Charlie had pulled his trigger, just as he felt himself going; and at the same moment he heard the crack of Ramajee Punt's rifle.
The instant they touched the ground, Tim and Charlie cast themselves over and over, two or three times; and then leaped to their feet, Charlie grasping his rifle, to make the best defence he could if the tiger sprang upon him.

The creature lay, however, immovable.
"It is dead, Tim," Charlie exclaimed.

"You needn't be afraid." "And no wonder, yer honor, when I pitched, head first, smack onto his stomach.

It would have killed a horse." "It might have done, Tim, but I don't think it would have killed a tiger.

Look there." Charlie's gun had gone off at the moment when the howdah turned round, and had nearly blown off a portion of the tiger's head; while, almost at the same instant, the ball of Ramajee Punt had struck it in the back, breaking the spine.