m by
the energy and cheeriness of manner that had rendered him so
successful in business; and he was stirred by the enterprise and
adventure of the life he proposed for him. More than once, in the
little-frequented rivers that stretched into Kathee, his boats had
been attacked by wild tribesmen; and he had to fight hard to keep
them off. Petty chiefs had, at times, endeavoured to obstruct his
trading and, when at Manipur, he had twice been witness of
desperate fights between rival claimants for the throne. All this
was, to a boy brought up among soldiers, irresistibly fascinating;
especially as the alternative seemed to be a seat in a dull
counting house in England.

He was, then, delighted when his mother gave her consent to his
remaining with his uncle; grieved as he was at being parted from
her and his sisters. The thought that he should, in time, be able
to be of assistance to her was a pleasant one; and aided him to
support the pain of parting when, a week later, she sailed with the
girls for England.

"I suppose you have not done any shooting, Stanley?" his uncle
asked.

"Not with a gun, but I have practised sometimes with pistols.
Father thought that it would be useful."

"Very useful; and you must learn to shoot well with them, and with
fowling-piece and rifle. What with river thieves, and dacoits, and
wild tribes--to say nothing of wild beasts--a man who travels
about, as I do, wants to be able to shoot straight. The straighter
you shoot, the less likely you are to have to do so. I have come to
be a good shot myself and, whenever we row up a river, I constantly
practise--either at floating objects in the water, or at birds or
other marks in the trees. I have the best weapons that money can
buy. It is my one extravagance, and the result is that, to my
boatmen and the men about me, my shooting seems to be marvellous;
they tell others of it, and the result is that I am regarded with
great respect. I have no doubt, whatever, that it has saved me from
much trouble; for the natives have almost got to believe that I
only have to point my gun, and the man I wish to kill falls dead,
however far distant."

Two days after the departure of Mrs. Brooke, her brother and
Stanley started down the Hoogly in a native trader.

"She is a curious-looking craft, uncle."

"Yes; she would not be called handsome in home waters, but she is
uncommonly fast; and I find her much more convenient, in many ways,
than a British mer