Page:Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle.djvu/48

38 weeks. I've got an order for a pair of big elephant tusks—the largest I can get for a wealthy New York man,—and I'm anxious to fulfil the contract. The game isn't what it once was. There's more competition, and the elephants' are scarcer. So I've got to hustle.

"I got me a new gun, but my! it's nothing to what yours is. With that weapon I could do about as I pleased. I could do night hunting, which is hard in the African jungle. Then I wouldn't have any trouble getting the big tusks I'm after. I could get a pair of them, and live easy the rest of my life. Yes, I wouldn't ask anything better than a gun like yours. But I s'pose they cost like the mischief?" He looked a question at Tom.

"This is the only one there is," was the lad's answer. "But I am very glad to have met you, Mr. Durban. Won't you come into the house? I'm sure my father will be glad to see you, and I have something I'd like to talk to you about," and Tom, with many wild ideas in his head, led the old elephant hunter toward the house.

The dream of the young inventor might come true after all.