THE MONSTER MEN

by

Edgar Rice Burroughs

CONTENTS

 1 THE RIFT 2 THE HEAVY CHEST 3 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 4 A NEW FACE 5 TREASON 6 TO KILL! 7 THE BULL WHIP 8 THE SOUL OF NUMBER 13 9 INTO SAVAGE BORNEO 10 DESPERATE CHANCE 11 "I AM COMING!" 12 PERFIDY 13 BURIED TREASURE 14 MAN OR MONSTER? 15 TOO LATE 16 SING SPEAKS 17 999 PRISCILLA

1

THE RIFT

As he dropped the last grisly fragment of the dismembered and mutilatedbody into the small vat of nitric acid that was to devour every traceof the horrid evidence which might easily send him to the gallows, theman sank weakly into a chair and throwing his body forward upon hisgreat, teak desk buried his face in his arms, breaking into dry, moaning sobs. 

Beads of perspiration followed the seams of his high, wrinkledforehead, replacing the tears which might have lessened the pressureupon his overwrought nerves. His slender frame shook, as with ague, and at times was racked by a convulsive shudder. A sudden step uponthe stairway leading to his workshop brought him trembling and wideeyed to his feet, staring fearfully at the locked and bolted door. 

Although he knew perfectly well whose the advancing footfalls were, hewas all but overcome by the madness of apprehension as they came softlynearer and nearer to the barred door. At last they halted before it, to be followed by a gentle knock. 

"Daddy!" came the sweet tones of a girl's voice. 

The man made an effort to take a firm grasp upon himself that notell-tale evidence of his emotion might be betrayed in his speech. 

"Daddy!" called the girl again, a trace of anxiety in her voice thistime. "What IS the matter with you, and what ARE you doing? You'vebeen shut up in that hateful old room for three days now without amorsel to eat, and in all likelihood without a wink of sleep. You'llkill yourself with your stuffy old experiments. "

The man's face softened. 

"Don't worry about me, sweetheart, " he replied in a well controlledvoice. "I'll soon be through now--soon be through--and then we'll goaway for a long vacation--for a long vacation. "

"I'll give you until noon, Daddy, " said the girl in a voice whichcarried a more strongly defined tone of authority than her father'ssoft drawl, "and then I shall come into that room, if I have to use anaxe, and bring you out--do you understand?"

Professor Maxon smiled wanly. He knew that his daughter was equal toher threat. 

"All right, sweetheart, I'll be through by noon for sure--by noon forsure. Run along and play now, like a good little girl. "

Virginia Maxon shrugged her shapely shoulders and shook her headhopelessly at the forbidding panels of the door. 

"My dolls are all dressed for the day, " she cried, "and I'm tired ofmaking mud pies--I want you to come out and play with me. " ButProfessor Maxon did not reply-he had returned to view his grimoperations, and the hideousness of them had closed his ears to thesweet tones of the girl's voice. 

As she turned to retrace her steps to the floor below Miss Maxon stillshook her head. 

"Poor old Daddy, " she mused, "were I a thousand years old, wrinkled andtoothless, he would still look upon me as his baby girl. "

If you chance to be an alumnus of Cornell you may recall ProfessorArthur Maxon, a quiet, slender, white-haired gentleman, who for severalyears was an assistant professor in one of the departments of naturalscience. Wealthy by inheritance, he had chosen the field of educationfor his life work solely from a desire to be of some material benefitto mankind since the meager salary which accompanied his professorshipwas not of sufficient import to influence him in the slightest degree. 

Always keenly interested in biology, his almost unlimited means hadpermitted him to undertake, in secret, a series of daring experimentswhich had carried him so far in advance of the biologists of his daythat he had, while others were still groping blindly for the secret oflife, actually reproduced by chemical means the great phenomenon. 

Fully alive to the gravity and responsibilities of his marvellousdiscovery he had kept the results of his experimentation, and even theexperiments themselves, a profound secret not only from his colleagues, but from his only daughter, who heretofore had shared his every hopeand aspiration. 

It was the very success of his last and most pretentious effort thathad placed him in the horrifying predicament in which he now foundhimself--with the corpse of what was apparently a human being in hisworkshop and no available explanation that could possibly be acceptableto a matter-of-fact and unscientific police. 

