I'd
have to send to Singapore. I sent for them, but the dealers were out of
stock and asked whether they were to send to England for them. I cabled
a rush message, "Send to the moon if you can't get them nearer!" They
arrived in about eight weeks' time.
But
before they arrived there was a crisis in my affairs. One day Walton,
liquored up to the gills, rushed into my office shouting and swearing,
and told me I'd have to pay him for the twelve weeks or so he had been
kept waiting for the parts or—and then he pulled his gun on me.
I
was in my office alone, as it happened, and it would have been fatal to
shout for help. But here was an infuriated wild beast; the look in the
man's eye was sufficient to tell me that he had gone out of his mind.
It was past mid-day and everyone in town had already gone home to
dinner. There was little chance of anyone crossing the plaza at that
time. Yet my luck held. The unexpected happened. An American pearler
from Mindanao, who had just come ashore and was passing my office,
looked in at the open door and took in the situation at a glance. He
seized the fellow's arms from behind and made him drop the gun. I asked
for the man's deportation after that. He was shipped out, and a few
weeks later he had to be taken to the madhouse.
At
this time the amok-runners were again getting so bad that no one who
hadn't very pressing business would go out of the city gates. One day
an American officer and his wife and children went for a short stroll
almost within sight of the citadel walls and within call of the sentry
at the gate. A jura-mentado came hop-sway-dancing along and slish—took
off the officer's head, as you might cut a cabbage from its stalk, and
slash—went an arm and half his trunk ere the head rolled upon the
ground. The amok ran on towards the market, leaving the poor woman
bewildered and the children staring at what had just been their father.
The
Government decided that something drastic had to be done. But what
measures can be taken against madmen? The officials pondered deep and
long. Then someone had an
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