1936-11-12 — Page 8

THAT

THAT day, my part of Korinchi was very quiet. Nothing moved but Whisky, the gamecock, and he merely strutted about in the sunlight at the foot of the steps.

I was alone on the porch of the bungalow, for Andrews had gone to take a bath and change his clothes. His twenty men were rest- ing in the barracks.

A deceptive peace lay over Korinchi. My servant. Ali, might have been coming only to asic what I wanted for lunch. He made a respect- ful circle about Whisky. The bird had an eye cocked at his bare, brown feet Ali watched him while he gave me his message.

"I spoke with a man from beyond Gat Kalor." he said, who had word from hunters that the old Rajah, with his band, is moving this way. He has plundered three, villages. and taken slaves from the people of the hills. Meeting one of the Tuan's patrols, he caused his fighting-men to fire and fee.

A soldier was

slain. There is great fear in Gat Kalor."

Knowing a little. a very little, of the Malay mind. I let a decent interval pass before reply- ing.

"All this is known." I said. "But will the uld Rajab and his people pass by the river ford. coming to Gat Kalor?"

"Tuan, if it be God's will. But, without

canoes, there is no other crossing."

THE CHINA MAIL THURSDAY SUPPLEMENT, NOVEMBER 12, 1936

FIGHTING BLOOD:

"Where there many slaves of the hill little jaunt is nothing. You'll explain won't

people?**

Tuan, there were seven, and they bore the plunder of the villages."

Alrah.

you? that we're taking vigorous measures.**

That was a favourite phrase with Sir Edward.

(By W. A. BREYFOGLE)

village the river ran swift, over rocks as sharp 23 a knife. Ali read my thoughts.

with a deft swoop of his arm. The old man's eyes were as bright as the bird's. -

This time it was a still larger bird, one that seemed cowed at the beginning. The fight waS long and ragged, and, before it was done, both birds were bleeding. The big fellow trailed a broken wing, and, Whisky was cut in the breast. My It was easy enough now to watch only the birds. They were fascinating. To sit in the midst of one's assassins is a tingling sensation. and recommend it to those who find life uniformly dull and disappointing. But for sheer, absorbing interest, it cannot compare with a cock-fight"

The man from Gat Kalor had put aside his terror of half-an-hour ago. He glared and muttered, savagely, when his bird went down. still striking, with Whisky's spur in its throat.

The ring of onlookers stirred, but not a man spoke or, I think, even looked at his neigh- boar. The last gamecock came out of its basket, much lighter in weight than the others. hardly, bigger than Whisky- himself. Its - fex- thers were as red as fire, and it struggled in its handler's grasp. The man took a firmer grip, and his face showed a sort of exultation. The shadows of the watchers crept together as they leaned forward, and I heard one rifle rattle, against another. But I had eyes for nothing but the birds.

It was Whisky I watched. He was little and old and hurt. Twice, already, he had

killed a heavier and stronger bird. The dust and blood of those fights were upon him.

"Tuan, when the Rajah is upon us," remem

Ali held him, tenderly, and the third main ber, not a movement he said. "Do not so

was long in beginning. The two handlers much as glance at him?”

watched each other angrily, as if suspecting There was no time to hesitate or raise foul play. With their free hands” they

COULD have cried to them to have done, to let the fight begin. And yet, those lagging

With the patrols behind him," he said, the old Bajah might venture. As well death in the strea as by the riffes of the Tuan's objections. I followed Ali into the yard, aware smoothed the torn earth. Inarticulate grun guards. Of five rafts of bamboo, two might of a certain crazy grandeur in what he pro- blings came from their throats

stream, perhaps three. Not more Posed. In a moment, too, I saw a glimmer of reason at the back of it, a desperately narrow cross the than three."

"How many men with the old Rajah I chance. Even the man from Gat Kalor stared.

He was getting his with the beginning of a wild hope Ali gave moments were fateful for us all. Whisky had

him his instructions: We took our places. I to do our fighting until Andrews came. asked the messenger.

