THE JUNGLE HUNTER
Harry Kenyon did not run up the slope to the house, which was erected
upon an elevation to raise it beyond the flood when the river burst
its bounds, as it made a point of doing once or twice a year during
the heavy rains. People out in sunny Siam do not run much, but make a
point of moving deliberately as the natives do, for the simple reason
that it takes a very short time to get into a violent perspiration,
but a very long time to get cool; besides which, overheating means the
risk of chills, and chills mean fever.
He walked gently up to meet the tall, thin, rather stern-featured,
grizzly-haired man in white flannel and straw hat with puggaree, who
had come out to meet him, and who saluted him heartily.
"Lovely morning, my boy, but quite warm enough already. How sweet the
blossoms smell!"
"Yes, father," said Harry, whose brain was full of the great reptile;
"but I've just seen such a monster."
"Crocodile?"
"Yes; quite twenty feet long."
"With discount twenty-five per cent., Hal?" said the father, laughing.
"No, father, really."
"One's eyes magnify when they look at savage creatures, especially at
snakes."
"Oh yes, I know, father," said the lad impatiently; "but this was the
biggest I've seen."
"Then it must have been twenty-four feet long, Hal, for I've shown you
one of twenty-two."
"I didn't measure him, father; he wouldn't wait," said the boy,
laughing; "but he was a monster."
"You threw something at it, I suppose?"
"Yes, a big piece out of the rockery--and hit him on the back. It
sounded like hitting a leather trunk."
"Humph!" said Mr. Kenyon. "Boys are boys all the world round, it
seems. Here have you been in Siam almost ever since you were born, and
you act just in the same way as an English boy at home."
"Act! How did I act?"
"Began throwing stones. Bit of human nature, I suppose, learnt
originally of the monkeys. So you hit the brute?"
"Yes, father, and he went off with a rush!"
"Looking for its breakfast, I suppose. Let's go and get ours."
Harry Kenyon required no second invitation, for the pangs of hunger,
forgotten in the excitement, returned with full force, and in a few
minutes father and son were seated at table in the well-furnished
half-Eastern, half-English-looking home, enjoying a well-cooked
breakfast, served on delicate china from the neighbouring country, and
with glistening silver tea and coffee pot well worn with long
polishing, for they were portions of a set of old family plate which
had been sent out to the fairly wealthy merchant trading with England
from the East.
"Hullo!" said Mr. Kenyon; "why, you are not eating any of your fish!"
"No, father. Ng has spoiled them."
"Spoiled? Nonsense; the curry is delicious."
"But I don't want to be always eating curry, father. I told him to fry
them."
"Better leave him to do things his own way, my boy, and have some.
They are very good. The Chinese are a wonderfully conservative people.
They begin life running in the groove their fathers ran in before
them, and go on following it up to the end of their days, and then
leave the groove to their sons. Did you catch all these?"
"No; Phra caught more than I did. He is more patient than I am."
"A great deal, and with his studies too."
"Yes, father; I say, the fish are better than I thought."
"I was talking about the Prince being more patient over his studies
than you are, Hal," said Mr. Kenyon drily.
"Yes, father," said the lad, reddening.
Mike just then brought in a dish of hot bread-cakes, and no more was
said until he had left the room, when Mr. Kenyon continued:--
"Take it altogether, Hal, you are not such a bad sort of boy, and I
like the way in which you devote yourself to the collecting for the
museum; but I do wonder at an English lad calmly letting one of these
Siamese boys leave him behind."
"Oh, but he's the son of a king," said Harry, smiling.
"Tchah! What of that? Suppose he is a prince by birth, like a score
more of them, that is no reason why he should beat you."
"He can't, father," said Harry sturdily.
"Well, he seems to."
"If I liked to try hard, I could leave him all behind nowhere."
"Then, why don't you try hard, sir?"
"It's so hot, father."
"And you are so lazy, sir."
"Yes, father. I'll have a little more curry, please."
"I wish I could have your classics and mathematics curried, sir, so as
to make you want more of them," said Mr. Kenyon, helping his son to
more of the savoury dish. "Yes, Mike?"
"Old Sree is here, sir, with two bearers and a big basket."
"Oh!" cried Harry, jumping up; "what has he got now?"
"Sit down and finish your breakfast, Hal," said his father sternly.
"Don't be such a young savage, even if you are obliged to live out
here in these uncivilized parts."
The lad sat down promptly, but felt annoyed, and anxious to know what
the old hunter employed by his father to collect specimens had
brought.
"What has he in the big basket, Mike?" asked Mr. Kenyon.
"Don't know, sir; he wouldn't tell me. Said the Sahibs must know
first."
