Part 19 (2/2)
”If he were not there they'd be down tearing the carcase to pieces,” she said, as she held up her hand and halted the file behind her.
”The beater elephants had better stop here, Colonel,” she called out to Dermot. ”There is a way down and across the _nullah_, by which you can take Badshah to the far side. We will remain on this.”
The Political Officer, who had seen and realised the significance of the vultures, waved his hand and moved off at once. Muriel called up the _mahouts_ and bade them enter the ravine and begin the beat in about ten minutes, then told her driver to go on. Half a mile beyond the tree she ordered him to halt and take up a position close to the edge of the _nullah_, into which they could look down. Below them the bottom was clear of scrub which ended fifty yards away. Dermot stopped opposite; and both elephants were turned to face towards the spot where the tiger was judged to be.
”Mr Wargrave, get to the front of the _howdah_ and be ready,” she said in a low tone.
The subaltern protested chivalrously against taking the best place.
”Oh, it's all right. We've brought you out to get the tiger; so you must do as you're told. If he breaks out this side take the first shot,” she said peremptorily.
He submitted and took up his position with c.o.c.ked rifle. As the _nullah_ wound a good deal the tops of the trees in it prevented them from seeing if the beater-elephants had gone in; but in a few minutes they heard distant shouts and the cras.h.i.+ng of the undergrowth as the big animals forced their way through the scrub.
”Be ready, Mr. Wargrave,” whispered the girl. ”Sometimes a tiger starts on the run at the first sound.”
His nerves a-quiver and his heart beating violently the subaltern held his rifle at the ready, as the noise of the beaters drew nearer. Again and again he brought the b.u.t.t to his shoulder, only to lower it when he realised that it was a false alarm. The sounds of the beat grew louder and closer, and still there was no sign of the tiger. Frank's heart sank. He saw the vultures stir uneasily and some rise into the air as the elephants pa.s.sed under them.
At last through the trees he began to catch occasional glimpses of the _mahouts_, and he lost hope. But suddenly from the scrub below them in the _nullah_ a number of small birds flew up; and the next instant the edge of the bushes nearest them was parted stealthily and a tiger slunk cautiously out in the bottom of the ravine.
Wargrave's rifle went up to his shoulder; and he fired. A startled roar from the beast told that it was. .h.i.t; but it bounded in a flash across the ravine and up the steep bank on their side not forty yards from them. As it scrambled swiftly over the edge it caught sight of the elephant and with a deep ”wough!” charged straight at it.
Frank fired again, and his bullet struck up the dust, missing the swift-rus.h.i.+ng animal by a couple of feet. The next moment with a roar the tiger sprang at the elephant. With one leap it landed with its hind paws on the elephant's head, its fore-feet on the front rail of the _howdah_, standing right over the _mahout_ who crouched in terror on the neck. The savage, snarling, yellow-and-black mask was thrust almost into Wargrave's face, and from the open red mouth lined with fierce white fangs he could feel the hot breath on his cheek as he tugged frantically at the under-lever of his rifle to open the breech and re-load. In another moment the tiger would have been on top of them in the _howdah_ when a gun-barrel shot past the subaltern and pushed him aside. The muzzle of Muriel's rifle was pressed almost against the brute's skull as she fired.
Frank hardly heard the report. All he knew was that the snarling face disappeared as quickly as it had come. The whole thing was an affair of seconds. Shot through the brain the tiger dropped back to the ground with a heavy thud and fell dead beside the staunch elephant which had never moved all through the terrible ordeal.
A cry of relief and a prayer to Allah burst from the grey-bearded Mahommedan _mahout_, as he straightened himself; and Wargrave turned with glowing face and outstretched hand to the girl.
”Oh, well done! Splendidly done!” he cried. ”You saved me from being lugged bodily out of the _howdah_ or at least from being mauled. This lever jammed and I couldn't re-load.”
Her eyes s.h.i.+ning and face beaming with excitement she shook his hand.
”Wasn't it thrilling? I thought he'd have got both of us.” Then to the _mahout_ she continued in Urdu, ”Gul Dad, are you hurt?”
The man was solemnly feeling himself all over. He stared at a rent in the shoulder of his coat, torn by the tiger's claw. It was the only injury that he had suffered. He put his finger on it and grumbled:
”Missie-_baba_, the _shaitan_ (devil) has torn my coat.”
In the reaction from the strain the girl and Wargrave went off in peals of laughter at his words.
”But are you not wounded?” Miss Benson repeated. ”Has it not clawed you?”
The _mahout_ shook his head.
”No, missie-_baba_; but it was my new coat,” he insisted.[1]
[1] A similar incident occurred in real life near Alipur Duar in Eastern Bengal to a lady and an officer on a female elephant named Dundora during a beat. But in this case it was the man that killed the tiger with his second rifle when it was standing on the elephant's head with its fore-paws on the _howdah_-rail. I can personally testify to Dundora's immobility when facing a charging tiger.--THE AUTHOR.
Frank looked down at the tiger stretched motionless on the yellow gra.s.s.
<script>