A last movement of the handlers, a clash- ing of the bright, tiny heads together, and the "Some twenty, Tuan. They only slew, not was reckoning how soon the houseboy could breath a little.

birds flew at one another: They met in mid- staying to plunder. For a little while, I heard come up with Andrews. He was young and a

good ranner. As for us we waited.

air, and the noise of their wings was painfully We waited. He graven images At my

I

out.

.

dark

From the yard, Whisky made a small and. Such reports. dutifully passed along to him. had brought upon me a vigorous reproof cryptic sound, like a jeer. He startled us.

"Sardonic little chap," Andrews said. in the colonial governor's own vigorous hand- writing. The letter lay on the bamboo table at "How much, do you suppose, he knows?”

I shook my head. They call Airab the my side. Sir Edward was at an utter loss to

He Gamecock."

If the Malays were doing this, understand this trouble in Korinchi. wanted it stopped. He wanted an end to these they'd sacrifice that bird before starting off

after his namesake. Shall we try it?" forays on the part of Rajab Airah.

"Not yet.

Perhaps we'll have to, if the I sat on the porch of my bungalow, wait- ing for Andrews, and looked at Whisky. Look worse comes to the worst. But I have a motion ing at the gamecock was not really irrelevant that Whisky is a great chief of the old times. We ought to be respectful to

them behind me as I ran.” to the matter in hand. He was a little terror, reincarnated.

BLINKED at the man, confounded by the He routed the dogs and put the Malay's casual him."

He laughed and took himself off to the

sheer boldness of Alrab's stroke. Coming left hand crouched Ali, holding Whisky, who loud in that dead quiet. I remember that Ali's pigs to squealing dight. When the amok took him, he attacked my soldiers. I think he would barracks.

from Gat Kalor had take a young gamecock last held Whisky. I noted that mechanically, Andrews paraded his men for may inspec- here? But that was like the Gamecock 1 As resented it, furiously. At my right, the man hand stayed outstretched just as when it had have flown at an elephant or a water-buffalo. There was no mistaking that bright, malevolent tion. When he had gone, I was unaccountably if he had known Andrews was off with our last from a basket and was feeling its spars. Both out of the tail of my eye. All could hardly

restless. Was it a trick of my nerves, that twenty men, had known, even, the way that

They were nothing but a whirl of hard We waited, and time merely crept, now. eye, the sharp spur and the stout heart...

Though elsewhere in Korinchi, for the silence brought apprehension with it? I Andrews took to the ford. It was a coincidence he and Ali were curiously intent on their birds, have known it himself.

It surprised me to find that I had put a bodies, and the dust few up about them. Tom most part, the robber chieftains and petty couldn't tell. The place was very quiet.It that Whisky chose that moment to stand on tyrants had gone to join their turbulent did no good to assure myself that thinking of tip-toe, flap his tough, bright wings, and crow fathers, one of them was still left. He strut early times there always left me ill-at-ease, dis- in the eye of the sun. I saw Ali looking at him cheroot in my mouth and was smoking. The feathers littered the ground, and the

But there was much to do, in little time. sun beat down on my pith helmet, but I did not drops were blood. A brown hand gripped the feel it. The feathers on Whisky's neck were arm of my chair, as a man leaned far forward. siege.

The to watch. ted at my very doorstep. Whisky and Rajah satisfied with the work that had been given me

ruffled oat in a wide and angry, collar. to do. This was something else, an uneasiness Malay villages are not built to stand a

Alrah had us at his mercy,

was much younger bird

more quiet. Then, Alrab were a pair.

I do not know how long the fight lasted I sent the houseboy pelting off to recall without turning his head, Ali, sucked in In a moment's fall, we saw that Whisky was I settled back in my chair, recalling what of which I should have been ashamed.

