"I'm blest," said one of the Jacks, "if they ain't the rummest beggars I ever see. Just look at that one, Bill. Lor' if he ain't just like a bit o' annymated hingy rubber." "Ah?" said his mate, "you might fit a pair o' blacksmith's bellows on to the muzzle o' that trunk of his, and then blow him out into a balloon." "When are we going to begin to hunt tigers?" said another. "Oh, we ain't going to hunt them at all, only keep 'em from coming by us, and driving 'em up to where the orficers are." "I say," said another sailor, "this here's all very well, but suppose some time or another, when these Malay chaps have got us out into the middle of these woods, they turn upon us, and whip out their krises-- what then?" "What then?" said a soldier, who heard him; "why then we should have to go through the bayonet exercise in real earnest; but it won't come to that." Two more days were spent in the journey, and then, upon his guests beginning to manifest some impatience, the sultan announced that they were now on the borders of the tiger country; and that afternoon there were preparations for a beat when a couple of tigers were seen, but they managed to escape. The sultan smilingly told his guests that at the end of another march the game would be more plentiful; and once more there was a steady tramp along one of the narrow jungle-paths, into a country wilder than ever-- for they were away from the rivers now, and no traces of cultivation had been seen. There was no dissatisfaction, though, for if the officers shot no tigers they found plenty of jungle-fowl and snipe, upon which they tried their powers with the gun, and made goodly bags of delicious little birds to add to the daily bill of fare. Another day, and still another, in which the expedition penetrated farther and farther into the forest wild. The officers were delighted, and Doctor Bolter in raptures. He had obtained specimens of the atlas moth, a large flap-winged insect, as large across as a moderate dish; he had shot sun-birds, azure kingfishers, gapers, chatterers, parroquets; and his last achievement had been to kill a boa-constrictor twenty-four feet long. It was no dangerous monster, but a great sluggish brute, that had hissed at him viciously and then tried to escape. But the doctor had for attendant a very plucky little Malay, appointed by the sultan, and this man was delighted with his task, following the doctor anywhere. Upon this occasion he had come upon the serpent lying coiled up, evidently sleeping off a repast of a heavy kind. The boy shouted to the doctor, who was trying to stalk a lizard in an open place; and this roused the serpent, which began to uncoil, one fold gliding over the other, while its head was raised and its curious eyes sparkled in the sun. The boy waited his opportunity, and then darting in cleverly avoided the reptile's teeth, and caught it by the tail, dragging the creature out nearly straight as he called to his master to fire.