“That’s right. Be very careful not to spoil the plumage of the birds. You can make a Malay boy carry them tied by the beaks to a stick. Stop a minute; as you are here, you may as well cut up these cards for me in thin strips. I’ll go and ask the major the while.”
Tom set to work at the cards with a pair of scissors, and the doctor donned his undress coat, went out and returned with the requisite permission.
“By the way, look here, Long; if you’ll promise to be very careful, I’ll lend you my double gun.”
“I’ll take the greatest care of it, sir,” was the reply.
“Good! There it is; so now be off; and to-morrow night I shall expect a nice lot of specimens to skin.”
So Tom Long went off with the gun, and the doctor helped to turn the residency into an abode where danger usurped the place of safety, and peace was to be succeeded by the horrors of war.