he north
of England, and by good luck happens to be just now within thirty miles
of this town. You don't mean to say, Ralph, that you have never met!"

"Never. The very same mistake that happened with you occurred between
him and me. We parted vowing to correspond as long as we should live,
and three hours after I remembered that we had neglected to exchange our
addresses, so that we could not correspond. I have often, often made
inquiries both for you and him, but have always failed. I never heard
of Jack from the time we parted at Dover till to-day."

"Then no doubt you thought us both dead, and yet you did not go into
mourning for either of us! O Ralph, Ralph, I had entertained too good
an opinion of you."

"But tell me about Jack," said I, impatient to hear more concerning my
dear old comrade.

"Not just now, my boy; more of him in a few minutes. First let us
return to the point. What was it? Oh! a--about my being a celebrated
hunter. A very Nimrod--at least a miniature copy. Well, Ralph, since
we last met I have been all over the world, right round and round it.
I'm a lieutenant in the navy now--at least I was a week ago. I've been
fighting with the Kaffirs and the Chinamen, and been punishing the
rascally sepoys in India, and been hunting elephants in Ceylon and
tiger-shooting in the jungles, and harpooning whales in the polar seas,
and shooting lions at the Cape; oh, you've no notion where all I've
been. It's a perfect marvel I've turned up here alive. But there's one
beast I've not yet seen, and I'm resolved to see him and shoot him
too--"

"But," said I, interrupting, "what mean you by saying that you were a
lieutenant in the navy a week ago?"

"I mean that I've given it up. I'm tired of the sea. I only value it
as a means of getting from one country to another. The land, the land
for me! You must know that an old uncle, a rich old uncle of mine, whom
I never saw, died lately and left me his whole fortune. Of course he
died in India. All old uncles who die suddenly and leave unexpected
fortunes to unsuspecting nephews are old Indian uncles, and mine was no
exception to the general rule. So I'm independent, like you, Ralph,
only I've got three or four thousand a year instead of hundreds, I
believe; but I'm not sure and don't care--and I'm determined now to go
on a long hunting expedition. What think ye of all that, my boy?"

"In truth," said I, "it would puzzle me to say what I thin