CHAPTER XIX. 



END OF THE ANIMALLAI CAMPAIGN. 



Balky Mulcers — Work on the Elephant again. — Wild Beast versus Tramp and 

 Burglar. — My Mulcers go on a Strike. — Playing a Lone Hand. — Bringing 

 the Men to Terms. — A Bloodless but Complete Victory. — Another Tiger 

 about. — Treatment of the Elephant Skin. — The March out to Sungam.— 

 The Season. — The Last of my Hunting Gang. — Descent from the Hills in 

 a Storm. — Paradise Lost. — Fever Again. — Good by to the Animallais. — 

 My Collection of Mammals. 



The lazy rascals knew there was hard work ahead, and I was soon 

 to leave the hills, and having accumulated a goodly number of 

 rupees in my ser\ace they shrank from further exertion. This, too, 

 in the face of the fact that I had doubled the wages of each man 

 on the evening previous ! When we started on the hunt I prom- 

 ised the men a present of five rupees each when we had killed an 

 elephant and skinned it, and the men demanded their money then 

 and there, declaring they would not go a step unless I paid it. 

 Knowing full well they would immediately desert me if I complied, 

 I firmly refused their demand, and declared that unless they all 

 went with me, and at once, none of them would ever receive a single 

 anna of the prize money. 



They were stubborn as mules, and refused to stir. In the pres- 

 ence of them all, I called up a messenger and told Doraysawmy to 

 order him, in their hearing, to start at once for Animallai village, 

 and bring me ten chucklers (tanners) before night. He understood 

 my game, and started at once, apparently on the errand. Ani- 

 maUai village was twenty miles away, and before a messenger could 

 go and bring help from there, the skin of my elephant would be 

 ruined by decomposition. An uncured elephant skin cannot lie 

 long in hot weather without spoiHng. While Doraysawmy and 

 the elephant doctor were wrangling with the Mulcers, the sun kept 

 climbing higher and higher above the tree tops, and I knew that a 

 few hours more would seal the fate of the skin I had already worked 

 $o hard for. 



