ls the sharp bright rays of the sun, like golden arrows, darting
through the dense shade, and a patch of luxuriantly growing
pitcher-plants or orchids, more beautiful than any that had previously
met their eyes.

"Mind the elephant-holes!" cried Ali, who was behind.

"All right," said Tom Long, who was leading the way. "Oh, my gracious!"

There was a loud _splash_ and a wallowing noise, followed by a loud suck
as of some one pulling a leg out of thick mud; and this proved to be the
case, for on Bob running forward, and turning a corner of the winding
path, there was Tom, just extricating himself from an elephant-hole.

For they were in a land where wheeled carriages were almost unknown, all
portage being done either by boats on the many streams, or on the backs
of elephants and buffaloes, by the former of whom the few jungle-paths
were terribly cut up, partly by the creatures' weight, but more
particularly from the fact that, no matter how many passed along a
track, or how wet and swampy it might be, the sagacious creatures
believed in the way being safe where any of their kind had been before,
and invariably placed their great round feet in the same holes; the
effect being that these elephant-holes were often three or four feet
deep, and half full of mud and water.

The two Malays were called into requisition, and by means of green
leaves removed a good deal of the mud, but the mishap did not add much
to the lad's comfort. However, he took it in very good part, and they
went on for some distance, to where a side track, that was apparently
but little used, turned off to the left, and the Malays, drawing their
heavy knives, went first to clear away some of the twining creepers that
hung from side to side.

So beautiful was the jungle that for a time the two English lads forgot
all about their guns, as they stopped hard by some watercourse to admire
the graceful lace-fronded fern, or the wonderful displays of moss
hanging from the more ancient trees.

But at last the weight of their guns reminded them that they had come to
shoot, and they drew Ali's attention to the fact.

"Wait a little," he said, smiling. "We shall soon be in a clearer part.
You can't shoot here."

As he said--so it proved, for after another half-hour's walking, during
which they had become bathed in perspiration from the moist heat, there
was less tangled growth, and the magnificent trees grew more distant one
from the other. They were of