IN SEARCH OF BIG GAME. 
29 
In an instant what had been an unsuspecting mass of flesh, 
became a very alert scladang which jumped to its feet and 
swunj^ round facing us. I stood perfecth- stilJ, and beheve 
that even now ahhouj^h he was so close to us, if my followers 
had kept quiet tliat the seladan*^ would still be alive but 
of course they stampeded. The sehidang threw up his head 
and — advanced. I had seen that lie had only a young head, 
the lo%ver part of his liorns appeared quite a golden colour, and 
I did not want to shoot htm at all, but this was too much like 
a hostile demonstration, and at any moment he might run at 
me» or what was more likeh' chase one of the Malays who 
were making much noise scrambling through the bluker. The 
bull stood still for an instant and then threw up his head and 
1 fired for his throat; the shock of the bullet appeared to 
throw him back on his haunches, but beTore I had time to fire 
again he had disappeared. I waited a few seco?ids but heard 
nothing and moved away a little to my k-ft to try and see 
round a thick bush which I thought hid the seladang from my 
view. I could see nothing. Yasin had moved away to the 
right, and beckoned to rnu:, implying by gesture that he could 
see the beast*s hind quarters, I moved as quietly ns I could to 
where Yasin was and just as I got there I saw the beast move 
very slowl\- out of sight. He had gone about five yards from 
where I though he was. We waited a few minutes trying to 
locate him b\' sound and presently heard a rustle which was 
evidently the' btiU. I thought he was down and advanced 
ver^* cautiously. Near the track, where we had first seen the 
seladang, the bluker happened to be fairly clear, but only a 
^^\y yards away it was almost impenetrable without the help 
of a parang. We went as ftir as the spot that I had just seen 
the beast leave and here were signs that he had fallen down, 
but he had got up somehow and forced his wa)- into a thick 
patch of fern where we could see absolutely nothing. I called 
a halt and told the men who were with me that on no account 
were they to make any noise, that if they were afraid they had 
better clnnb trees and stop there until we signalled them to 
come down. That the seladang was close to us I was quite 
certain, no beast could have possibly gone through that thick 
bluker without making sufficient noise for us to have heard 
him, and it seemed reasonablu to su[>pose that he was close at 
hand and "in extremis." His track after going through the 
thick fern led us into a patch of jungle-lily which had leaves 
quite three feet long, and above these leaves was a tangle of 
creepers and everj' imaginable sort of obstruction to quick 
movement on our part. I refused to follow the tracks into 
this, so we skirted round to the left to find it no better there, 
