TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



police orderlies to have stuck to me as closely as they did, 

 for neither of them had seen a wild elephant before. 



We now stood beside a small tree watching the herd, 

 when suddenly one of the bulls turned his head in our 

 direction, being hardly two spears' length from us. I fired 

 at once, and the bullet striking him in the centre of the 

 forehead, he fell dead with hardly a struggle. 



Losing no time I now ran in and floored another elephant 

 also a bull with a shot in the shoulder, using the second 

 barrel of my 8-bore Paradox ; and as the remaining bull 

 was quite a young animal, not worth shooting, I did not 

 attempt to follow up the herd, which rapidly moved off. 



Though greatly disappointed with the size of these 

 elephants, as compared with the African variety, I was 

 glad of the opportunity of testing the effects of the forehead 

 and shoulder shots, and also to have freed the village of 

 these dangerous pests. On my return to headquarters, I 

 received many congratulations on my success ; though I 

 fear the odium of having spoilt the sport of the high 

 personages for whom these animals were being preserved, 

 clung to me for many a month afterwards. 



The native collector doubtless rejoiced greatly at the 

 destruction of these two " dangerous " vermin ! and 

 probably congratulated himself at the success which had 

 attended his wonderfully worded representation to the 

 Government on the subject ! 



Apropos of this I much regret that space does not admit 

 of my quoting more instances of the quaint phraseology 

 made use of by native officers in their official communica- 

 tions, but I am tempted to repeat one story in particular, 

 which, though probably well known to Anglo-Indians, 

 may possibly be fresh to ordinary English readers. 



The incident took place at a lonely railway flag-station 

 surrounded by dense jungle, and some two hundred miles 

 or more from the headquarters of the Traffic Department 

 of that particular line. The station was in charge of a 

 young Bengali sub-stationmaster, who, like many of his 

 kind, was virtually an automaton, and having no initiative, 

 being quite incapable of any action not provided for in the 

 rules and regulations of the company. 



One evening, about an hour after the last train had 

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