A WERE-TIGER. 275 



" The tracks will prove the truth of what I say," 

 cried the pedlar. 



The justice of the contention appealed to all, and 

 the ground was carefully examined. But the crowd 

 had obliterated the footprints round the trap, and all 

 that could be seen were the tiger's tracks following a 

 wild-game path to its junction with the main forest 

 path, and then losing themselves in the trampled 

 ground around the trap. 



The inspection was carried out thoroughly and im- 

 partially, and its result, which of course tended to 

 confirm the suspicions of the Malays, was communi- 

 cated to the trembling captive. 



" But I can prove that I left the village of Siputeh 

 yesterday afternoon to come to Bentong. Every one 

 saw me there," wept the old man. 



" That may be true," retorted some one in the crowd 

 with relentless logic, " but it is of last night that we 

 talk. The tiger was here last night, and you are in 

 the tiger-trap this morning." 



The pedlar, who throughout had been on his hands 

 and knees, the only position of which the cramped 

 space of the trap would permit, seeing the futility of 

 argument, turned his face up to the judges who stood 

 massed in front of the trap and tried through his 

 tears to recognise them. 



He called to the village imaum, and offered to swear 

 on the Koran of the mosque in any form of oath that 

 might be imposed that his story was true. But 

 though the Malays are, as a rule, in favour of the 

 ordeal by oath, they felt at once that there was an 

 obvious objection to its use in this case. The question 