"Then he must have got something good, I know," said Harry excitedly.
"I expect it's a coo-ah."
"One o' them big, speckled peacocks with no colour in 'em, Master
Harry?" said Mike respectfully. "No, it isn't one o' them; the
basket's too small."
"What is it, then?"
"Don't know, sir; but I think it's one o' those funny little bears,
like fat monkeys."
"May I send on for Phra, father?"
"Yes, if you like; but perhaps they will not let him come."
"Oh, I think they will; and I promised always to send on to him when
anything good was brought in."
"Very well," said his father quietly; "send."
"Run, Mike," said the boy excitedly, and the man made a grimace at
him. "Well, then, walk fast, and ask to see him. They'll let you pass.
Then tell him we've got a big specimen brought in, and ask him, with
my compliments, if he'd like to come on and see it."
"Yes, sir;" and the man hurried out, while Mr. Kenyon, who had just
helped himself to a fresh cup of coffee, leaned back in his chair and
smiled.
"What are you laughing at, father?" said the boy, with his bronzed
face reddening again. "Did I make some stupid blunder?"
"Well, I hardly like to call it a blunder, Hal, because it was done
knowingly. I was smiling at the impudence of you, an ordinary British
merchant's son, coolly sending a message to a palace and telling a
king's son to come on here."
"Palace! Why, it's only a palm-tree house, not much better than this,
father; not a bit like a palace we see in books. And as to his being a
king's son, and a prince, well, he's only a boy like myself."
"Of the royal blood, Hal."
"He can't help that, father, and I'm sure he likes to come here and
read English and Latin with me, and then go out collecting. He said
the King liked it too."
"Oh yes, he likes it, or he would not let his son come."
"Phra said his father wanted him to talk English as well as we do."
"And very wise of him too, my boy. This country will have more and
more dealing with England as the time goes on."
Harry sat watching his father impatiently, longing the while to get
out into the verandah, where he expected that the old hunter would be.
"You are not eating, my boy," said Mr. Kenyon; "go on with your
breakfast."
"I've done, thank you, father."
"Nonsense. You always have two cups of coffee. Get on with the meal.
It is better to make a good breakfast than to wait till the middle of
the day, when it is so hot."
Harry began again unwillingly, and his father remarked upon it.
"You want to get out there, but you told me you did not wish to see
what the man has brought till your friend came."
"Yes, I said so, father; but I should like Sree to tell me."
"Finish your breakfast, and you will have plenty of time."
Harry went on, and after the first few mouthfuls his healthy young
appetite prevailed, and he concluded a hearty meal.
"There, you can go now," said his father. "Call me when the Prince
comes."
Harry Kenyon hurried out into the broad verandah, and then along two
sides of the square bungalow so as to reach the back, where sat a
little, wrinkled-faced, square-shaped, yellow-skinned man, with his
face and head shaved along the sides as high as the tips of his ears,
leaving a short, stubbly tuft of grizzled hair extended backward from
the man's low forehead to the nape of his neck, looking for all the
world like the hair out of a blacking-brush stretched over the top of
his head.
His dress was as scanty as that of his two muscular young companions,
consisting as it did of a cotton plaid sarong or scarf of once bright
colours, but now dull in hue from long usage, and a good deal torn and
tattered by forcing a way through the jungle. This was doubled
lengthwise and drawn round the loins, and then tightened at the waist
by giving the edge of the sarong a peculiar twist and tuck in, thus
forming a waist-belt in which in each case was stuck a dagger-like
kris, with pistol-shaped handle and wooden sheath to hold the wavy
blade, and a parang or heavy sword used in travelling to hack a way
through the jungle and form a path by chopping through tangled rotan
or tufts of bamboo, or lawyer cane.
The three men were squatted on their heels, with their mouths
distended and lips scarlet, chewing away at pieces of betel-nut
previously rolled in a pepper-leaf, which had first been smeared with
what looked like so much white paste, but which was in fact lime, made
by burning the white coral, abundant along some portion of the shores,
and rising inland to quite mountainous height.
As soon as Harry came in sight, all rose up, smiling, and the elder
man wanted to exhibit the prize contained within the great square
basket standing on the bamboo flooring, while two stout bamboos, each
about eight feet long, were stood up against the house, a couple of
loops on either side of the basket showing where the bamboo poles had
been thrust through so that the basket could hang dependent from the
two men's shoulders.
"What have you got, Sree?" asked Harry, in English, which from long
service with Mr. Kenyon, and mixing with other colonists, Sree spoke
plainly enough to make himself understood.
"Big thing, Sahib. Very heavy."
"Bear?"
