Here was a situation! My very marrow seemed to freeze in my bones, and every hair on my head was alive with electrified fright. I lay as still as a corpse, and in my heart thanked a considerate providence which had made the beast turn its back to me, instead of its villainous face. I was too paralysed even to think of what I could do to get out of the room, which, perhaps, was fortunate. The animal had evidently run far and fast, as its panting sides and foam-flaked jaws plainly showed; so there was just a feeble chance of its going to sleep, and _then_ would be the time to cautiously escape. Its great murderous-looking paws were stained with blood; and, though I could see that one of them was wounded, the idea _would_ take possession of my weak and agitated mind, that it was the blood of one of my companions, and not the tiger’s own. Suddenly, to my horror, the brute lifted its head from its paws, pricked up its ears, and listened intently. I also listened as well as I could; but every nerve was throbbing, and the sound in both ears was as the surging of stormy waves on a pebbly beach. I, too, however, caught a distant ‘click,’ very faint and indistinct, and I could not make out what it was. The tiger again composed itself to sleep or watch; it was impossible to see if its eyes were open or shut. After a lifetime of miserable sensations, I guessed, by the even rise and fall of its sides, that it must be having what might not be more than the proverbial forty winks; so now was my time, or never! Not once taking my eyes off the object of my terror, I slipped out of the bed, which gave a gentle creak, that, to my fevered imagination, sounded like a death knell. He did not move! I wished I had more on, I felt _so_ defenceless. I crept slowly to the door, not taking one foot off the ground till I had carefully steadied myself on both. I reached the only thing that divided me from comparative safety, softly turned the handle. The door was locked! For one second I had taken my steady gaze from the sleeping brute; when I looked again, what a change! Head thrown back, ears flat, eyes glaring savagely, and flanks trembling and quivering with the stealthy movement of an animal about to spring! But not at me! I followed the tiger’s glance, and caught a glimpse of the barrel of a rifle, just one second—then a flash—a roar—a struggle—and I fell senseless on the floor. When I came to myself, I was lying wrapped in my dressing-gown on a sofa in the sitting-room. E. S. P. was kneeling beside me with a bottle of something in his hand, and H. F. was standing at my feet with an expression of the greatest solicitude. ‘Don’t talk just yet, old fellow,’ said he; ‘wait till you feel stronger, and we’ll tell you all about it. By Jove! you _had_ a narrow escape.’ After a few minutes’ quiet, my curiosity awoke in full force. ‘Tell me,’ said I—‘did you kill him straight off?’