TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



met, but this hope, justifiable though it afterwards proved, 

 did not cover the present difficulty, viz., being without any 

 weapon more deadly than a pen-knife with which to wage 

 war on the antelope. 



I might, of course, have bought a gun or rifle at one of 

 the European gun-smiths, but only for a price far greater 

 than I could afford, so finally decided to try to pick up one 

 in the bazar, where guns, of a sort, are occasionally to 

 be found. 



Afraid of trusting so important a purchase to anybody 

 else, I went myself to the bazar, and eventually succeeded 

 in securing an old, single-barrel, muzzle-loading gun, for 

 what seemed to me an absurdly low price. It was a risky 

 investment though at best, for as a rule guns bought in 

 a bazar are apt to be more dangerous to the user than to 

 the animal he may fire at. However, this one was evidently 

 of superior make, for though old it still bore traces of finer 

 finish than is generally found in such guns purchased in 

 bazars. 



The journey by rail was not a long one, nor of any 

 interest railway journeys in India seldom are, and, more- 

 over, are generally uncomfortable, because of the heat 

 and dust, though in one respect Indian railway travel is 

 more luxurious than in Europe, and this is that every 

 first and second-class passenger is entitled to full length 

 sleeping accommodation at nights, which renders the long 

 journeys, so often necessary, more tolerable than they 

 otherwise would be. 



8 



