“As the two goudas sitting with me in the long grass observed the movements of the tiger, they could not contain their indignation.  No doubt they thought of the many cattle they had recently lost, and, connecting the present revelation of the tiger’s mode of proceeding with the slaughter of their buffaloes, they relieved their feelings by uttering sotto voce the most virulent abuse of the tiger, its wife, and its female relations in general, and every fresh movement of the tiger drew from them some extremely powerful and untranslatable epithets.  The temptation to fire at the tiger was very great, but I refrained, as every moment brought them nearer to me, and it seemed certain that the fight must come off just below the ground I was seated on.

“The scene was now an extremely exciting one, for the animals were about 200 yards from us, the bull having fed to within fifty yards of the open grass, and the tiger having crept so close to him that every moment we expected something to happen.  We saw the tiger crawl right up to the bull, and it seemed to get actually within a yard of it, and yet it did not spring.  A few seconds more passed, and then the bull, suddenly becoming aware of the tiger’s presence, made a rapid rush forward into the open grass land outside of the scrub.  Then he pulled up at a distance from it of about sixty yards, and faced round in the direction of the tiger.  Had he liked, he might have gone away altogether; but, far from showing fear, he was furious, and looked superb as he shook his head and snorted with rage.  Then for about two minutes he stood as still as if carved of stone, evidently straining all his senses to discover the tiger, after which he made a terrific charge up to the edge of the scrub, where he pulled up and again snorted, and shook his head.  If ever a bison meant business he did, and could he have seen the tiger he would have certainly tried to kill it, but it was hiding in the scrub and was invisible to him, though we could just make out its golden red skin.

“The sight of the infuriated bull within a few yards was altogether too much for the tiger, which now turned and commenced to sneak off with astonishing rapidity, keeping completely out of the bison’s sight, and looking like the most abject wretch imaginable.  My goudas became frantic at this, and seeing that there was now no chance of a fight between the bull and the tiger, I rushed along the hill with the view of trying to get a good shot at the latter, but this I found would be impossible, so I rested my rifle on a stamp, and, as he moved through the scrub, took a long shot, which knocked him off his legs, and we saw him partly roll and partly scramble into the dense jungle below.  A shout of ’The bull is going,’ from the goudas, made me look back, and just as he was starting I hastily fired my second barrel into his shoulder and dropped him dead.  We then went to look for the tiger, but, most unfortunately, the