true oriental obsequiousness, and thrusting into their hands the offerings of fruit, without which, it would be presumptuous to approach a superior. They were the authorities of the village, sleek, well-fed Brahmins, each vying with the other in the favour of his welcome, and prayers for the invincible warrior's prosperity.

All this must be submitted to; and, although Mansfield fidgeted in his saddle, he was too wellbred to show his annoyance. He returned their salaams, answered their compliments, pocketed as much of the fruit as he could, and insisted on the Ameldar remounting his little ambling pony, from which, in his humility, he had dismounted. With this gracious order the smooth-faced Brahmin complied, after a decent show of resistance, and was forthwith imbedded in a crimson cushion, which, with its complicated trappings, smothered the little punchy steed, so as to leave little visible, save a white head, and a pink tail* that swept the ground.

A band of native musicians, armed with terrible instruments of discord, struck up a barbarous piece of music, that might have shattered the nerves of a Highland bagpiper. Armed peons cleared the waythe mob shouted, and the cavalcade proceeded. Charles was delighted with the bustle and novelty of the scene; but poor Mansfield, who had long ago been disgusted with the barbarous pageantry and fulsome flattery of native dignitaries, most devoutly wished the obsequious Ameldar and his shouting myrmidons at the devil.

It would be amusing to a stranger to contrast the dusty, wayworn figure of the European, to whom all these honours were paid, with the spotless white robes, gaudy turbans, and magnificent shawls, of his fawning flatterers. His shooting-jacket, which had once been green, was now indeed a garment of many colours. His hunting-cap, bruised and battered out of all shape, matched it well, and brown cord breeches, met by deerskin gaiters, completed the attire of the weather-beaten, sun-dried sportsman, who rode on with Quixotic gravity, surrounded by a staring if not an admiring throng. Thus escorted, the noble Arab which he rode alone denoting his rank, Mansfield was conducted, in a sort of triumphant procession, to a garden on the banks of the river, where a tent was pitched for his reception. The elephant, just arrived, was refreshing itself in the stream, and a party of Coolies were cooking their messes, to recruit themselves after their march. Here the Brahmins asked permission to take their leave, a boon most willingly granted, and Mansfield was left to a conference more congenial to his taste. They were no sooner gone, than he threw aside his coat, kicked off his gaiters, dropped into an arm-chair, and inhaling a long whiff from the hookah, placed at his side by a venerable Mussulman, damned the whole fraternity of Brahmins for a set of hypocritical scoundrels, and despatched Azapah to summon Bhurmah the Shikarie.,

*

It was not yet light enough to distinguish objects clearly, when Mansfield was roused by his attendant announcing that the dawn had come, and that the people were ready. A sleepy voice answered, "Order the gray) horse and the chestnut pony to be saddled. Take

* The natives of India dye the tails of the horses, which are used on state occasions, of a pink colour.

the rifles and ammunition and go to the jungle where Bhurmuh lost the trail yesterday. Order the Mahout to start with the elephant immediately, and see that there is a bundle of rockets in the howdah.+ I shall be with you before you reach the ground."

The interval between the first faint dawn, and the bright glare which immediate precedes sunrise, in the tropics, is brief. By the time the two sportsmen were mounted, there was sufficient light to enable them to pick out the elephant's tracks, guided by which, they overtook the party, as Bhurmah was leading the way into a tigrish-looking valley, the bright verdure of which contrasted strongly with the brown tints of the surrounding country. A ravine, which was never dried up in the hottest weather, ran through it, and discharged itself into a tank at one extremity, where the cover was thickest. On that side, the jungle ended abruptly in a plain, where hog might be ridden, so free was it from brushwood. On this, the valley contracted gradually towards the hills, till it became the mere bed of a little mountain-stream.

"I carried it thus far, Sahib, by sunset yesterday," said the Shikarie, pointing to the impression of four huge paws in the soft bed of the ravine. Mansfield, dismounting, stooped over the trail, and examined it for a few seconds attentively, whilst the natives awaited his opinion in silence. Having satisfied himself, he sat down, and with an air of serious gravity, commenced the following dialogue with Bhurmah:

"She was in no hurry when she took that line. A hurried step would not leave so smooth a trail."

“No, Sahib, she had travelled three cosst before she crossed the hills, in the gray of the morning, and she would come in here quietly, before the sun was hot. The trail was long cold when I ran it up to this jungle."

"You have been on her trail before. Is this one of her favourite haunts?"