The man made a sign, and his two followers grinned with enjoyment, and
seated themselves on the basket, which squeaked loudly.
"What did you do that for?" cried Harry.
"The young Sahib must wait till the old Sahib comes, and then he see."
"Old Sahib, indeed!" cried Harry; "why, my father isn't half so old as
you."
"The young Sahib wait."
"Of course I can wait," said Harry pettishly, "and I was going to
wait. I only asked you what it was."
The man smiled, and shook his head mysteriously, and just then Mike
thrust his head out of the door.
"Ah, got back, Mike!" cried Harry. "What did the Prince say?"
"Come on almost directly, sir; but I had no end of a job to get to see
him."
"How was that?"
"Oh, those guard chaps; soldiers, I s'pose they call themselves.
They're a deal too handy with those spears of theirs. They ought to be
told that they mustn't point them at an Englishman's breast."
"Oh, it's only because they're on duty, Mike," replied Harry.
"Wouldn't make any difference to me, sir, whether it was on dooty or
off dooty if one of them was to go inside my chest."
"Oh, you needn't be afraid of that."
"Afraid! Oh, come, I like that, Master Harry--afraid! Not likely to be
afraid of any number of the squatty, yellow-skinned chaps, but they
oughtn't to be allowed to carry such things. Fancy Englishmen at home
all going about carrying area railings in their hands."
Harry shook his head, for his recollections of spear-pointed area
railings were very vague.
"Don't matter, sir," said Mike, "they don't know any better; but I
know I shall get in a row one of these days for giving one of 'em a
smeller right on the nose."
"Nonsense! you mustn't do that, Mike."
"Why not, sir? Couldn't do no harm; they're as flat as flat as it is."
"You know what my father said about keeping on good terms with the
natives."
"Yes, sir, I know, sir, but fair play's a jewel; if I keep on good
terms with them they ought to keep on good terms with me, and sticking
a spear-point into a man's wesket aren't the sort o' terms I like.
'Specially when you know the things are poisoned."
"Nonsense! The Prince assured me they were not."
"Well, those ugly, twisty krises are, sir."
"No. The only danger from them is their sharp point."
"Well, that's bad enough, sir; but how about the thing you've got
yonder? What is it, Master Harry?" he asked.
"Come out and see. Don't stand there with your head just stuck out
like a snake in a hole looking to see if it's safe."
"Well, but is it safe, sir?"
"Come and see. If it's safe enough for me to be out here, it's safe
enough for you."
Mike evidently considered this reply unanswerable, for he came out
slowly and cautiously, the two men seated on the hamper-like basket
evidently enjoying the man's timidity. They glanced at Harry
inquiringly, and he gave them a quick nod of assent, with the result
that as Mike was passing them, with divers suspicious glances at their
seat, they made a sudden spring together, as if the occupant of the
bamboo covering had suddenly and by a tremendous effort raised the
lid. There was a loud creaking, and with a rush Mike was back through
the door, which he banged to.
The old hunter, who had seated himself to prepare a fresh piece of
betel-nut for chewing, laughed till the tears ran down his cheeks,
while his two bearers drew their feet up and squatted now upon the
basket lid, chuckling with delight, and looking to Harry as if
expecting a fresh hint for startling Mike.
Harry went to the door and pushed at it, finding it give a little, but
only to be pressed to directly, as if by Mike's shoulder.
"Here, it's all right; open the door," cried Harry. "He didn't get
out."
The door was opened cautiously, and Mike's head slowly appeared, to
look from one to the other and encounter faces that were serious now
almost to solemnity.
"I thought he'd got out, sir," said Mike.
"Oh no, he's safe enough; look how they've fastened the lid down with
bamboo skewers."
"Yes, sir, but some o' them things is so awful strong. What is
it--tiger?"
"Oh no, it's not a tiger, Mike. A tiger would scratch and kick a
basket like that to pieces in no time."
"Of course he would, sir. I say, Master Harry, hadn't you better tell
old Sree to get up and sit on the basket too?"
"Hardly room, is there?" said Harry seriously.
"Plenty, sir, if you make those chaps squeedge up together a bit."
"But the basket's so tickle, Mike, and their weight might send it over
sidewise. If it did the basket would go nearly flat, the lid would be
burst off, and where should be we then?"
"I know where I should be, sir," said Mike--"indoors."
"You wouldn't have time, for those beasts are so wonderfully active
that this one would be out of the basket like a flash of lightning."
"Would he, sir? Then don't you do it. Let him be. What is it, sir--a
leopard?"
"Oh no, not a leopard, Mike."
"What, then? One of those big monkeys we've never yet got a sight of?"