Had he told them the truth they would have laughed at him. Had hesaid: "This is not a human being that you see, but the remains of achemically produced counterfeit created in my own laboratory, " theywould have smiled, and either hanged him or put him away with the othercriminally insane. 

This phase of the many possibilities which he had realized might becontingent upon even the partial success of his work alone had escapedhis consideration, so that the first wave of triumphant exultation withwhich he had viewed the finished result of this last experiment hadbeen succeeded by overwhelming consternation as he saw the thing whichhe had created gasp once or twice with the feeble spark of life withwhich he had endowed it, and expire--leaving upon his hands the corpseof what was, to all intent and purpose, a human being, albeit a mostgrotesque and misshapen thing. 

Until nearly noon Professor Maxon was occupied in removing theremaining stains and evidences of his gruesome work, but when he atlast turned the key in the door of his workshop it was to leave behindno single trace of the successful result of his years of labor. 

The following afternoon found him and Virginia crossing the stationplatform to board the express for New York. So quietly had their plansbeen made that not a friend was at the train to bid them farewell--thescientist felt that he could not bear the strain of attemptingexplanations at this time. 

But there were those there who recognized them, and one especially whonoted the lithe, trim figure and beautiful face of Virginia Maxonthough he did not know even the name of their possessor. It was a tallwell built young man who nudged one of his younger companions as thegirl crossed the platform to enter her Pullman. 

"I say, Dexter, " he exclaimed, "who is that beauty?"

The one addressed turned in the direction indicated by his friend. 

"By jove!" he exclaimed. "Why it's Virginia Maxon and the professor, her father. Now where do you suppose they're going?"

"I don't know--now, " replied the first speaker, Townsend J. Harper, Jr. , in a half whisper, "but I'll bet you a new car that I find out. "

A week later, with failing health and shattered nerves, Professor Maxonsailed with his daughter for a long ocean voyage, which he hoped wouldaid him in rapid recuperation, and permit him to forget the nightmarememory of those three horrible days and nights in his workshop. 

He believed that he had reached an unalterable decision never again tomeddle with the mighty, awe inspiring secrets of creation; but withreturning health and balance he found himself viewing his recenttriumph with feelings of renewed hope and anticipation. 

The morbid fears superinduced by the shock following the sudden demiseof the first creature of his experiments had given place to a growingdesire to further prosecute his labors until enduring success hadcrowned his efforts with an achievement which he might exhibit withpride to the scientific world. 

His recent disastrous success had convinced him that neither Ithaca norany other abode of civilization was a safe place to continue hisexperiments, but it was not until their cruising had brought them amongthe multitudinous islands of the East Indies that the plan occurred tohim that he finally adopted--a plan the outcome of which could he thenhave foreseen would have sent him scurrying to the safety of his owncountry with the daughter who was to bear the full brunt of the horrorsit entailed. 

They were steaming up the China Sea when the idea first suggesteditself, and as he sat idly during the long, hot days the thought grewupon him, expanding into a thousand wonderful possibilities, until itbecame crystalized into what was a little short of an obsession. 

The result was that at Manila, much to Virginia's surprise, heannounced the abandonment of the balance of their purposed voyage, taking immediate return passage to Singapore. His daughter did notquestion him as to the cause of this change in plans, for since thosethree days that her father had kept himself locked in his workroom athome the girl had noticed a subtle change in her parent--a markeddisinclination to share with her his every confidence as had been hiscustom since the death of her mother. 

While it grieved her immeasurably she was both too proud and too hurtto sue for a reestablishment of the old relations. On all other topicsthan his scientific work their interests were as mutual as formerly, but by what seemed a manner of tacit agreement this subject was taboo. And so it was that they came to Singapore without the girl having theslightest conception of her father's plans. 

Here they spent nearly a month, during which time Professor Maxon wasdaily engaged in interviewing officials, English residents and a motleyhorde of Malays and Chinamen. 

Virginia met socially several of the men with whom her father wasengaged but it was only at the last moment that one of them let drop ahint of the purpose of the month's activity. When Virginia was presentthe conversation seemed always deftly guided from the subject of herfather's immediate future, and she was not long in discerning that itwas in no sense through accident that this was true. Thereafter herwounded pride made easy the task of those who seemed combined to keepher in ignorance. 

