438 TWO YEAES IjST THE JUNGLE. 



received hurried directions to hasten to the house for more wood 

 and to come after us with all speed, along the track we would cut 

 through the jungle from the spot where we stood in the direction 

 of the shot. The two Dyaks and I then wheeled about and 

 started through the swamp, slashing our way rapidly along, climb- 

 ing over fallen logs, tearing through thickets and stumbling through 

 mire, but keeping the direction very carefully. Every hundred 

 yards we would stop and call : ' Ho-o-Ah Kee-ee ! ' At last we 

 heard a faint, a very faint ' 0-o-o-o-ho ! ' 



" 'Hurrah, boys! Now we've got him ! ' and with one joyous, 

 simultaneous yell, which woke the echoes far and wide through the 

 swamp, we settled down to the task of cutting our way to him. 

 The water here was nearly knee-deep, and the palms so dense and 

 thorny that we were forced to cut a passage for every step we ad- 

 vanced. It took us a good haK hour to get to him from the time 

 we heard his first answering call. But we kept calling and he an- 

 swering, so as to keep the right direction, until we were within a 

 few yards, when, cutting through a perfect cheval de fnse of palms, 

 whose leaves were twelve feet in length and set with thousands of 

 thorns, we saw a black object wading slowly toward us through the 

 water and the darkness — and Ah Kee was found ! 



" His wide trousers were rolled about his knees and hung upon 

 him in rags. His ' pig-tail ' was wound tightly around his head, 

 his body scratched and bleeding, and, taken altogether, he was a 

 forlorn spectacle. He said he had taken oflf his clothes, because 

 they caught on all the thorns and hindered him from creeping 

 along. He put on his clothes, took a drink of gin, and as soon as 

 the supply of wood arrived w^e started home. I was very glad to 

 find him and he was equally glad to be found. He had two car- 

 tridges remaining, which he proposed to save to defend himself 

 with, if attacked by any wild animal, 



" He had fired only four times in all, and the others were Pe- 

 rara's marplot shots. Ah Kee heard our firing from the house, 

 and tried, by climbing a tree, to get the direction, but after getting 

 it could not keep it ten minutes. Even when we were firing every 

 five minutes, he went first in one direction then another, then back 

 again, utterly unable to go straight. The forest is so thick that it 

 is almost impossible to judge of direction by sound. Ah Kee got 

 lost in trying first to shoot a wah-wab, and then in following a horn- 

 bill as it flew from tree to tree. At last we got to the house amid 

 general rejoicing. And what do you suppose was Ah Kee's first act 



