about on a little _tat_, questioning
beaters and shikarries, and coming back every now and then to bawl up
some piece of information to the little collector, who had established
himself on one of the elephants and looked down over the edge of the
howdah, the great pith hat on his head making him look like an immense
mushroom with a very thin stem sprouting suddenly from the back of the
huge beast. He smiled pleasantly at the old sportsman from his
elevation, and seemed to know all about it. It so chanced that when he
received Isaacs' telegrams he had been planning a little excursion on
his own account, and had been sending out scouts and beaters for some
days to ascertain where the game lay. This, of course, was so much clear
gain to us, and the little man was delighted at the opportune
coincidence which enabled him, by the unlimited money supplied, to join
in such a hunt as he had not seen since the time when the Prince of
Wales disported himself among the royal game, three years before. As for
Miss Westonhaugh, she was in the gayest of spirits, as she sat with her
brother on an elephant's back, while Isaacs, who loved the saddle,
circled round her and kept up a fire of little compliments and pretty
speeches, to which she was fast becoming inured. Kildare and I followed
them closely on another elephant, discoursing seriously about the hunt,
and occasionally shouting some question to John Westonhaugh, ahead,
about sport in the south.

Before evening we had arrived at our first camping ground, near a small
village on the outskirts of the jungle, and the tents were pitched on a
little elevation covered with grass, now green and waving. The men had
mowed a patch clear, and were busy with the pegs and all the
paraphernalia of a canvas house, and we strolled about, some of us
directing the operations, others offering a sacrifice of cooling liquids
and tobacco to the setting sun. Miss Westonhaugh had heard about living
in tents ever since she came to India, and had often longed to sleep in
one of those temporary chambers that are set up anywhere in the
"compound" of an English bungalow for the accommodation of the bachelor
guests whom the house itself is too small to hold; now she was enchanted
at the prospect of a whole fortnight under canvas, and watched with rapt
interest the driving of the pegs, the raising of the poles, and the
careful furnishing of her dwelling. There was a carpet, and armchairs,
and tables, and even a