THE BLAT ELEPHANT. 205 



crew on my boat, and with a double set of men we 

 paddled hard for the river mouth. By midnight we 

 had transhipped into the Government yawl, and a 

 few hours later were out at sea, skirting the coast- 

 line to make for the Kemaman border. 



We eventually caught our man ; but it was some 

 time before I could find time to return to the Blat 

 river. It was then, of course, out of the question to 

 follow the tracks that we had left, and all that I 

 could do was to organise parties to search in all 

 directions for any signs that there might be of the 

 elephant's dead body. But all in vain. 



The next month I left Kuantan on transfer to 

 another district, and shortly afterwards proceeded on 

 a long leave to England. Soon after my arrival at 

 home I got a letter from Ahman to say that a 

 Malay rattan-cutter had come upon the dead body 

 of the elephant, and had stolen the tusks and sold 

 them to a Chinaman over the Kemaman border. I 

 wrote to my successor about the matter, but the 

 lapse of time made it impossible for him to do 

 anything; and that, I am afraid, is the end of the 

 Blat Elephant. 



It is satisfactory so far as Brahim and the cul- 

 tivators of the Blat and Sol rivers are concerned, 

 for they have, I hope, killed the goats and buffaloes 

 that they vowed to slay ; and unless a new elephant 

 has appeared to take the place of the old one, their 

 crops are safe. 



But where are the tusks that I should have to 

 grace my story ? I sigh to think of them lying in 

 a shop- window, cut up into hair-brushes or frittered 



