My companion on the rock was very relieved to see me. My long absence, and the growling he had heard, had convinced him that the tigress had secured another kill, and his difficulty, as he quite frankly admitted, was how he was going to get back to the village alone.
I thought when we were climbing down the watercourse that I knew of no more dangerous proceeding than walking in front of a nervous man carrying a loaded gun, but I changed my opinion when on walking behind him he slipped and fell, and I saw where the muzzle of his gun--a converted .450 without a safety catch--was pointing. Since that day--except when accompanied by Ibbotson--I have made it a hard-and-fast rule to go alone when hunting man-eater, for if one's companion is unarmed it is difficult to protect him; and if he is armed, it is even more difficult to protect oneself.
Arrived at the crest of the hill, where the man had hidden his boots, I sat down to have a smoke and think out my plans for the morrow.
The tigress would finish what was left of the kill during the night, and would to a certainty lie up among the rocks next day.
On the ground she was on. There was very little hope of my being able to stalk her, and if I disturbed her without getting a shot, she would probably leave the locality and I should lose touch with her. A beat therefore was the only thing to do, provided I could raise sufficient men.
I was sitting on the south edge of a great amphitheatre of hills, without a habitation of any kind in sight. A stream entering from the west had fretted its way down, cutting a deep valley right across the amphitheatre. To the east the stream had struck solid rock, and turning north had left the amphitheatre by a narrow gorge.
Why did the narrator change his opinion about his companion?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → He fell down due to his carelessness.
The narrator once thought that walking in front of a nervous man with a loaded gun was the most dangerous thing. He changed his opinion when, walking behind the companion, "he slipped and fell" and the narrator saw where the muzzle of the gun, which had no safety catch, was pointing. The companion's careless fall showed that a nervous man with a loaded gun is just as dangerous to the man walking behind him.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: He fell down because he could not see. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage says nothing about the companion being unable to see; he only slipped.
Option 3: He did not know how to use a gun. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: his skill with the gun is never discussed; the danger came from the fall and the direction of the muzzle.
Option 4: He was very nervous. — Incorrect. Wrong cause: his nervousness was already known before; what changed the narrator's opinion was the slip and fall.