Information was brought to the inspector of ... that a certain well-known smuggler was on his way to ... and that he had a large quantity of illicit opium with him. Report had it that he was armed, and, accordingly, the inspector, providing himself with a revolver of small calibre—really nothing more than a toy—and his peon, with a shot-gun loaded with slugs in both barrels, set off with a small party to a certain pass in the hills near by, through which the smuggler would have to pass. In due time the smuggler, with a load on his shoulders, and a Tower musket in his hand, came along.
“Halt,” called the inspector, jumping from his place of concealment, and covering the smuggler with his toy revolver.
The only reply was a flash and bang from the smuggler’s musket, and for a moment, the air was thick with smoke and nasty whining sounds, as missiles of all kinds flew past the inspector’s head.
“Now I will shoot you,” said the inspector, and he fired a shot over the smuggler. The smuggler poured some powder down his musket barrel.
“Put down that gun!” ordered the inspector, and he fired another shot over the smuggler’s head. Now a piece of wadding clanged down under the smuggler’s ramrod.
“I shall certainly shoot you now,” threatened the inspector, and another tiny bullet whistled harmlessly past the smuggler. This time a handful of slugs went rattling down the long barrel.
“Can my master be bewitched?” thought the peon, who had the loaded shot-gun in his hands. “It must be so; but matters are getting too serious for further argument,” and levelling the gun at the smuggler he fired off both barrels at once, almost cutting the fellow in halves. A large quantity of opium was found in the smuggler’s bundle and the judicial officer who held the inquiry, a man who had risen from the bottom of the ladder, and whose experience was wide, while admiring the inspector’s humanity, considered that he had no right to expose himself and his party in the way he did. He wanted it to be widely known that smugglers who went armed with the idea of terrorising the executive did so at the risk of being shot at sight, and he undertook to see that officers who did this did not suffer. The peon was handsomely rewarded and promoted for his presence of mind and opportune action.