to rest and eat some biscuits softened in
the milk of a cocoanut.

"There is a boa in the roots of the banian, Aboo," I said, looking
longingly toward its deep shadow.

He nodded his head, and drew from the pouch in the knot in his sarong
a few broken fragments of areca nut. These he wrapped in a lemon leaf
well smeared with lime, and tucked the entire mass into the corner
of his mouth.

In a moment a brilliant red juice dyed his lips, and he closed his
eyes in happy contentment, oblivious, for the time, of the sand and
fallen trunks that seemed to dance in the parching rays of the sun,
oblivious, even, of the loss of his first-born.

I was revolving in my mind whether there was any use in continuing
the chase, which I would have given up long before, had I not known
that a tiger who has eaten to repletion is both timid and lazy. This
one had certainly breakfasted on a dog or on some animal before
encountering Baboo.

I had hoped that possibly the barking of the curs might have caused
him to drop the child, and make off where pursuit would be impossible;
but so far we had, after those footprints, found neither traces of
Baboo alive, nor the blood which should have been seen had the tiger
killed the child.

Suddenly a long, pear-shaped mangrove-pod struck me full in the
breast. I sprang up in surprise, for I was under a cocoanut tree,
and there was no mangrove nearer than the lagoon.

A Malay looked up sleepily, and pointed toward the wide-spreading
banian.

"Monkey, Tuan!"

My eyes followed the direction indicated, and could just distinguish a
grinning face among the interlacing roots at the base of the tree. So
I picked up the green, dartlike end of the pod, and took careful aim
at the brown face and milk-white teeth.

Then it struck me as peculiar that a monkey, after all the evidence
of fright we had so lately witnessed, should seek a hiding-place that
must be within easy reach of its greatest enemy, the boa-constrictor.

Aboo Din had aroused himself, and was looking intently in the same
direction. Before I could take a step toward the tree he had leaped
to his feet, and was bounding across the little space, shouting,
"Baboo! Baboo!"

The small brown face instantly disappeared, and we were left staring
blankly at a dark opening into the heart of the woody maze. Then we
heard the small, well-known voice of Baboo:--

"Tabek (greeting), Tuan! Greeting, Aboo Din! Tuan Consul no whip,
Baboo come out."