“Your band plays the last new coster song, your ladies believe that they wear the latest fashions, your men read the latest news not two days old, your servants speak English and speak it fluently. Your butler plays the fiddle, and he told me this morning that my banjo was ‘awfully nice.’ I desire that you will introduce me (if you can) to India without European clothes--stripped and naked. I want to get below the surface, below officialdom, and general orders, and precedence; scrape the skin, and show me Hindostan.” “Show me something out of the common.” This was his querulous parrot-cry. “Would you care to come out into the jungle sixty miles away,” I ventured, “to a place that has no English attributes, and help to shoot a notorious man-eating tiger? There is a reward of five hundred rupees for his skin. For the last two years he has devastated the country.” “Like it!” cried Algy, suddenly, sitting erect, “why, it’s the very thing. I’ll go like a shot. I am ready to start to-night. What’s the name of the place?” “Karwassa. This man-eater has killed, they say, more than a hundred people, and if we shoot him, we cover ourselves with glory; if we fail, we are no worse than half the regiment, and most of the station.” Algy figuratively leapt at the idea; he was out of his chair, pacing the verandah, long ere I had ceased to speak. “How soon could we start?” “As soon as I obtained leave,” I replied. “Oh, bother leave!” he retorted, impatiently. “Still, it is a necessary precaution,” I answered. “If I go without it I shall be cashiered, and _that_ would be a bother.” “All right; put in for it at once. The sooner we are off the better,” cried Algy. “Let us get the first shikari in the province, and if he puts us fairly on the tiger, the five hundred rupees shall be his. I pay all expenses.” “But Jones wants----” “Yes, Jones, by all means,” he interrupted; “you had better lay your heads together without delay. He told me he was a born organizer, so you might, perhaps, leave the transport and commissariat in his hands, whilst you secure leave, and the keenest and best shikari. Money _no_ object.” “You are keen enough, Algy,” I remarked; “but, of course, you have no experience of big game. _Can_ you shoot?” “I can hit a stag, and I’ve accounted for crocodile, but I have never seen a tiger in a wild state.” “Ah! and you’ll find a tiger is quite another pair of shoes,” I assured him impressively.