CHAPTER VI

ROGUES OF THE FOREST

The lord of the forest--Wild elephants in India--_Kheddah_ operations in the Terai--How rogues are made--Rogues attack villages--Highway robbers--Assault on a railway station--A police convoy--A poacher's death--Chasing an officer--My first encounter with a rogue--Stopping a charge--Difficulty of killing an elephant--The law on rogue shooting--A Government gazette--A tame elephant shot by the Maharajah of Cooch Behar--Executing an elephant--A chance shot--A planter's escape--Attack on a tame elephant--The _mahout's_ peril--Jhansi's wounds--Changes among the officers in Buxa--A Gurkha's terrible death--The beginner's luck--Indian and Malayan _sambhur_--A shot out of season--A fruitless search--Jhansi's flight--A scout attacked by a bear--Advertising for a truant--The agony column--Runaway elephants--A fatal fraud--Jhansi's return 104