"Monkey? Oh no."
"What is it, then, sir?"
"Well, you see, Mike, I don't know myself yet," said Harry, laughing.
Mike looked at him sharply, then at the three Siamese, whose faces
were contorted with mirth, and back at his young master.
"Humbugging me," he said sharply. "That's it, is it, Master Harry?
Yah! I don't believe there's anything in the old hamper at all."
He went round the basket from the other direction, so as to reach the
door, and as he got behind the two men on the lid, he turned.
"I do wonder at you, Master Harry, laughing at a fellow like that, and
setting these niggers to make fun of me. Yah!"
He raised one foot and delivered a tremendous kick at the bottom of
the basket, startling the two squatting men on the lid so that one
sprang up and the other leaped off on to the bamboo floor of the
verandah, while a violent commotion inside the basket showed that its
occupant had also been disturbed.
"Something else for you to laugh at," said Mike, and he slipped in and
closed the door.
Harry smiled, the man returned to his perch on the lid, frowning and
looking very serious, while the occupant of the basket settled down
quietly again, making Harry more curious than ever as to what it might
be; but he mastered his desire to go and peer through the split bamboo
so tightly woven together, and waited impatiently for the coming of
his friend and companion.
"I believe it's a big monkey, after all," he said to himself. "Sree
always said he was sure there were monsters right away in the jungle,
just about the same as the one father saw at Singapore, brought from
Borneo. It was precious quiet, though, till Mike kicked the basket.
How savage it made him to be laughed at!"
He glanced at the basket again, and then at the old hunter and his
men, all three squatting down on their heels, chewing away at their
betel-nut, and evidently in calm, restful enjoyment of the habit.
"Just like three cows chewing their cud," said Harry to himself, and
then feeling that it was the best way to avoid the temptation to look
into the basket, he went along the verandah to the corner of the
house, just as his father reached the next corner, coming to join
them.
"Well, has Phra come?" he cried.
"No, father, not yet."
"Found out what's in the basket?" said Mr. Kenyon, smiling.
"No; haven't looked."
"Well done, Hal; I didn't give you credit for so much self-denial. But
there, I think we have waited long enough. Let's go and see now what
we've got."
"No, no, don't do that," said Harry excitedly. "Phra would be so
disappointed if we began before he had time to get here."
"Ah well, he will not be disappointed," said Mr. Kenyon, "for here he
is."
As he spoke a boat came in sight, gliding along the river at the
bottom of the garden--a handsomely made boat, propelled by a couple of
rowers standing one in the bow, the other astern, facing the way they
were going, and propelling the vessel after the fashion of Venetian
gondoliers, their oars being secured to a stout peg in the side by a
loop of hemp.
Harry started off down the garden to meet the passenger, who was
seated amidships beneath an awning; and as the men ran the craft
deftly up to the landing-place, a dark-complexioned, black-haired lad
sprang on to the bamboo platform, looking wonderfully European as to
his dress, for it was simply of white flannel. It was the little
scarlet military cap and the brightly tinted plaid sarong with kris at
the waist which gave the Eastern tinge to his appearance.
"Well," he said, in excellent English, as he joined Harry, "what have
they got? Something from their traps in the jungle?"
"Don't know anything. There they are yonder. We waited till you came."
"Oh," said the Siamese lad, with a gratified look, "I like that. I'm
afraid I shouldn't have waited, Hal."
"Oh, but then you're a prince," said Harry.
The Siamese lad stopped short.
"If you're going to chaff me about that, I shall go back," he said.
"All right; I won't then," said Harry. "You can't help it, can you?"
"Of course I can't, and I shan't be able to help it when I'm king some
day."
"Poor fellow, no; how horrible!" said Harry mockingly.
"There you go again. You've got one of your teasing fits on to-day."
"No, no, I haven't. It's all right, Phra, and I won't say another word
of that sort. Come along."
"Good-morning," said Mr. Kenyon, as the boys reached the verandah.
"Come to see our prize?"
"Yes, Mr. Kenyon. What is it you have this time?"
"We are waiting to see. Harry here wanted it to be kept for you."
The new-comer turned to give Harry a grateful nod and a smile, and
then walked with his host along the verandah, and turned the corner.
The moment he appeared, the hunter and the two men leaped up excitedly
and dropped upon their knees, raising their hands to the sides of
their faces and lowering their heads till their foreheads nearly
touched the bamboo floor.
The young Prince said a few words sharply in his own language, and the
men sprang up.
"Now then, Mr. Kenyon," he said, "let's see what is in the basket."
"What have you got, Sree?" asked Mr. Kenyon.