"I have marked her into it more than once," answered the old man. "But who can tell where a wandering tigress will lie down to-morrow, although you have found her bed warm to-day? She is seldom more than twelve hours in one place, and the death-lament may now be singing ten coss off, for the man she killed last night. I have lived in the jungles now more than thirty years, and the people have not called me Bhag-mars without a cause, but this tigress has always proved too cunning for me."

"Ay, but you are the man, Bhurmah, who is destined to run her down," interrupted Mansfield, who thoroughly understood native character, and observed that the old Shikarie's want of confidence, had thrown a damp over the spirits of the rest. "It is you and you only, that shall bring her to bay. I was told it in a dream."

At this announcement, every face brightened and every doubt of

success vanished.

"Well, Sahib, your words must be true," replied Bhurmah, stroking his long white mustache, with a look of gratified vanity; "and as such is my fate, I shall follow her to the world's end. May dogs defile

• The driver of an elephant.

Coss, two miles.

+ A seat fastened on the back of an elephant.

§ Bhag-mar, tiger-killer.

her grave! my only son fell under her accursed paws, and I suppose I shall die by a tiger, too, when my hour comes. But who can escape his fate?"

"Very true, my fine fellow; but your fate is to get another medal, for ridding the county of this incarnate devil-so, let us to work. You say that you found no track leading from the east side into the jungle, so now try the outskirts to the westward with your people, while I follow the trail along this ravine with the elephant, and mind you get into trees the moment you hear me holla-I am sure she is here."

While the natives, fifteen in number, examined the edges of the cover, Mansfield and Charles, mounted on the elephant, searched the bed of the ravine: following the foot-prints until they were lost on rocky soil. After making several fruitless casts to recover the trail, they rejoined the natives, who had also failed in hitting on any fresh track. A brief consultation was held, and the result was Bhurmah declaring his conviction that the tigress lay concealed in the cover. Mansfield, therefore, ordered every man, except Azapah, who would accompany him on the elephant, to take up a position, by which all points might be guarded. And, as a further precaution, a native horseman was posted on an eminence, commanding a clear view, with orders not to lose sight of the tigress if she broke away.

These arrangements having been made, the stately elephant advanced, at the word of command, crashing his way through the yielding branches as a ship tosses the opening waves from her side. His progress was slow, for the utmost exertions of the Mahout were required to force him through some parts of the thicket, where masses of prickly shrubs bristled against him, and tough creepers matted the bushes into a compact barrier, which threw back the immense animal at every rush he made to beat them down. Some hours were spent in this arduous search. The heat was becoming intense; the elephant growing sulky, and the Mahout muttering to himself broken sentences, expressive of impatience; even Azupah relaxed in the diligent scrutiny with which he had examined each tuft of grass. But the leader persevered in his usual patient manner, never passing a bush until it was thoroughly beaten, although no trace had as yet been found to cheer them. Once, indeed, the elephant trumpeted, and a rustle was heard in front. The rifles were raised, and the eyes of the sportsmen eagerly fixed upon the moving bushes; but Mansfield's weapon was quietly replaced, and Charles's suddenly snatched from his hand, as the shaggy hide of a bear brushed through the underwood. Charles opened his eyes in astonishment, at being thus unceremoniously disarmed, and turned upon Mansfield in no very amiable mood. But the old sportsman met his angry glance with a quiet smile.

"Come Charley, my boy," said he, returning the rifle," do not be angry. 'Tis very annoying, I grant you, to be deprived of so tempting a shot; but I really could not afford to lose the tigress, after all the trouble she has given us, for the sake of a bear which we can find at any time. You have no idea what skulking brutes these Man-eaters are; they never show fight unless they are driven to it; and this old devil has become so cunning, from being frequently hunted, that the report of a rifle would send her off to her strong hold among the hills, if she be within hearing."

One corner of the valley, in which were some withered brambles, overgrown by high spear-grass, was yet untried. To this the wearied elephant was advancing with unwilling steps, when a monkey, which had been quietly watching their proceedings, was observed to spring from tree to tree, looking down, grinning, and chattering, with every mark of violent agitation, while the long grass, waved below him.

"Look, Sahib," cried Azapah, from the back of the howdah. "Push on the elephant to his utmost," shouted Mansfield in a voice of thunder;" she is there and is making off." The sagacious brute knew well that his game was near. His eye glistened, and flapping his ears, he rushed forward with his trunk curled in the air.

"There is the trail !" exclaimed Azapah, pointing to a fresh impression of paws on the side of the ravine.

