274 SPORTING AND 



eye that he had remembered one, which he 

 thought would do him credit ; he came in 

 just as our dinner was removed, but 

 nothing would induce him to touch the 

 old port wine, so we both abstained from 

 it, and ordered a supply of coffee instead. 

 The shikari having finished his first cup 

 at a few gulps, began : 



" You must know, sahibs, that in 

 pursuance of my vow to devote the rest 

 of my life to the destruction of tigers, 

 (and with these I included all other 

 dangerous animals, ) I had chalked out 

 for myself a life full of privations, hard- 

 ship, and great peril ; but, once having 

 made up my mind to it, I was not the 

 fellow to draw back, or to repent what I 

 had done. I prevailed on my father to 

 give me the big gun, which I polished 

 and cleaned up so successfully, that no one 



