Deennugghur to his arrival at Narkeet no thought of the dreaded
man eater entered Bathurst's mind. He was deeply meditating on
a memorandum he was about to draw up, respecting a decision that
had been arrived at in a case between a Talookdar in his district
and the Government, and in which, as it appeared to him, a wholly
erroneous and unjust view had been taken as to the merits of the
case; and he only roused himself when the horse broke into a walk
as it entered the village. Two or three of the head men, with many
bows and salutations of respect, came out to receive him.

"My lord sahib has seen nothing of the tiger?" the head man said;
"our hearts were melted with fear, for the evil beast was heard
roaring in the jungle not far from the road early this morning."

"I never gave it a thought, one way or the other," Bathurst said,
as he dismounted. "I fancy the horse would have let me know if
the brute had been anywhere near. See that he is tied up in the
shed, and has food and water, and put a boy to keep the flies from
worrying him. And now let us get to business. First of all, I must
go through the village records and documents; after that I will
question four or five of the oldest inhabitants, and then we must
go over the ground. The whole question turns, you know, upon whether
the irrigation ditch mentioned in the Talookdar's grant is the one
that runs across at the foot of the rising ground on his side, or
whether it is the one that sweeps round on this side of the grove
with the little temple in it. Unfortunately most of the best land
lies between those ditches."

For hours Bathurst listened to the statements of the old people of
the village, cross questioning them closely, and sparing no efforts