Sir Dyce, however, only laughed at the superstition of the group, as he sat, surrounded with his men, in the largest bungalow of the little place, organizing his party for the morning. Even Ram Banee, the greatest coward of all, exclaimed: "I have comfort when I behold this stately Englishman, his guns, his bullets. And hearken to his elephant eating behind the bungalow!"
At dawn he and his party were off. Out through the village street with horns and tam-tams the procession moved. The preceding afternoon a bullock had been seized. The crushed twigs and jungle grass, often spotted with gore, were now traced for a mile by the trackers. Suddenly a shout went up from these. "The bullock! the bullock!" Sure enough, when Sir Dyce had forced his way with two others into the open, there on the jungle's edge lay what was left of the unlucky animal. "Hurrah!" cried the enthusiastic Englishman; "she can not be far away. Get together, all of you, quickly. Beat the bush on the other side of us--yonder, across the clearing."
Sir Dyce left his elephant, and joined on foot the excited natives. The open was crossed. Wild cries and shouts, the clanging of the cymbals and tam-tams, filled the morning air. The bush was thoroughly beat, every eye and ear on the alert.
Sir Dyce and his party located themselves carefully in the underbrush within easy shot of the carcass. It was their best chance. The afternoon passed slowly. Each member of the little ambuscade had become a sentinel. But no tigress came slinking into sight. The shadows grew purple. Sir Dyce began to doubt the wisdom of further remaining in so exposed a spot without a regular camping out. Or had not they best return to Sundapoor? The elephant had been stationed some hundred yards to the rear. Suddenly an old native laid his hand warningly upon Sir Dyce's sleeve. The English hunter started, and looked out from behind their screen toward the little clearing. Full in face of them, every line and curve of her beautiful form brought into relief by the distance and the green shade behind her, was seated at last a tigress on the opposite side of the open. The great beast was indeed returning from her lair, either to finish her supper here and now, or else to forage for another one.