The Club of Queer Trades
in that restless interior there was no ragged tramp so restless as the elegant officer in the loose, white clothes. He had shot a great many things in his time, to judge from his conversation, from partridges to elephants, but his slangier acquaintances were of opinion that "the moon" had been not unfrequently amid the victims of his victorious rifle. The phrase is a fine one, and suggests a mystic, elfish, nocturnal hunting.
He carried from house to house and from parish to parish a kit which consisted practically of five articles: Two odd-looking, large-bladed spears, tied together, the weapons, I suppose, of some savage tribe; a green umbrella; a huge and tattered copy of the Pickwick Papers; a big game rifle; and a large sealed jar of some unholy Oriental wine. These always went into every new lodging, even for one night; and they went in quite undisguised, tied up in wisps of string or straw, to the delight of the poetic gutter-boys in the little gray streets.
I had forgotten to mention that he always carried also his old regimental sword. But
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