THE SCENT OF FEAR

Elephant Bill continues his memories of his life in the East with this period after the Burmese rebellion in which he was to break in a new forestry assistant -- a cocky but adaptable youngster with two Great Danes. An attack by Tun Gyaw, who had used company funds for his own purposes, invalided Williams, and after the trial came the assignment to explore the possibilities of elephant extraction of teak from the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. He was given a convict gang -- for whom he chose Tun Gyaw from the penal settlement -- as a crew and, without guns or guards, he proved that his experiment in trust paid off when the prisoners responded to human treatment and understanding. This is his record of the islands and the Andamanitres -- what few he saw -- of the surprises in crocodiles and even an elephant, of the isolated living which pointed up the individual members of the group, and of his return to Burma to find the assistant hitting his stride, except for one small case which involved one of the prison party, now released and on parole. This, too, because of trust, worked out to William's satisfaction. A testament to confidence, to beyond the beyond life -- this extends Williams' own story in simple terms. Heartening.