrible screaming and the growling of the wounded beast as it crouched
flat, almost hidden behind the human body in the undergrowth, with tail
lashing, and great claws tearing the boy's shoulder, as the rest of the
terrified coolies ran shouting back to the party.
"Fire, sahib," commanded the _shikari_.
"Can't," tersely replied Major Talbot. "I shall kill the boy if I do;
the brute's making a shield of his body. I'll creep round to the flank
and----"
"Fire, sahib," urged the native. "Better to kill the lad as he is
badly wounded," then added, "Tesch," as Talbot shook his head. "Stay
here, sahib, to protect the mem-sahibs, I will creep to----"
"_God_!"
The word simultaneously escaped the three men as they and Edna Talbot
raised their rifles.
Leonie was walking across the space, neither hastening nor hesitating,
towards the tiger which crouched, growling softly, with its tail
sweeping the ground.
Did she hypnotise the brute, or did her supreme courage build an
invisible barrier between the two?
Who knows!
Anyway she calmly approached within five yards, raised her rifle, took
deliberate aim, and fired just as, with a hoarse-coughing roar, the
tiger sprang.
There was the dull thud of a bullet, a snarl, and the animal fell back
across the boy's body, twitching convulsively.
Without one moment's hesitation, while the rest of the party stood
helpless owing to her position, Leonie, letting fall her rifle and
drawing her revolver, walked right up to the writhing brute and fired
straight into the terrible mouth.
With one supreme effort the tiger reared itself on its hind legs, gave
a choking, strangled cough ending in a spurt of blood and froth which
drenched Leonie, and fell back dead; and the entire native staff,
shouting in wonder and joy, tore across the clearing and prostrated
themselves, in grateful layers around the girl's heavily booted feet.