“Whoo-hoo!” shouted Tim, from up in the howdah. “Look sor, look! shoot! There he is!”
They followed Tim’s pointing hand, to see, about a couple of hundred yards away, in an open spot where a gully ran up into a patch of forest, a full-grown tiger, whose stripes showed out clearly in the sunshine, as, with head erect and tail lashing his sides, he watched the approaching party; but before Murray could seize the rifle, the lithe animal gave a couple of leaps and had disappeared.
“Gone!” ejaculated Murray. “It would be no use to try to hunt him up, without beaters.”
So the search for minerals was commenced again, with no further result than the discovery of a little tin, specimens of which were thrown up to Tim, and another halt was made.
By this time the sun was beginning to descend, and after a little hesitation, for the place was full of attractions, Murray said unwillingly, “I suppose we must go back now.”
“Too soon yet, uncle,” said Ned. “I should like to have a shot at something.”
“Another time, my lad,” said Murray. “We have been longer than I thought, and we have all that dreary ride back through the jungle. It will be dark before we get back. Yes; let’s turn now at once,” he continued, displaying a little anxiety as he thought of his conversation with Mr Braine that morning, and wondered that he could have so forgotten himself in his favourite pursuit as to have ignored the position of those at the village.
The lads acquiesced at once, and they mounted the elephant to look wonderingly from one to the other now, as they noted how anxious Murray had become, and impatient in his orders to Hamet to tell the driver to hurry the elephant along.
“What’s the matter with your uncle?” whispered Frank at last. “Does he want something to eat?”
“I don’t know,” replied Ned. “I can’t quite make him out. He was all right coming, and thought of nothing but the shooting; now he’s all in a fidget. There!”