"Shall I cross?" asked the Mahout, looking over his shoulder. "Over, quick," was the reply. "She is away! Hark to that. holla!"

While he spoke, a piercing yell proclaimed a view; and then arose the wild Shikar cry, in full chorus, causing every nerve to thrill with excitement. The goaded elephant scrambled across the ravine, and threaded his way to the point where shouts of Bhag announced that the tigress was approaching. The jungle rang with the cry, and it was returned in echoes from the hills. Earnest exertions were making to turn her in; but she had baen hunted before, and would not be stopped. The directing signal from the scouts was still forward, and, before the elephant had forced a passage through the jungle, a Shikarie, watching the plain, waved his turban, and uttered the well-known whoop, which announced that she had broken cover.

"Confound her for a cunning devil!" muttered Mansfield, "she has beaten us, and is off to the hills."

Charles, who had been standing up to the howdah, trembling with eagerness, and stamping impatiently with his feet, as if by doing so he could drive the elephant faster, dropped his rifle, and sank back into his seat with a blank look of disappointment.

They had now reached the open plain, and there was the Sewar,* on whom all their hopes of marking the game depended; his arms and legs going like a windmill in fits, screwing along his old spavined mare, in apparently hot pursuit of the flying tigress. He might safely have done his best, for there was little fear of a native horseman overtaking a wandering Man-eater across a hilly country. But, to make "certainty more sure," he pulled yet harder than he spurred; and the consequence was, a pace admirably adapted for raising a cloud of dust. Of course, as he intended, the tigress disappeared over the brow of a hill, well in advance, and he returned faster than he went, brandishing his spear manfully, as if he really had intended to use it. Without slacking his speed, he galloped up to the elephant all in a foam, and pulling the poor old mare on her haunches, by a tug that wellnigh broke her jaw, blustered out a confused account of his own amazing zeal, and hints of what he would have done had the tigress not fled

* A native trooper.

before him.

“Inshallah! she did not wait till my spear could reach her-she fled like a bird before a hawk!"

"It is well for you that she did so,” replied Mansfield, drily. “You appeared to have your mare tolerably well in hand too. But did you mark the tigress? Was she in sight when you gained the top of the hill?"

"What could your slave do?" replied the Sewar, looking rather crest-fallen. "Could he outstrip the wind?"

This unsatisfactory reply spoke volumes. Mansfield turned from him in disgust, and, addressing his followers, urged the necessity of pressing on at once, and endeavouring to hit her trail.

"That fellow has been of little service as a marker," he added; "but we may track her up again; she has not gone far. A hundred rupees to the man who strikes her trail, and runs it to her lair!"

Money will do any thing with a native. The wearied, dispirited Shikaries roused themselves at the sound of rupees, and the chase recommenced.

From the point where the tigress was lost, they scattered themselves over the country, inspecting the soil with earnest gaze, as if searching for treasure. Some time elapsed without any discovery being made. At last a young villager who had been examining a sheep-track, stopped short, and gave the signal of success. All ran eagerly to the spot, crowding round a foot-mark, which certainly was that of a tiger.

"Look at it, Bhurmah," said Mansfield, uncertain how to act. The veteran gave it a single glance, and turning away with a look of contempt, declared the marks to be three days old.

An assurance coming from such authority, admitted of no dispute, and the search was resumed.

As when a puppy, opening on a false scent, brings around him some babblers, who bustle about, whimpering and lashing their spotted sides with their feathery tails; an old hound raises his head, and joins them for a moment; but, detecting the error at the first sniff, leaves them with disdain to make his own cast. So Bhurmah, his long white mustache giving him an air of peculiar sagacity, struck off from his less experienced companions, and, as if guided by some unerring instinct, proceeded straight in a line, which brought him to a little mountain-stream. Into this he dived, and, for some time, disappeared; then, raising his head above the bank, sent back a thrilling halloo, which was answered by a shout of triumph from the rest of the human pack.

"Hark to Bhurmah!" shouted Mansfield. "That signal can be depended upon. Bravo! old fellow; you deserve another medal, and shall have it."

On joining him, he was found inspecting the margin of a small pool. "She has stopped here to drink, and cannot be far ahead; for the sun has not yet dried the moisture from her foot-prints." This was addressed by Mansfield to his peon, Azapah, who, jealous that another should excel, began to doubt before he had deigned to look. The old Shikarie listened in silence, and with a smile of triumph to the acknowledgment, which, after a careful examination of the spot, the peon was obliged to make, that they were now on the true scent.