far as I could see, and it was a figure that impressed
me. He was tall, and seemed even taller than he
was, no doubt because the natives, as a ru le ,. are
short. His boy, Oodeen, was very devoted to him.
He remained in my service for some time after Frank’s
death, and would cry and moan whenever Tuan Hatton
was mentioned. He was little better than a wild boy
of the woods when Frank had him first, and used to
sleep up in trees. He had been a slave; had sought and
obtained Frank’s protection, and had been with him for
more than a year. I heard of him last in service at
Singapore, but about to return to Borneo. So far as,
I could understand from him and . others, Frank trod
upon a tree stump, when his rifle exploded; the tree
was quite rotten, and crumbled under his foot, which
made- him stumble at the moment he was pushing
through the vines or rattans that obstruct you all the
time in the forest jungle. I t was a brave thing to
follow up the elephant as he did, but he had great
confidence in his Winchester, and was • a capital
shot.' He was most careful in the management of his
weapon, and seemed very thoughtful in all he did,
having, as it seemed to me, a high sense of his responsibility
,* and what he did was done as if he had had
years of experience, and, indeed, as if he were a man
in years and knowledge, and yet I never met any one
so modest with it all, so unassuming and so cheerful,
and so willing to give another the benefit of his experience.
I had roughed it since I was fifteen, on sea
-and on land, and under all sorts of circumstances, and
without friends, and therefore was accustomed to
tinned food, to no food at all, and to sleeping out in
all weathers, more especially when I was in Australia;
but Frank had, I knew, until he went'to Borneo, been
accustomed to the luxuries of life, and if he had scampered
through Europe, it had been with money in his
pocket and all paths made easy; therefore I was astonished
that he should take this new life of roughing it
with perfect content, as if he had been accustomed to
it as I had. He took the hardships of it calmly, and
was never ruffled, made the best of everything, and was
always in a good temper. He seemed to be looking
ahead, and I think he expected great things of this
trip, notwithstanding that, as I said before, the rainy
season put such great obstacles in his way.”
“ Let us for a moment get back to Pinungah,” I said,
“ his notes about it are so brief.”
“ He wrote an account of Pinungah and made some
rough sketches.”
“ Had he more than one note-book then ? ”
“ Yes, a small one and a larger one.”
“ Did he look well and strong ? ”
“ When I first saw him he was ill from fever and
hard work, and looked ill; therefore to me, when I saw
him next, he seemed very well indeed, and looked
strong and healthy. He was far better in that respect
than I was, a great deal more cheerful and contented.
As I said before, nothing came amiss.to him, either in
the way of bad food or personal hardships. I can see
him now, for instance, eating durian—a filthy fruit to
my taste. He would sit down and make a meal of it,
flinging the rind around him, he sitting in a ring of it
and laughing when any one tried to approach him,
because when we did so, we had to dodge the spikes
and prickles of the rind or husks.”