"Are you going among elephants, Flix, and don't know what a pachyderm is?" demanded Scott. "Oi see, it's the elephant, and ye's call him so bekase he carries his pack on his bachk; and 'pon me worrud that's the roight place to carry it." "I wonder if we are to have any hunting out here where we are going," suggested Scott. "How is it, Louis? You are in the ring with the Grand Moguls." "Sir Modava told me that the Maharajah whom we shall visit at Baroda is a great sportsman, and always treats his guests to a hunt," answered Louis. "Is it after schnakes?" "No; but after tigers." "But I want to hunt some schnakes; I'd loike to bring down a good-soized cobry," said Felix, rising from his reclining posture. "No, you wouldn't, Flix," sneered Scott. "If you saw a cobry, you would run till you got back to Ireland." "Is'ht me! Wud I roon from a cobry? Not mooch! Ain't I a lineal dayscindant of St. Patrick?--long life to him! And didn't he dhrive all the schnakes and toads out of the ould counthree! Jisht show me a cobry, and thin see me roon!" Before the Milesian could tell how he intended to kill the cobra if he saw one, the train stopped; and a moment later Sir Modava, the commander, and Mrs. Belgrade appeared at the door. "We have come to make things a little more social," said the Hindu gentleman as they entered the compartment; and the servants brought stools from the toilet-room, so that all were seated, making quite a family group. "Are there any snakes where we are going, Sir Modava?" asked Felix, before any one else had a chance to speak. "I am spoiling for a fight with a cobra;" and he came back to plain English, which he could use as well as any one. "Plenty of them, Mr. McGavonty," replied the East Indian. "You will not get badly spoiled before you fall in with all you will wish to see." "Then I will bag some of them," added Felix. "No, you won't, Flix; they will be more likely to bag you," rallied Scott. "But I am in earnest," persisted the Milesian. "I have seen plenty of them in Bombay; and upon my word and honor, I don't feel at all afraid of them. One of them might hit me when I was not looking, for they don't play fair; but I shall be on the watch for them, and I'll take my chance." "But, Sir Modava, do you really dare to go out where there are cobras?" asked Mrs. Belgrave, looking at her son. "Certainly we do; we don't think anything at all about them." "But you are in danger all the time." "Of course it is possible that one may be bitten when a snake comes upon him unawares. The deaths from snakes and wild animals in all India averages annually twenty-two thousand. About a thousand are killed by tigers. Of a hundred and fifty kinds of snakes, only about twenty are poisonous. The deaths from snakes is one in 13,070; and the chance of being bitten is very small."