My First Shot at a Tiger

Mataura Ensign, Volume V, Issue 234, 2 March 1883, Page 5

My First Shot at a Tiger

It was in the month of April, one of the hottest months of an unusually hot Indian season, now some ten or twelve years ago, that I set out with my friend P on a tiger hunting expedition for the Jugdißpore jungle. . This vast jungle, or impenetrable forest, as it may justly be termed, was. at the time of which I write, the haunt of numerous wild beasts, and among these many Bengal tigers, which vere the terror of the neigh - bourhood, and which, from their immense strength and ferocity, proved themselves in several encounters such dangerous antagonists, that few Europeans cared to attack them. From the first moment of my placing foot on Indian soil, however, I had greatly desired ,to make closer acquaintance with these formidable brutes, of which I had heard so much, and on the day in question I was in high spirits on setting out with my friend P . P (or Clement as I familiarly called him) was a thorough sportsman and a splendid shot ; and although this was to be our first meeting with the ' monarchs of the Indian forests,' I had little doubt of our success. Carrying each a trusty rifle, we left the little town of Jugdispore, where we had boen staying, at an early hour of the morning, and in about two hours' time arrived at the borders of the jungle of the same name. Before starting, Clement had proposed that we should take our. swords with us, so that at the conclusion of our sport we might indulge in a little sword practice, of which he was. passionately fond, and at which he was a great adept. To this I agreed, and accordingly we gave our swords to the care of two Indians, who were to accompany us, to, beat the bush. Arrived at the jungle, we lost' no time in entering it by a small beaten path, our two Indians taking the lead. Wending our way through this for nearly an hour, we emerged on an open glade, in the centre of which stood two palm trees. Towards these we tacitly directed our steps, and having sent our Indians to beat the surrounding jungle, we kept close under the shade of the trees, anxiously awaiting the result. We could scarcely have been waiting more than ten minutes, when a fierce growl suddely startled us both, and almost at the same moment a full-grown leopard sprang from the jungle. Clement and I fired simultaneously, and the huge brute fell dead almost at our feet. Before firing, I had taken care to aim for the shoulder, where I knew a wouud would, in all probability, prove fatal ; and as I had fired steadily, I was pretty sure my bullet had told. It had struck me, however, that Clement, who was usually such a skilful marksman, had this time entirely failed, or that he had ouly wounded where he had intended to kill. ' After the smoke from our rifles had cleared away, I was the first to speak. ' You have not sustained your old prestigv as a shot, Clement/ I said, addressing my friend j ' for you see you have only wounded where my bullet has killed ! ' ' What do you mean ? ' he said. , ' I mean that for the first time, in your life you have not succeeded in your aim,' I replied ; ' that the death of that leopard (pointing to the dead body of our late antagonist) is due to me alone.' Clement looked up with such a look of astonishment in his face as I never saw before. Then he spoke calmly and deliberately — 'If you had never fired,' he said, ' that leopard would have lain where it now lies.' It was too bad. To be thus contradicted when I was convinced of the truth of what I had stated, was to me insupportable. At first I grew irritated— then angry; but while my words waxed warm Clement retained complete command over his temper, and his replies were calm and decided. It was, perhaps this very exercise of control over his temper that so exasperated me and made me lose mine ; but certain it is that completely forgetting myself, and giving vent to my ungovernable rage, I called Clement a liar ; accusing him at the same time of striving to take away from me the honour which was justly my due. When I had said that word which no man should say to another, which I could not have said had 1 been quite myself, I bitterly repented it. Such a change as came over Clement I never saw before, and I hope never to see again. A rush of blood suffused his face, and his whole frame literally shook with nervous agitation, while his fingers grasped convulsively the stock of his rifle. With an almost superhuman effort, which was intensely painful to me to see, he regained his self-possession ; and though his face was now ashy pale, and his eyes fixed and glassy, his tones when he spoke were calm, quiet, and deliberate. •You have called me a liar,' he said;, ' you shall first prove your words, and then you shall account to me for them/ and be beckoned me to follow him. I obeyed mechanically. Arrived at the dead body of the leopard, Clement addressed ' Where do you say your bullet| entered/ he asked. ' Near the shoulder,' I replied. ' Then perhaps you can find it/ he said bitterly. I stooped down, and scanned carefully the body of 1 the leopard. There was no wound to show that a bullet had entered near the shoulder, but there were evident signs of a bullet having glanced from the shoulderblade. I looked up— l did not speak; it was evident that Clement saw in my face what he knew already. • And now,' he said, ' you will see that my bullet pierced its heart 1 ' Looking down again I saw, sure enough, close to the region of the leopard's heart, a wound where a bullet had entered, which must have caused death so suddenly and instantaneously, that it had scarcely drawn any blood. There was no longer any doubt in my mind ; I was thoroughly convinced. 1 And now/ continued Clement, addressing me, ' now that you have not been able to prove your words, you shall either retract them, or you shall account to me for them.' 'I acknowledge that I am wrong, Clement/ I said bitterly, for his arbitrary manner irritated me ; but you muat learn that lam not to be intimidated into retracting my words.' ' Then you shall not leave this place alive ! ' As he spoke these words, he raised his rifle slowly to his shoulder and pointed it at me. I saw by his determined look that he meant what he said, yet I was not afraid. Leaning my rifle against the stem of a tree, I folded my arms on my breas.t. and confronted him. ' If you wish to commit murder/ i said ; ' if you wish to murder a defenceless man you may do so. I shall not protect myself. Clement lowered his rifle. ' No, Ido not wish to murder you/ he said in that icy tone which froze my blood | ' but you shall render me ample satisfaction in fair fight for the insult you have thought fit to put upon me/ 'Ab you please/ J eaii

