While the conversation was going on, Dr. Avery was impressed that this was not the first time he had seen the man. A little closer scrutiny by aid of the moonlight left no doubt that he was the gentleman who was assailed some nights before in Delhi while on the streets, and whose clever escape was witnessed by Avery.
CHAPTER XVIII.
GEORGE HARKINS.
Few realize the annual destruction of life in India from serpents and wild beasts. About twenty thousand people are annually destroyed by animals, and of these nineteen in twenty are probably bitten by snakes. The number of human victims tends to increase, in spite of the fact that the number of wild beasts and snakes destroyed has doubled in the last ten years, and that the Government reward paid for their extermination has risen proportionately. Nearly two and a half lacs of rupees (about $125,000) were thus paid in 1884. Next to venomous reptiles, tigers claim most victims. Ten years ago wolves, mostly in the Northwest provinces and Oude, killed five times as many people as of late years; but the extermination of wolves seems to be going on rapidly. Leopards are the alleged cause of death to about two hundred human beings annually. Apart from the loss of human life, the returns show an annual destruction of fifty thousand head of cattle.
The tigers, beyond question, are the most fearful beasts of prey in the world. Their strength, daring, activity and ferocity make them the terror of a neighborhood. One tiger has been known to keep an entire village in a panic for weeks.
But for the timely arrival of George Harkins, the crack shot, the tiger would have killed the five persons, for he was an animal of unusual size, and the single gun in the company having been discharged no real means of defense was left.
Dr. Avery, speaking for the rest, told the main facts respecting themselves, while Harkins added that he was a professional sportsman on a hunt through that section of India. He had no relatives in the country, but a number of friends among the officers of the army, and he was in Delhi when the revolt broke out some nights before.
"Did you have any trouble before you left?" asked the doctor.
"Nothing of any account; a lot of rascals set upon me and the result was I departed in somewhat of a hurry."
"I saw that little affair."