den minarets of the little
mosque at Bander Maharani; then we dashed on into the heart of another
great curve.

"What is it your Koran says that the wise king's ships brought from
Ophir?" he asked, never taking his eyes off the mangrove-bound shore.

"Gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks," I replied, quoting
literally from Chronicles.

"Biak (good)! Gold and silver we have plenty. Your English companies
are taking it out of the land by the pikul In the old days, before the
Portuguese came, the handle of every warrior's kris was of ivory. Now
our elephants are dying before the rifle of the sportsman. Soon our
jungles will know them no more. Apes--" and he pointed at the top of
a giant marbow, where a troop of silver wah-wahs were swinging from
limb to limb. "The glorious argus pheasant you have seen."

"Boyah, Tuan!" the man at the wheel sung out.

I grasped my Winchester Express. Just ahead, half hidden by a black
labyrinth of scaffold-like mangrove roots, lay the huge, mud-covered
form of a crocodile.

The Tuan Hakim raised his hand, and the launch slowed down and ran
in under the bank.

"Now!" he whispered, and our rifles exploded in unison.

A great splash of slimy red mud fell full on the front of my spotless
white jacket, another struck in the water close by the side of the
boat. The wounded crocodile had sprung into the air from his tail up,
and dropped back into his wallow with a resounding thud. In another
instant he was off the slippery bank and within the security of the
mud-colored water.

I saw that my companion had more to tell me, possibly a native
tradition of the fabled riches that were concealed within the heart
of the historic mountain that was for the moment framed in a setting
of green, directly ahead. I put a fresh cartridge into the barrel,
and leaned back in my deck chair.

The Chief Justice extracted a manila from his case and handed it to me.

"In the days when Tunku Ali III. ruled over Maur, from Malacca to
the confines of Johore, the Portuguese came, and Albuquerque with
his ships of war and soldiers in iron armor sought to wrest from our
people their cities and their riches. My ancestor was a dato,--our
laksamana, high admiral, of his Highness's fleet. His galley was built
of burnished teak, the lining of its cabin was of sandalwood,--algum
wood your Koran calls it,--and the turret in its stern was covered
with plates of solid gold. You will find record of it to this d