212 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



reach from my shoulders. He pulled me up after 

 him and we climbed higher. I sat down astride a great 

 limb, tied my bundle above me, and, leaning against 

 the trunk, sank into a doze. 



I was aroused by a blow in the ribs. 



' Quit it ! ' cried James angrily, thumping me again. 

 ' What the deuce are you tearing my clothes off for? ' 



I opened my mouth to protest, but was interrupted 

 by a violent chattering in the branches above, as a 

 band of monkeys scampered away at sound of our 

 voices. They soon returned. For half the night those 

 jabbering, clawing little brutes kept us awake, and 

 ended by driving us from the tree entirely. We spent 

 the hours of darkness left on the ground at its foot, 

 indifferent alike as to snakes and tigers. 



When daylight came we found the river again within 

 a few hundred yards of our resting-place. A good 

 hour afterward we stumbled, more asleep than awake, 

 into a village on the northern bank of a large tribu- 

 tary of the Menam. It was Klong Sua Mak, the home 

 of the lumberman's sub-agent ; but our letter of intro- 

 duction served us no purpose, for we could not find 

 the addressee. It did not matter much. The place 

 had so far advanced in civilization as to possess a 

 shop where food was sold. In it we mad'e up for our 

 fast of the night before. 



The meal was barely over when we were again in 

 the midst of a village riot. It was all the fault of 

 the natives. We offered them money to row us across 

 the tributary, but they turned scornfully away. When 

 we stepped into one of the dug-outs drawn up on the 

 bank they charged down upon us, waving their dahs. 

 But for a pike-pole in the boat we might not have 



