PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE 
5 
and which have long stood the test of hard, practical 
service. For two days we haunted these famous 
gun-makers’ shops, and for two days I made a mag¬ 
nificent attempt to look learnedly at things about 
which I knew little. 
At last, after many hours of gun shopping, at- 
Practising in the Museum 
tended by the constant click of a taxicab meter, I 
assembled such an imposing arsenal that I was 
nervous whenever I thought about it. With such 
a battery it was a foregone conclusion that some¬ 
thing, or somebody, was likely to get hurt. I hoped 
that it would be something, and not somebody. 
The old-time “elephant gun” which shot an enor¬ 
mous ball and a staggering charge of black powder 
