Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/300

 "Now that I am out of that business, I'll explain that much of our success in trapping the untamed people of the tanglewood was due to a powerful ammonia pistol, much like those used to-day by cyclists in hesitating ugly dogs. Tib had improved the article as ordinarily made until it would shoot fifteen charges of the strongest kind of dope, and our employer often utilized it in quieting caged animals in place of the crude hot iron. One slug of that stuff, as prepared by Tib, would send the average striped cat or lion off to slumber-land for several minutes, and the patient on awaking was usually very docile. Tib always claimed he could construct a repeating-rifle that would carry enough of the nectar to lay low any male elephant that ever waved tusks.

"Well, we made the east shore of Lake Bango, undisturbed, and as the hunting was as thin as an almshouse stew we picked up some native boats and crossed to the west side. The sinister aspect of the country chilled me, sir, despite the terrible heat; else, maybe, it was a touch of the marsh fever. Anyway, when my boy, in his quaint patois, tried to tell me how Chief Scraws was reputed to pick up much pocket-money by selling his guests to Emi Bey's people up north, my nerve vanished and I begged Tib to turn about.

"He studied the approaching shore steadily for a