"Very fine, big snake, Sahib," was the reply.
"A snake?" cried Harry excitedly. "Ugh!"
"A big one?" said the merchant uneasily. Then, recalling the habit of
exaggeration so freely indulged in by these people as a rule, he asked
the size.
"Long as two men and a half, Sahib," said Sree. "Very thick, like
man's leg. Very heavy to carry."
"Humph! Twelve or fourteen feet long, I suppose," said Mr. Kenyon. "Is
it dangerous?"
"No, Sahib. I find him asleep in the jungle. He eat too much; go to
sleep for long time. Didn't try to bite when we lift him into the
basket. Very heavy."
"What do you say, Prince?" said the merchant. "Shall we have the lid
off and look at it?"
"Yes. I won't be afraid," was the reply. "Will you, Hal?"
"Not if the brute's asleep; but if it's awake and pops out at us, I
shall run for your boat."
"And leave your poor father in the lurch?" said Mr. Kenyon.
"But you'd run too, wouldn't you, father?"
"Not if the snake threw one of its coils round me."
"Then I suppose I shall have to stay," said Harry slowly.
"Perhaps it would be as well," said Mr. Kenyon drily--"You won't run,
will you?"
The young Siamese laughed merrily, and showed his white teeth.
"I don't know," he said; "I'm afraid I should. Snakes are so strong,
and they bite. I think it would be best to go with Harry."
The hunter said something very humbly in the native tongue.
"He says that he and his men would hold tight on to the snake if it
were angry, and shut it up again; but I don't believe they could. They
would all run away too."
"I don't think there is any danger," said Mr. Kenyon gravely. "These
things always try to escape back to the jungle, and they are, I
believe, more frightened of us than we are of them. We'll have a look
at the creature, then, out here, for I have no suitable place for it
at present."
"You could turn the birds out of the little aviary and let it loose
there, father."
"Good idea, Hal; but let's see it first. Look here, Sree; you and your
men must lay hold of the brute if it tries to escape."
"Yes, Sahib; we catch it and shut the lid down again."
"That's right," said the merchant. "Yes, who's that? Oh, you, Mike.
Come to see the prisoner set free? Come and stand a little farther
this way."
"Thank you, sir; yes, sir," said the man.
Harry nudged the Prince, and the nudge was returned, with a laughing
glance.
"No danger, is there, sir?" said Mike respectfully.
"I hope not," said Mr. Kenyon; "but you will be no worse off than we
are. Like to go back before the basket is opened?"
"Isn't time, sir; they've nearly got it open now."
"Run round the other way, Mike," cried Harry.
"Me, sir? No, thank you," replied the man. "I don't want to run."
Meanwhile the two bearers were holding the lid of the basket firmly
down while Sree pulled out eight stout elastic skewers of bamboo,
which had held the lid tightly in place. And as one after the other
was slowly and carefully extracted with as little movement of the
basket as possible, so as not to irritate the snake if awake, or to
disturb it if asleep, the interest and excitement increased till only
one was left, when Harry glanced at Mike, who stood with eyes widely
staring, cheeks puffed out, and fists clenched, as if about to start
off at full speed.
Sree looked up at Mr. Kenyon as the two men pressed down harder and he
stood ready to pull out the last skewer.
"Out with it," said Mr. Kenyon, and a thrill ran through all present
as the last piece of bamboo was withdrawn.
But still the lid was pressed down, and of this the hunter took hold,
said a few words to his two men, who stood back right and left, ready
to help if necessary, while their master had stationed himself at the
back of the basket, facing his employer and the two boys. He held the
lid with outstretched hands, and once more he paused and looked at Mr.
Kenyon as if waiting for orders to proceed, his aim of course being to
make the whole business as impressive as possible.
"Now then, off with it," cried Harry, and in spite of their
excitement, to the amusement of the two boys the hunters took off the
lid with a tremendous flourish, and stood back smiling with triumph.
"Just like Mike taking the dish-cover off a roast peacock," as Harry
afterwards said.
It was too much for the last-mentioned personage. As the basket was
laid open for the gentlemen to see its contents, Mike took half a
dozen steps backward as fast as he could, and with his eye fixed upon
the open basket he was in the act of turning to run, when he saw
everyone else stand fast.
"Lies pretty quiet at the bottom," said Harry, advancing with Phra,
Mr. Kenyon keeping close behind.
"Only a little one," said the young Prince, rather contemptuously.
"Here! I say, Sree; what do you mean by this?" cried Harry.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Phra. "This is one of your tricks, Hal."
"That it isn't," cried the boy.
"Where is the snake, Sree?" said Mr. Kenyon. "The basket's empty."