Up, then, came this mysterious coolie; and, with many salaams, much gesticulation and showing the whites of his eyes, he informed us that there was a most bloodthirsty man-eater lurking in the neighbourhood, close by, at our very door! I looked nervously round, not enjoying the idea of being caught by Monsieur Maneater armed only with a brier-wood pipe. E. and H. at once appeared to be seized with St Vitus’s dance, so absurdly and hysterically active had they suddenly become. ‘Where was he last seen?’ ‘How large was he?’ ‘What village was the scene of his last meal?’ ‘How many people was he known to have eaten?’ ‘Who brought the news?’ ‘Send him up to be questioned!’ St John went away; and in a few minutes reappeared, accompanied by a native postman, who, it seemed, knowing that the railway Sahibs were partial to tiger, had kindly dropped in with the intelligence. We found out all we could from the man, and rewarded him with some money and tobacco. The last victim was a poor native woman, who had crept into the corner of the veranda of a bungalow some miles away, and fallen asleep, from which, poor soul, she was roughly awakened, and then half-carried, half-dragged to a clump of thick jungle-grass and bushes about two and a half miles from where we were. The postman’s eyes and teeth glistened with sympathetic pleasure, as he saw how keen and eager the other two fellows were to be after the brute. I was out of it altogether, as I could not trust my shaky hands with a rifle in such a case of life or death, so I looked on and listened to all their suggestions and arrangements with the deepest interest. ‘That poor old bag of bones is not likely to have afforded him much of a “gorge,”’ said H. ‘He may turn up on _our_ veranda to-night, boys, to see if he can find some light refreshment here.’ ‘He will get some black pepper which may not agree with him,’ said E. S. P., who had gone into what we called our armoury and brought out his rifle, which he began to clean and make ready for very active service. By this time darkness had closed in round us, with that small respect for twilight which so bothers the enterprising traveller in foreign lands. The servants and workmen had dispersed to their various habitations, and our white-headed native factotum was standing before us announcing dinner. ‘Hush!’ said H., putting his finger up in a commanding way and listening intently. ‘Didn’t either of you hear something leap over the wall?’ ‘Oh, bother your imagination—I’m off to dinner,’ said I, rising abruptly, and disappearing through the open window. The other fellows followed, and were soon busily employed in making the most of _the_ meal of the day and arranging about the morrow’s sport.