218 IN MALAY FOEESTS. 



word of command. Then the chief shouted again. 

 All leapt to their feet, ran forward a few yards five 

 or six, perhaps, or it may be even less and then as 

 suddenly stopped and knelt again. " Steady ! Hold 

 steady ! " they shouted up and down the line, while 

 all strained their eyes to catch a hidden gleam of 

 yellow in the heavy shadows of the black and green 

 of the forest. Thus they advanced in short quick 

 rushes with sudden pauses, until they were within 

 two hundred yards of us. The excitement by this 

 time was almost overpowering in its intensity. I 

 could not, of course, see the men, but knew by the 

 sound that only this distance separated us, and that 

 on the other side of the thickets and tree-trunks in 

 front of me fierce Malay eyes glared and peered for 

 the hidden tiger. Then suddenly, in a tree half-way 

 between the beaters and the guns, a squirrel raised 

 its chattering note of alarm. Another squirrel im- 

 mediately took up the cry, and the pair of them kept 

 up such an incessant excited clamour that it was 

 plain that they were scolding an intruder; it was 

 obvious, too, that the intruder was within a few yards 

 of them. The tree from which they uttered their 

 defiance was situated in a ravine-like depression in 

 the forest, exactly the sort of place in which a tiger, 

 or any animal, would seek a refuge from the invasion 

 of the beaters. The chief shouted to the men to move 

 in upon the place, and the long line swept inwards 

 and enclosed it in a semicircle. By this time the 

 length of the line had so contracted that the men 

 were nearly shoulder to shoulder. Only a hundred 

 yards or so separated them from the guns, and it was 



