Question

Short story of chapter packletide

Answer 1

Mrs. Packletide is jealous of Loona Bimberton’s achievement and in order to show her down, she wants to shoot a tiger. Loona Bimberton had travelled to the jungles in Africa in an aero plane in order to hunt a tiger. Her achievement was the talk of the town and so Mrs. Packletide herself wanted to get a tiger skin and a lot of photographs with the hunt. She felt that by getting the photographs published in the newspapers, she could attract all the attention and show Loona down. 

 

She planned to organize a lunch party in honour of Loona but her actual motive was to display the tiger skin that she procured and show Loona down. 

 

Mrs. Packletide announced a reward of a thousand rupees to anyone who arranged a suitable tiger – one which was easier to shoot for her. The villagers were eager to earn the reward money and so they made suitable arrangements for her to shoot with ease. They arranged an old, ill tiger and restricted it to the jungle so that it did not run away. 


Children were positioned to guard the jungle area, goats were left in the jungle to act as food for it. A platform was raised from where the tiger could be shot at easily. The village women also scolded their children to not to disturb the tiger from it’s sleep. A goat, as a bait, was tied at the perfect spot. 

 

On the night fixed for the shooting, Mrs. Packletide and her paid companion Miss. Mebbin sat hidden on the raised platform.   

 

The goat’s persistent sound attracted the beast but it rested rather than attacking it. Miss Mebbin suggested that as the tiger was too old, the amount of money paid for it was very huge. Also, that they need not pay for the goat if the tiger did not eat it. 

 

Mrs. Packletide aimed at her prey and fired the gun shot. The tiger lay flat on the ground. The villagers and Mrs. Packetide were joyous and celebrated her achievement of killing the tiger.   

 

It was Miss. Mebbin who noticed that the tiger did not die of the gun shot and that the gun shot had killed the goat. The beast died of heart failure due to the loud sound of gunshot. 

 

Mrs. Packletide did not bother about it as she had got what she wanted – the tiger skin. Even the villagers did not object to it as they wanted the reward money. The newspapers were loaded with Mrs. Packletide’s photographs and Loona Bimberton was shown down upon. 

 

Miss. Mebbin was a greedy woman. When Mrs. Packletide gained a lot of publicity, she threatened to disclose her secret to the world. She assured Mrs. Packletide that Loona would surely believe that the bullet had killed the goat and not the tiger. The tiger died due to heart failure as it was old and ill. 

 

She demanded a price for keeping her secret saying that she wanted to buy a weekend cottage but had no money for it. 

 

Mrs. Packletide was forced to give her six hundred and eighty pounds to buy the cottage. She had to pay the hush money  in order to prevent being disgraced. 
However, she gave up hunting as the added secondary expenses were too high.