204 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



Sleman swore positively that when I fired my second 

 barrel at the charging elephant an enormous rotten 

 branch, loosened by the concussion of the shots of 

 my heavy rifle, fell from the tree under which I was 

 standing. As the elephant charged down the path, 

 the great branch fell fair upon its back. It was this 

 that had stopped the elephant's charge, and not, as 

 I had imagined, my second barrel. If their story is 

 true, and I see no reason to doubt it, it was a mar- 

 vellous chance that the branch, which would have 

 killed me had I remained where I was for a moment 

 longer, should have saved my life by falling upon the 

 elephant. 



I ordered the house-boat to be taken down to the 

 point where the elephant had crossed and recrossed ; 

 and we were drifting lazily with the stream, and 

 consoling ourselves with the day's want of success by 

 an assurance of the certainty of meeting the elephant 

 again on the morrow, when suddenly we were hailed 

 out of the darkness by a police-boat 



" Amok ! amok ! " 



When the boats approached one another a corporal 

 came on board and reported that a Malay had run 

 amok, killing his wife and two men. The scene of 

 the murders was on the sea-coast, not far from the 

 border between my district and an independent 

 native state ; and the murderer, who had escaped 

 into the forest, would undoubtedly make for the 

 border. The sergeant and a posse had already left 

 in pursuit. 



There was no police inspector in the district, and 

 therefore no option was left me. I took the police 