All came out on noiseless feet to set the

He made me Andrews and his men. Without rest, the man his breath, sharply. They are coming! Look trailing a leg. The red cock was beaten and I knew about Alrah. In my first two years in

from Gat Kalor could go no farther, and I told

torn. But they flew up, breast to breast, as Korinchi, I had encountered him only as a fear. table for my solitary lunch. ful legend, current throughout my

district. Jump.

I looked until I could feel my eyes starting fercely as-at first, neither of them able to get My thoughts were gloomy. To put them Ali to go and warn the villagers. If they hur only at the birds!" The stories of bis praus along the coast and his

The man from Gat Kalor flinched a little, above the other. On the ground, the red cock. raiding-parties inland met me wherever I out of mind, I asked All about the stir in the ried, and if Alrah paused at the bungalow,

All the morning I had seen they could make their escape.

Tuan, they will surely barry, wailing for and Ali cursed him in a thin whisper. We had the advantage. As if he had known that, west. If the other chiefs accepted my coming. village that day.

Whisky fought on the wing, forcing the waited.*****

The path from Gat Kalor opened into the younger bird up to meet him. it was largely because of their dread of Rajah Malays coming and going, mostly with baskets

on their arms. Their browo figures traced a' their lost wares as they go the old man

clearing. apposite where I sat. A rushing, Once, the red one went down, half-stunned, He stalked off to give the alarm In a He ruled a hard-bitten, little kingdom of pattern for my eyes to follow, while my grunted. his own on a rocky peninsula, actually a spur thoughts were elsewhere

"A first-born little while, I heard an outery' go-up, from the Pattering sound came near enough for even my bat duttered beyond reach of the stroke that ears to hear it. It grew louder, like a rolling would have finished him. In a moment, he "A feast?" I asked AlL

The people- of the hills thrust out into the sea. For my first two years, he was too busy in his own son? There is no market to-day."

Nothing else was half so important as the harder. I heard branches rustle and "Not a feast, Tuan. It is the cock-fighting." poured out and went streaming off in all direc- of drums beginning very faintly, but besten was back, and the furious struggle went on

Figures moved country to make trouble for me. I had to

outcome of that fight. I remember with what' Malays are great cock-fighters. But was tions, with such belongings as they could carry twigs track, then voices.

Ali came back, with three baskets on a pole swiftly among the last of the undergrowth, astonishment and anger I looked up when a mar thank a presumptuous nephew for that, a pre- tender to Alrah's throne. We heard that the Ali not going -- an old gambier like Ali?

But, without He made a gesture of disdain. "The birds over his shoulder, as if he had been doing a fighting was long and bitter.

cocks. He lay with his face in the dust; his gunboats, intervention would have been impos are young, Tuan, and heavy. Nothing to see, little quiet pilfering. His fery walk betrayed twenty yards from us Ali said "Now with stumbled and fell, almost on top of the game

excitement. I have to record that Ali seemed a sort of jerk to the word. →

He and the other man shuffled forward, body, twitched and then was, still. I saw, in sible. And, besides, I knew what his neigh- not like the mains that I remember.”

Ah, of course! A poorer world in many to be enjoying the day a great deal more than

I was. At the foot of the steps, he put the still squatting, with their birds held at arm's slow wonder, that others dropped, with a hand bours thought of Alrah.

length in front of them. The angry heads touch to throat or head The rattle and banging in It was my theory that the more fighting he ways.

An baskets down.

ed, and the younger gamecock swelled and my ears, was ride-fire. "Tuan, these are merchants' birds.” did within his kingdom, the less he would do

"The Tuan stays here?" he said.

Someone Ali jerked me out of my outside. When word came that the nephew old fighting-man could say nothing worse about

It was a statement, rather than a question, pecked at Whisky. A grunt from Ali, and both had been caught and summarily slain, I ex them. He drew back my chair and stood be-

full of trampling feet and wild yells. A hervy But Ali was in no hurry." He struck pected mere exhaustion to keep the Rajah at hind it when I was seated. There was vension I nodded, feeling the brief moments rushing birds were on the ground, craning together for chair and fat on the earth. The clearing was They did not look up, certainly, when the body dropped on top of me and lay where it peace. No expectation could have been more that day, stewed with rice, a few drops of over us.

arrack to bring out the favour. A pity An- his foot against one of the baskets, and some shadows of the raiding-party fell across the fell. I heard andrews shouting an order. Of ill-founded.

