The mirror., 1922-02-09

ouuhS HCiS oAu oAS PAuhSSu1 OSho"AA6
into the jungle. Then the bull, instead of
catching Ali's body on his horns, allowed
it to fall to the ground and turned toward
me. swung up into the branches of the
tree, just out of his reach and slashed
downward as he charged. failed to hit
him and narrowly escaped falling.
We could hear the cow believing furi-
ously and dragging herself away through
the jungle. She did not return. The bull
charged back again and stood beneath me,
paving the ground and believing. Then
he turned and attacked Ais body, tram
ping upon it, time after time, until every
bone was broken.
Each time the bull returned to the tree,
1 fired downward at him with my revol-
yer, but might just as well have used
a popgun-the little bullets had no effect.
One dynamite cartridge would have ended
him, but my rifle lay on the ground five
yards away.
Night came on, but the selandang did
not leave. remained poised throughout
the night, waiting for a chance to jump
down and run for the rifle. Our thirst
became terrible, and there was little con-
ISOLATION in the thought that the seladang
was probably quite as thirsty as we were
But there was some chance that he would
leave us for a few moments to find water.
and l needed only a moment to get the
rifle and climb back into my tree.
Ants and mosquitoes swarmed over us.
Trying to find some protection against
them, we wrapped our hands and faces in
sarongs. But we were as helpless against
insects as against seladangs.
Morning came and wore away to noon,
and still the beast stayed by his post. Then
the fever began to hit me and my head
throbbed. propped myself up against
the trunk of the tree, saving all my
strength until the moment when l should.
need it most.
Ais body was unrecognizable; he had
been gored repeatedly in the tossing and
now he was simply mass of torn, tram
pied flesh. The beast returned to it again
and again to sniff and paw, and the sight
made me weak and i'll.
The ten natives were scattered through
the trees near me and we talked back and
FORTH They, of course, depended upon me
and my magic" to save them, and l, with
the fever burning more fercely every min
ute, realized that something must be done
Immediately. My thirst was becoming un-
endurable and my strength was leaving
me rapidly. l called to the men to join
me in my tree, and they swung from limb
to limb until we were together. The
seladang took up his position beneath us,
believing and paving.
counted the arms in the party; we had,
besides our parangs, four spears and three
krises. With the parangs we cut stout
branches; then we tore our sarongs into
strips and bound the krises to the poles.
As was usual in the archipelago especial
ly in the inland districts, the spears and
krises were poisoned and our only hope of
victory lay in that fact. / knew that the
poison would kill man in few minutes
and 1 had seen smaller animals die of it,
but l did not know what effect it would
have on so large and powerful brute as
a seladang.
Next we gathered leaves and stuffed a
sack, made from a sarong full of them,
and tied it with string so that we could
dangle it in front of the beast. Then three
of us armed with the krises took positions
so that we should be above the seladang
when he charged, and we lowered the
sack. He snorted and drew back; then he
put his strength into his legs and lunged
forward. drove downward with my
kris, tearing wound in his back near the
hump; he whirled and charged again, and
this time one of the natives blinded him