Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-18

.o.o a.ccoiuingy on over large blocks of granite,
'oro sSlswn about and making progress still
t niose ullhcut' Mounting a huge slab, was
most heartily thankful to see what appeared
an opening IN the forest, and such it proved.
=, hsu at last scrambled to the ton and
tnen falrly ran through the long grass of the
pevna po,na ~ my eagerness to look down the next
Tavihe, but there it was again, lust what I
haa expected, jungle, jungle, another two
hr1vS uni oi II 10 the summit of the next hill
why the Jungle of matted trees does not
grow on the crest of these hills l do not
KIiow' % ;. ouC the sides are invariably covered
the steepest places and close BY water.
30 mo now y SET 70 work with my hunting knife
to cut down the grass, in order to make nv.
sell a sort of bed to sleep on. although I
nearu the howling of jackals more or less
around, but l was too tired and footsore to
care for these cowardly brutes. who will sci.
dom attack anything that is not already half
dead and even then only when about a hun.
dred to one.
lay down in the dewy grass not without
,as certain misgiylngs as to fever and ague next
morning, and was trying to keep off the
mosquitoes when. | saw light, apparently
on the opposite hill, but, as it was on the
other side of the river, / did not think it
could be much good to me-
was fuily five miles off, and kept moving
ABOUT. At last, after watching and losing
slgnt OF 1t every few minutes, fred off my
gun, and thought heard an answer, but as
"a tne answer came so soon after my shot, and
the Peacock Mountain lay opposite, l con-
Guided 1t was only an echo.
then fired my other barrel but did not
near any reply or echo this time, SO gave
prolonged "cooey" Ia loud long-drawn sort
of yelD, and distinctly heard it answered.
without chance of being deceived by any
echo, because we invariably employ different
call When replying to any call heard, as the
country is so mountainous and echoes are
common, We mutually kept this up for some
time, yelling and answering one another, un-
til the light moved up and down, then disap-
peared.
The air seemed to become colder and colder.
until resting longer on the ground was impos-
slDle; so up got, then looked anxiously at
the place in the sky fhere the moon would
eventually rise, but no sign of light was yet
| to be seen.
Feeling somewhat rested, I shouldered the
gun and made push on, but had not gone
many yards before l lost my footing on
slab of granite concealed by tall grass and
fell heavily on the small of my back, shak-
ing myself severely, and again dropping my
gun, 1 could not tell where.
There was no help for it now, but to stay
where l was until the moon rose or someone
came to assist me.
| All my bones ached to such an extent that
even lying down caused pain, and my ankle
fall that an effectual stop was put to my
walking up and down to get warm.
In this exhausted state I must once more
have fallen half asleep, for have some recol.
lection of dreaming something about snakes
and chetahs, and cold water down my back,
and some one crying for help in the most
unearthly shrieks.
| These last awoke me, and something more
real tina dream appeared, when. sitting up.
the first thing that caught my eyes was a
hight, accompanied by weird Singalese eooey,
which kept on answering.
More lights appeared. more cooeys followed,
then laughing and crashing of branches. and
lastly, no less than fifteen natives with Ian
terms and dogs and carrying spears, as well as
sort of litter.
Breaking through the high grass, they began
nterrogating me as to whether the "thurai"
| (master) was hurt.
l told them about my gun, so all set to work
to hunt with their lights, and found it. With
| their help l struggled up and up the patna
until l declared l could not move another
| step.
Mounting me on the hurdle brought, they
carried me the rest of the way home; up steep
inclines, through iungles, over streams and
river and marsh, chattering and laughing and
| joking in the most jovial manner, and never
| resting once.
/ The journey must have lasted three hours.
as the moon rose just after they found me,
and by the time | reached my bungalow it
wanted only quarter to four on Sunday morn
| ing. Luckily, the fellow | was living with
had prepared good, stimulating hot supper
against my arrival
| It proved that he had heard my gunshot,
and answered it with revolver which he
must be jammed between some rocks in A
ravine, and therefore sent out after me; but,
| soon finding that we were on opposite sides
and after calling for some time he went back
and routed out lot OF coolies, with lanterns
| to look for me.
| IL t,,a 10 ind naVf., r.