“I had no weapon, and it was quite impossible for me to get out of the outhouse without walking over the savage beast. All this flashed through my mind in a moment. If I shouted I should arouse the tiger, which would in all probability immediately attack me. I was quite defenceless, and my only hope of safety lay in being absolutely quiet. You may rest assured I did so, hoping that my servant might chance to come round and see where I was; but, as I had told him he could join the hunt directly he had got my guns and horse ready, I had little hope of that. I suppose that the animal must have been hunted by the captain and his followers, and, being tired, had selected that spot for repose. There were several big boxes behind which I had been lying, so I was hidden from the tiger’s view. My store was outside the village, and stood alone, so that the tiger was not disturbed. I need hardly say I could not take my eyes off the beast, which was apparently fast asleep. I waited for quite a quarter of an hour, silently watching my uninvited guest, when suddenly I saw a large bottle which was labelled Liquor Ammoniæ Fortiss. You know sufficient Latin to understand that fortiss, is the abbreviation for strongest. Noiselessly I took this big bottle and put it on a box in front of me. Then I found a small pan, filled it with the strong ammonia, and hid myself again behind a big box. The breeze carried the strong odour towards the tiger’s nostrils, and the animal was aroused in a moment. It sniffed and jumped up, and then sniffed again, as if undecided what to do. It went up to the pan and took one sniff at the liquid, then bounded out of the shed as if it had been shot. I could hardly help laughing at his sudden disappearance. I ran quickly into the store and got both my guns, mounted my horse, and went in the direction in which I had seen the tiger rush. A few minutes later I met the captain returning, without having seen the tiger he had been hunting for. In a few words I explained what had taken place, and away we went after my old friend. Well, boys, to cut a long story short, I had the good luck to shoot the animal myself, and you must have seen the skin hanging up in my parlour.”
“Is that the very same, sir?” asked Steve. “It is a very big one.”
“Yes, Steve, and it looked much bigger when alive and lying in that doorway, I can assure you. Why, boys, you have not been eating and drinking while I have been talking. What has become of your appetites?”
Thus reminded, the boys did ample justice to the food, and after tea they went into Mr. Cottenham’s laboratory—that is, the room in which he made chemicals or did chemical experiments. Walter eagerly followed everything he said and did. Mr. Cottenham explained in a very clear way all the changes that took place. He took a glass jar, called a beaker, and put into it a white powder, which, he said, was called sugar of lead or acetate of lead. This powder he dissolved in some water, tied on to a string some pieces of zinc, and fastened the other end of the string to a glass rod, which he placed across the top of the beaker. He left this while he was doing some other experiments, and there was gradually formed, on the string, a bright, leaf-like structure, called a lead-tree. He explained to Walter that the zinc had changed places with the lead, and was in the liquid, while the lead was on the string. He took a glass-tube, called a test-tube, and put into it some more sugar of lead dissolved in water, and then he took some little whitish crystals of iodide of potassium, and mixed the two liquids while warm. When the mixture was cool there were beautiful crystals, just like gold, glittering and yellow. These, he said, were iodide of lead.
“When I was in India, boys, I made a quantity of this to amuse myself; and to have a joke, I put a lot of these crystals in the sandy soil by the side of a small stream, where the natives often came for water. I stood at a distance and watched for a short time, when a terrible hubbub was raised. There were the men, women, and children squabbling and grabbing this gold, as they thought. In one of the papers it was afterwards said that a quantity of gold had been discovered, and an engineer and some government officials came to investigate. I need hardly say that no gold was found. I did not tell them how the report had got circulated. I suppose, boys, I am rather fond of spinning yarns.”
“What’s that, sir?” innocently inquired Alfred.
“Why, Alfred, that means telling short stories.”
“We like them ever so much,” said Alfred, “and we shall remember what you tell us better, because we can’t forget your stories—yarns, I mean.”
Amongst several other experiments which Mr. Cottenham performed was one in which he took some powdered sugar and some other white powder, called chlorate of potash, moistened a rod in an acid (oil of vitriol) and touched the mixed powders. Immediately they caught fire, and all the powder turned black.
“Mind, boys, that you always wash your hands after touching any chemicals, as many of them are poisonous, and also, never do any experiments without first asking, as some things explode, and might seriously injure you. I had an accident when I was a boy, through being too conceited to ask. I thought I knew everything, and so I made some gas (it was hydrogen), and lit it without taking the proper precaution of seeing that there was no air left in the flask. Immediately there was a loud report like a pistol-shot, and my apparatus was blown all to pieces. You see that scar just above my eye. Well, that was where a piece of glass struck me, and I am thankful that I did not lose my sight. Boys too often think that making an explosion is a big joke, but it is also a very dangerous one.”