Presently the boatman clutched his arm and pointed to the bank.  He looked.  One of the coolies was chasing a huge hairy monster.  The other could not be seen.

The engineer soon crossed the river and joined the coolie, still in the chase after the strange creature.  As usual, the Saheb carried a loaded revolver and as he ran he fired several shots at the animal.  They had no effect on it.  The beast ran on with heavy lumbering strides, covering the ground with great rapidity and only once glancing back over its shoulders with a horrible grin.  He could not overtake it and it disappeared into the thick jungle.  Its hair was so long that it completely covered the man it carried in its powerful arms.  It was some kind of an orang-outang.

The mystery was now cleared up.  The engineer returned.  His task was accomplished.  Later he wrote an account of this adventure and concluded with these words:—­“Now when I see a great hairy spider I tremble! and the remembrance of that monstrous black form returns to me, and the hideous grin that thrilled me.  Never can I forget it.”

The Palki and the Tiger

In a lonely village in the Hazaribagh district the peaceful dwellers were one evening disturbed by shrill cries of distress.  When they gathered round the house from whence the cries came, they discovered that a ghastly murder had been committed.  The headman of the village immediately despatched two messengers for the police.  These men started in the dawn and reached the Police outpost just before sunset.

The Inspector-in-charge was a Bengalee, named Bose, who was a very intelligent officer and keen on his work.  As soon as he received information of the murder, he ordered one of his staff to arrange for a push-push (carriage which is partly drawn and partly pushed by men) and a set of bearers.  He quickly put together a few requisites for the journey, and was soon ready.  The night was not far advanced when the orderly returned with a push-push and eight bearers, and Bose started off, attended by his cook and body-servant.

The road lay through a forest.  At times the path was so narrow and rocky that the men could make little progress, and at last they declared that the road was impassable for a wheeled conveyance, and that it was necessary for the Inspector to change into a palki.  One of them said that about two miles off the road there was a village, and that in the village there lived a rich Hindustani merchant who might lend a palki.  Bose was pleased at the suggestion and told the push-push bearers to take him to the village.  They needed no second bidding, and the Inspector was soon being trundled across the paddy fields that lay between the village and the road.  Arrived there, he hastened to the merchant’s house and asked to see him.

A handsome up-countryman came out and when, he saw that his visitor was a gentleman he courteously asked him to enter and be seated.  The Inspector soon explained his necessity for a palki, and the rich man placed his at the disposal of the police officer.  “But Jenab (Sir),” he said, “tigers are bad in this forest and you have to pass through a part known to be a favourite haunt of theirs.  Have you any fire-arms?”