"For two to make a stand against twenty main. And we watched the birds. The new what happened for a little while, then, I re Andrews came out, in a clean uniform, and drews had gone! This was his favourite dish. thing stirred inside it.

As for me, I ate with a poor appetite. I told him what Ali had reported.

NDREWS nodded when I told him about "The first view-halloo," I said, "and the Half-way through lunch, a slight sound from my servant said, "is brave, but hopeless." The Comers drew near, you might have thought, member nothing at all.

man from Gat Kalor crouched on the bottom respectfully, as if this had been a rite they

that. word that came up last night was true. Ali made me turn my head.

cock-fighting, as is well known. But that 25- "Someone is coming," he said, watching step and spasms of weariness twitched at his held in honour. The Malay is a devotee of Besides. It's like the Rajah to turn up where no

"You can write the report he's been ask- one expected him. I'm afraid I've got to send the edge of the jungle. He had very sharp muscles. Ali ignored him. “Since we

mockery. It was all that stood between us and ing for, now!" he said. "But it was a near A moment, then: "Alone, Tuan, and in die," he said, "better to die like free men, un-surance pounded in my brain with the ring of

thing. If any of them had looked up when we you off to the river, to wait for him there."

afraid. It is the Tuan's will?”

knives of Alrah's men

But they didn't, In Korinchi ten steps into the jungle in- all haste."

Since there was no other choice, yes! The the In Korinchi, we grew accustomed to such

BLUR of bright feathers, the noise of came out of the trail.

though we made noise enough," Uncanny, the volved one in a monstrous game of hide-and-

Tuan was afraid to the marrow of his bones,

hard wings beating one against another, seek. Andrews and his twenty men had come hurried visitors.

were apart again. They way they ignored ne!** Almost at once, the man burst into the but he strove to make his voice canal:

I held my peace, being ashamed to let back from a week of that, and they showed it.

"What is in the baskets? Something to and the gamecocks

sparred, stiffy, and rose breast to breast, strik--

Andrews know that I had heard nothing. But a colonial governor is not lightly to be de- clearing and raced towards us. He was nearly fed, and Sir Edward had been most explicit. spent, from the way his chest heaved, and his preserve a man from his foes?"!

Fighting-cocks! That was what Ali had ing with their spurs. Then, in so instant, myself. He had brought his men back at a killing pace, that heat. His whole body. Andrews grinned.. "Rotten job-a police eyes rolled wildly. We gave him water and he

chosen to loot from the abandoned village. Whisky flew up his own height above the

"It was late in the officer's!"

took it in great gulps, half-sobbing. "Oh, you can have the resident's, and my "From Gat Kalor!" he gasped. "Which There were three birds; two of them heavy, he younger bird, strack as a man strikes with bled with weariness,

others could be dagger, and reached the brain. blessing with it! While you're gone, I have to lies in rains. Tuan, they fell upon us, like said, discontentedly, but no

had. Ali would place my chair in the yard. All caught him as the young cock stagger. evening, but neither of us mentioned going to write a report to Sir Edward and explain just demons, out of the jungle!"

But Gat Kalor where the ground was bare and trodden. The ed blindly and fell. The man from Gat Kalor bed. In the village, they were holding a great why we have an outlaw on our hands”

No need to ask who it was.

(Continued on Page 4) "I know my place,” said Andrews, hastily, was on our side of the river, and ten miles man from Gat Kalor would handle the mer reached into the second basket, sweeping the "Compared with a report to the governor, my downstream from the ford, Anywhere near that chants' birds. Ali, himself, picked up Whisky dead bird to one side-

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