The Safari

The streets outside our carriage window were dimly lit, sparsely populated, and had an air of griminess that ought to have been illegal. I mean, how can you call somewhere the capital city of the greatest nation on earth when there are places like this, squatting just around every corner?
Across from me, the Major grinned. "Here we are, laddie." He rapped on the roof, and the carriage pulled to a halt. I just stared. I was not, precisely, a stranger to London's less affluent areas, but this...?
I was about to object, but he had already hopped out of the carriage; I had no choice but to follow. He tossed the driver a coin over his shoulder, and he whipped up with no little eagerness. I couldn't say I blamed him. The Major looked around, then nodded with satisfaction. "This way, I think." He said, gesturing airily. "Step lively, now!" He set off; I hesitated, and asked myself, not for the first time, how I had come to be here.
In brief, I am a young gentleman of (relatively) independent means, who, through no fault of his own (I shan't bandy a lady's name, but you've heard of her) was currently running light in the pocket, and searching for a source of income that didn't involve (horror of horrors) honest work. It was a friend at the club who put me on to the Major. Couldn't tell me much about him; an old Africa hand, brimming with gilt, and generous to young men of a certain character, under the right circumstances. I'd arranged a meeting, he'd proposed a carriage ride, and so, here I was.
I ran to catch up with him, glancing about me nervously. It wasn't late, but already there were tight knots of humanity gathered around the streets. Some were men gathered around the pubs, others, groups of urchins scampering around in the gutter. All of them stared as we passed; curiously, hungrily, avariciously...
I started to undo my watch-chain and drop it into my pocket, but the Major grabbed my arm.
"No, no!" He snapped. "Don't do that!" I stared at him, uncomprehending, but he just forged on ahead. "Shouldn't have to go far." He muttered to himself. "What are you carrying?"
"Not much." I said, embarassed. "Couple of shillings?" He snorted derisively.
"Your weapon. boy! What is it? Webley? Adams? As long as it's not a Colt - I can't abide those pieces of Yankee rubbish."
"N-no." I stammered.
"Ah, a knife man, eh?"
"I don't have one." I said, looking aghast. He hissed breath out between clenched teeth.
"Damnation! Well, here." He said, slipping a clasp-knife into my startled hand. "Got a Bulldog, myself." He said, patting the bulge at his hip. "Carried it with me forty years."
I wanted to ask what he was planning, but...well, I really was quite hard up.
"I'd been bored senseless 'til I struck on this." He said, conversationally, as we turned off into a narrower, dimmer street. "Once you've gone toe-to-toe with an elephant, or a Cape buffalo, every other pursuit loses its zest somewhat. Would've stayed out there, if it hadn't been so damned impossible to get a decent sherry." We turned again, into a dead-end alley. I glanced nervously over my shoulder; there were three men following us now, spread out across the width of the street.
"It's really not so different, you know." He stopped as he regarded the wall in front of us, and nodded again, as if he had never seen anything finer. "Yes. Now..." He turned around. At the other end of the alley, walking towards us, were the same three men. I couldn't make anything out in the darkness, but I don't think I'd ever seen anything more terrifying. I moaned, softly.
"Steady!" The Major bawled, as the men started to run towards us. I did not listen; I am in no way ashamed to say that, in fact, I turned tail and started scrabbling at the wall, possibly in an attempt to claw my way through it. I heard the roar of the Major's revolver behind me, once, twice - then a solid thud, and assorted grunts and snarls. I span around to see the Major grappling with the last thug; a wild eyed, snarling thing, desperately trying to ram a knife in my companion's eye.
"Hurry, laddie!" The Major bawled, gripping at his attacker's wrist. I fumbled the knife out of my pocket, somehow managed to wrench the blade out, and lurched forward, stabbing blindly. I caught the thug in the neck, and it sank in almost effortlessly. He staggered backwards, gobbling horrifically, his hands scrabbling for what was lodged in his throat. He hit one of the alley walls, and collapsed, convulsing. I turned aside and vomited.
I felt a hand clamp down onto my shoulder, and I lurched away from it, gasping. It was only the Major, grinning from ear to ear.
"Beautifully done, laddie!" He crowed. "Clean in, and right first time!" He knelt down, and jerked his knife out of the young man's neck. Blood sprayed out of the wound, but the Major stepped back with practiced ease. He examine the bodies lying around critically.
"Two for me, one for you, say...three-seventy total weight on my side, and two...oh, go on then, two-twenty on yours. He is a big fellow, after all." He nodded again. "A good evening's work, all in all." He sighed, wistfully, then shook his head ruefully. "Well...it's not the same challenge as an elephant...but by Jove, there's a lot more of them!" He laughed, and draped a congenial arm around my shoulder. "And now, my boy, what say we find ourselves another carriage? I know a rather delightful establishment in the Haymarket, and I feel you and I have much to discuss..."
Well. It's better than being insolvent.