JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 57 



and amongst the rest elephant-shooting an officer, 

 just returned from Ceylon, ventured to assert that, to 

 his own individual knowledge, a brother officer had 

 slain with his own gun alone fourteen hundred 

 elephants ! 



This was too much to be endured, and the whole 

 room, taking it as a joke, burst into a roar of laughter, 

 which increased in proportion with the vehemence of 

 the unhappy sponsor of the assertion, who forthwith 

 offered to bind himself by any quantity and quality 

 of affidavits the company might choose to impose, as 

 to the truth of what he adduced. 



Whilst in the midst of his discomfiture and indig- 

 nation at his word being doubted, General C en- 

 tered the room, who had also lately returned from the 

 same place (and to whom the fact was perfectly well 

 known, and to whom it had been well authenticated). 



" And now," exclaimed the discredited one in a 

 "blaze of triumph,'' " if you do not believe me, here 



is General C , who will vouch for the truth of the 



fact." 



The question was accordingly put to the General, 

 who was about forthwith to answer in the affirmative, 

 when a second burst of laughter at such an improbable 

 and Major Longbow-ish event indicated to him the real 

 state of things, and, with the greatest composure and 

 nonchalance in the world, he at once not only avowed 

 himself perfectly ignorant of the marvellous occur- 

 rence, but further expressed his entire disbelief in it ! 