1 : — — . ' You will be good enough,' he continued, ' to take np your position with your rifle behind the palm-tree near which you stand, while I place myself behind the one near me ; but stay/, he continued, 'should our rifles fail, which I do not think probable, we have our swords/ and taking his from one of the Indians, he buckled it to his side. I did the same. • And now,' continued Clement, taking up his position, while I followed his example, when the sun's shadow touches that sapling (pointing to one which grew almost equidistant from our two trees, but slightly nearer to the jungle) you will step out and fire.' •Agreed,' l said sullenly* 'I will be ready ; ' and glancing towards the sapling I saw that the shadow of the sun was creeping slowly nearer and nearer, that in abojjjf en minutes it would touch it. During the whole of the foregoing scene, which I have endeavoured to depict as truthfully as possible, and which took place in less time than I take to relate it, our two Indians had remained as immovable and almost as impassible, as statues, doubtless well pleased, or caring little whether one or both of their enemies, the Feringhees (as they designate Englishmen) should be killed Up to this time I had acted under the impulse of the moment and almost without thought ; but now that the excitement of the time was over, I could realize the intensity of my position. Clement, I had good reason to know, was a skilful marksman, I knew also that he would have little mercy. Already then, I had almost given myself up for lost ! But even in this moment of dread, and almost certain death, I would not have retracted my words ; I would not have apologized for the world. No, my pride forbade it. Yet angered and and incensed against Clement as I still was, I had not lost, all those feelings of friendship which I had entertained for him before our quarrel, and I felt that should he fall by my hand, I should never forgive myself — that I should be miserable for the rest of my life. Thus I had determined that I would fire low — that I would only wound him, if possible. But if I sheuld be killed, — strenuously as I strove to banish the thought, it kept recurrring to my mind again and again. I was so young to die, but if die I must, I would sooner fall by Clement's hand than a stranger's ; but without one word of adieu to my relatives— to those I loved best in this world ! — the thought was maddening. While these thoughts were passing through ray mind during the short interval of time which would elapse before the sun's shadow would touch the sapling, an afterthought struck me, and I called to Clement — 'If one of us should be killed,' I said, ' who will know he was not murdered ? ' * Our Indians are witnesses,' he replied. . ' Black testimony will not suffice in a courb of law,' 1 answered. * True/ he said ; I had not thought of that. I will write.' And tearing a leaf out of his pockebbook, he took a pencil from his pocket and wrote the following words : — * The undersigned have this day engaged in mortal combat. That everything was conducted in a spirit of equity our two Indians, Mohul and Viseram Beg, can testify. He who falls, falls in fair fight.' Underneath he Bigned his name; then passing the document to me, he requested me to sign. I did bo, and returning it to him, Clement . hung it on a bough of the sapling, then resumed his position. And now that the work of death was complete, I glanced towards the sapling. The shadow of the sun was now very close to it ; I saw that in a few minutes it must touch. Uanishing with an indescribable effort the thoughts which came crowding fast and thick Jupon me, I kept my eye fixed on the sapling, calmly awaiting the dread moment. And now it had come ! — the ■ shadow which had been stealing nearer and nearer had now touched the stem of the sapling, and at the precise moment, and almost simultaneously, Clement and I stepped from our posts and fired ! I felt Clement's bullet, with a whiz and, a dull, booming sound, pass close to my cheek — so close, indeed, that I almost thought I was wounded. When the smoke from our rifles cleared away, I saw Clement standing erect : there was no doubt I had missed him, that in attempting to fire low I had entirely failed. But there was no time to think, for drawing his sword, and uttering almost an imprecation at the failure of his shot, Clement had sprung forward to the attack. I attempted to draw my sword, but it would not come ; the more I tugged, the firmer it remained j the more violence I used, the faster it stuck. I verily believe in that moment I cursed that sword. Relinquishing, then, my hopeless efforts, I folded my arms on my breast and confronted Clement, calmly awaiting his onset and the sword which I knew would be plunged into my breast. But it was never to come ; just as he had upraised his sword in his right hand ready to plunge it into me, and that I thought; my last moment had arrived, it was hurled violently from his hand to some distance, and he himself was thrown with force to the ground. I looked for my deliverer and his assailant. I had not long to look long. At a short distance from me Clement lay on the ground, and on the top of him, and growling fiercely, Was an immense Bengal tiger. There was no doubt in my mind that the huge brute had seen Clement rush across the glade, and had sprung upon him from the jungle. I cannot say what thoughts at that moment passed through my mind. Clement I knew was unarmed, his rifle he had fired at' me, and his sword had been hurled violently from his hand. When I say unarmed, 1 own that L knew Clement carried about him a small clasp-knife j but what was that against such an antagonist. Yet Clement, I knew, was brave, and even in this perilous moment he did not lose his self-possession,' but drawing his clasp-knife from his belt, he struck well-directed and strongly-given blows on the head and throat of his assailant, but they had but little effect, save to enrage even more the huge brute, who had now raised hia victim from the ground, and was preparing to carry him off to the jungle. And now I must confess that evil thoughts were passing through my brain. Here was the man who but a minute before had been thirsting after my blood, in the power of a merciless assailant ; and I, whose life he had striven to take, was the only one who could save him. /Should I leave him to his fate? Heaven be praised that this thought had not , long dominion over me— that good thoughts chased it ; awayj that at that moment I forgot my quarrel with Clement, and only remembered the feelings of friendship which I had entertained for him, and hat I determined to save him even at the cost of my life. These thoughts had flashed through my mind in a second of time, and loading my rifle hastily, I raised it to my shoulder, bending one knee on the ground W wewe a. steadier aim, ,

