further questions.

He had plenty of amusement in examining the rifles and various articles
which Captain Burnett had prepared for his intended shooting expedition.

"You must accept this rifle from me, Reginald," he said, presenting a
first-rate weapon; "and this brace of pistols. You may depend on their
never missing fire, if properly attended to. And let me advise you
always to load them yourself; never trust to a servant. I always do as
I advise; one's life may be sacrificed from carelessness."

The following day the friends, attended by Dick Thuddichum and four
native servants, were on their road to the north-west.

They had to proceed, for a considerable distance, up the river Ganges,
in a budgerow. Though rudely built, she skimmed merrily over the water
when the breeze was favourable. She was decked all over with bamboo;
and on the after-part was erected a cottage of bamboo, which served as a
cabin and baggage-room. In the fore-part were two small ranges of
brick-work, raised a few inches above the deck, with small round holes,
shaped like a lime-kiln, for holding charcoal, on which provisions were
dressed. Above the cabin, and supported on upright bamboos, was a
grating, on which the crew sat or stood to work the vessel. A long
bamboo, with a circular board at the end fixed astern, served as a
rudder; the oars also being long bamboos of the same description. The
mast was a stout bamboo, carrying a squaresail and topsail of a coarse
and flimsy canvas.

In this clumsy-looking craft the travellers made themselves comfortable,
however. They had also a small canoe towing astern, in which, when the
wind was contrary, and the budgerow had to bring up alongside the bank,
they made excursions to the other side of the river or up one of its
affluents.

Burnett, who was really a keen sportsman, never failed to take his gun,
and generally came back with a good supply of game. One day, however,
he was unwell, and Reginald started by himself to visit some interesting
ruins a short distance ahead, the canoe being paddled by two of the
crew. They had got some distance when he found that he had brought
neither his rifle nor pistols: however, he did not think it worth while
to return for them. They were at some little distance from the bank,
when one of the crew cried out--

"See, sahib, see! Here comes a tiger!"

On looking in the direction in which the man pointed, he caught sight,
not of a tiger, but of