Page 94 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

allowed to recover his own will, I suppose their
laughter made it evident to him that he had made
himself ridiculous, for he suddenly ran to the arm-
and a sword made for his
rack, seizing bayonet
tormentors with such evident intention to use it that
and in a few seconds were
they precipitately fled,
making very good time across the swamp with
Kasim and the drawn sword far too close to be
I had some in him
pleasant. difficulty persuading
to abandon his purpose, but after that and a lecture
his comrades did not bother him.
greatly
I remember, however, that on another occasion
we had secured and erected a thin to
long spar
serve as a flagstaff, but the halyard jammed and it
seemed to lower the when some one
necessary spar
called out to Kasim the elder to climb it. Before
up
I could interfere, he had gone up two-thirds of the
and he came down Had
height, only reluctantly.
he gone a few feet higher the pole would inevitably
have snapped and he would have had a severe
fall.
About this time a friend came and shared
my
loneliness for a fortnight. He had had experience
of Idtah people before, but the two Kasims were
rather a revelation, and he was perhaps inclined to
doubt what I told him
they could be made to do.
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