And now the cries of the Indians had become terrific, and . almost unnerved me. and motioning them to be quiet, I waited till the tiger should expose a vital part at which I might aim. „ In this moment of intense anxiety I felt my heart audibly beating, for I knew that, should I fail in my aim, no earthly power could save Clement ; that the tiger would bear him to the jungle, and that I should never see him again ; and I knew also that, in this moment of extreme peril, Clement would rather have died than have called to me for succour — that his pride would forbid it. And now the decisive moment had arrived, for the tiger, irritated, no doubt, by the cries of the Indians, turned its bead round towards me, growling fiercely. I did not wait a moment, but, taking aim for the temple, I fired. My ball pierced its brain, and the huge brute rolled dead on the ground. Springing forward to Clement, I found him lying on the ground insensible, and taking some water from some chatties or earthenware vessels that we had brought with us, I bathed his face with it ; then producing a flask from my pocket, I poured some brandy down his throat. The strong liquid ineffably revived him, and in a few minutes Clement was enabled to regain his feet. Seeing that he was still, however, too weak, to return home on foot, I despatched our Indians for a palanquin, while I remained with Clement till their return. After the Indians had departed, Clement remained silent for some time; then addressing me, he spoke': 'Who fired that shot?' he said. 'To whom am I indebted for my life ? ' ' I did,' I replied. • Good God ! ' be said, ' this is a just retribution ; that the man whose life I was bent on taking away should have saved my life. Forgive me, Harry,' he continued, coming forward and calling me by my name j 'we have both been very wrong, but we have learnt a leßson that I trust we shall never forget.' He held out his hand : I grasped it eagerly. My joy knew no bounds. What I had thought to be impossible had now come to pass. Harry and 1 were again reconciled. During the halfhour which elapsed before our Indians returned we neither of us spoke — I belive our hearts were too full ! When the palanquin arrived, I assisted Clement into it, and in a Bhort time we safely arrived at our homes. Clement is now completely recovered from his wounds. Many years have passed since then, yet I still as vividly remember the details of the scene which I have attempted to describe as on the day they happened. Clement and I have been better friends ever since. The tiger's skin I keep as a trophy, and I shall never forget ' my first shot at a tiger *in the Jugdispore jungle.