The captain paused a moment, and then resumed:
"Hunting with elephants is attended with some risk, partly because the tiger may spring upon the elephant and attack the hunters in the howdah, but more especially because the elephant may take fright and run through the forest quite out of the control of his driver. The howdah is swept off, and its occupants are very fortunate if they escape with whole skins.
"The way we do it is this. We surround a forest or piece of jungle where we know a tiger is concealed, provided we have elephants enough to do so, and then we move slowly in toward the centre, and make a terrific noise with drums and other unmusical instruments. The tiger tries one part of the line and then another, to escape, and in doing so he exposes himself to our shots. We generally succeed in bringing him down before he has done any damage, but are not always so fortunate.
"On my first tiger-hunt of this sort I had an exciting experience. I was assigned to an elephant that was said to be very steady and not easily frightened; I had a Remington rifle, carrying a large ball, and kept my cartridges handy, so that I could load and fire with great rapidity. While we were closing up the line I saw a large tiger trying to pass out of the forest, and immediately drew my rifle to the shoulder and fired.
AN AWKWARD PREDICAMENT.
"I wounded him in the side, but did not disable him. He turned, with a frightful roar, and made straight for me, and the elephant started to run as soon as the roar reached his ears. Before I could get in a second shot the tiger was on the elephant's rump and climbing directly to where I stood; but I settled him with a bullet in his brain, and he fell to the ground. The driver succeeded in stopping the runaway elephant, and as we came around to where my prize was lying I put in another ball, to make sure of his death, and the gentleman on the next elephant did the same.
"Perhaps you may smile at our putting a couple of balls into a tiger that appeared to be dead, but you wouldn't if you knew the brute and his treacherous ways. Many a tiger has lain as if dead till somebody walked up to him; then he sprung to his feet, and in several instances he has torn the hunter to pieces. A friend of mine was terribly wounded in this way by a tiger that had already received four balls; he was lying on his side on the ground exactly as though he had breathed his last, and my friend walked quite around him and threw a piece of turf against his side without causing the least motion. Then he considered it safe to apply his tape-line to take the measurement of his game, and as he did so the tiger reared and seized him. Another gentleman was close by, and he settled the tiger with a bullet in his side, but not till my friend's arm was nearly torn from its socket.