210 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



like a factory whistle in the wilderness, and he put off 

 into the jungle as fast as his thin legs co,uld carry 

 him, his companions shrieking at his heels. 



* When you are attacked by an Oriental mob,' my 

 companion said, ' hurt 'one of them, and hurt him 

 quick. That's all that's needed.' 



Miles beyond, as we reposed in a tangled thicket, a 

 crashing of underbrush brought us anxiously to our 

 feet. We peered out through the interwoven branches. 

 An elephant, with a mahout dozing on his head, was 

 advancing towards us. Behind him came another and 

 another of the bulky animals, fifteen in all, some with 

 armed men on their backs, others bearing a small 

 carload of baggage. We stepped out of our hiding- 

 place in time to, meet the chief of the caravan, who 

 rode between the seventh and eighth elephants on a 

 stout -limbed pony. He was an Englishman, agent 

 of the Bombay -Burma Lumber Company, and had spent 

 fifteen years in wandering through the teak forests of 

 Siam. Never before, he asserted, had he known a 

 white man to cross the peninsula unarmed and un- 

 escorted. For a time he was convinced that we were 

 playing a practical joke on him and had hidden our 

 porters and guns away in the jungle. Disabused of 

 that idea, he warned us to beware the territory beyond, 

 asserting that he had killed two tigers and a murderous 

 outlaw within the past week. 



* I shall pitch my camp a few miles from here,' he 

 concluded. ' You had better turn back and spend the 

 night with me. It's all of thirty miles from Kung Chow 

 to here, more than enough for one day.' 



We declined the offer, having no desire to cover the 

 same territory thrice. The Englishman wrote us a 