It was a Dr. Von Horn, who had been oftenest with her father, who gaveher the first intimation of what was forthcoming. Afterward, inrecollecting the conversation, it seemed to Virginia that the young manhad been directed to break the news to her, that her father might bespared the ordeal. It was evident then that he expected opposition, but the girl was too loyal to let von Horn know if she felt other thanin harmony with the proposal, and too proud to evince by surprise thefact that she was not wholly conversant with its every detail. 

"You are glad to be leaving Singapore so soon?" he had asked, althoughhe knew that she had not been advised that an early departure wasplanned. 

"I am rather looking forward to it, " replied Virginia. 

"And to a protracted residence on one of the Pamarung Islands?"continued von Horn. 

"Why not?" was her rather non-committal reply, though she had not theremotest idea of their location. 

Von Horn admired her nerve though he rather wished that she would asksome questions--it was difficult making progress in this way. Howcould he explain the plans when she evinced not the slightest sign thatshe was not already entirely conversant with them?

"We doubt if the work will be completed under two or three years, "answered the doctor. "That will be a long time in which to be isolatedupon a savage little speck of land off the larger but no less savageBorneo. Do you think that your bravery is equal to the demands thatwill be made upon it?"

Virginia laughed, nor was there the slightest tremor in its note. 

"I am equal to whatever fate my father is equal to, " she said, "nor doI think that a life upon one of these beautiful little islands would bemuch of a hardship--certainly not if it will help to promote thesuccess of his scientific experiments. "

She used the last words on a chance that she might have hit upon thetrue reason for the contemplated isolation from civilization. They hadserved their purpose too in deceiving von Horn who was now halfconvinced that Professor Maxon must have divulged more of their plansto his daughter than he had led the medical man to believe. Perceivingher advantage from the expression on the young man's face, Virginiafollowed it up in an endeavor to elicit the details. 

The result of her effort was the knowledge that on the second day theywere to sail for the Pamarung Islands upon a small schooner which herfather had purchased, with a crew of Malays and lascars, and von Horn, who had served in the American navy, in command. The precise point ofdestination was still undecided--the plan being to search out asuitable location upon one of the many little islets which dot thewestern shore of the Macassar Strait. 

Of the many men Virginia had met during the month at Singapore von Hornhad been by far the most interesting and companionable. Such time ashe could find from the many duties which had devolved upon him in thematter of obtaining and outfitting the schooner, and signing her twomates and crew of fifteen, had been spent with his employer's daughter. 

The girl was rather glad that he was to be a member of their littlecompany, for she had found him a much travelled man and an interestingtalker with none of the, to her, disgusting artificialities of theprofessional ladies' man. He talked to her as he might have talked toa man, of the things that interest intelligent people regardless of sex. 

There was never any suggestion of familiarity in his manner; nor in hischoice of topics did he ever ignore the fact that she was a young girl. She had felt entirely at ease in his society from the first eveningthat she had met him, and their acquaintance had grown to a verysensible friendship by the time of the departure of the Ithaca--therechristened schooner which was to carry them away to an unguessed fate. 

The voyage from Singapore to the Islands was without incident. Virginia took a keen delight in watching the Malays and lascars attheir work, telling von Horn that she had to draw upon her imaginationbut little to picture herself a captive upon a pirate ship--the halfnaked men, the gaudy headdress, the earrings, and the fiercecountenances of many of the crew furnishing only too realistically thenecessary savage setting. 

A week spent among the Pamarung Islands disclosed no suitable site forthe professor's camp, nor was it until they had cruised up the coastseveral miles north of the equator and Cape Santang that they found atiny island a few miles off the coast opposite the mouth of a smallriver--an island which fulfilled in every detail their requirements. 

It was uninhabited, fertile and possessed a clear, sweet brook whichhad its source in a cold spring in the higher land at the island'scenter. Here it was that the Ithaca came to anchor in a little harbor, while her crew under von Horn, and the Malay first mate, Bududreen, accompanied Professor Maxon in search of a suitable location for apermanent camp. 

The cook, a harmless old Chinaman, and Virginia were left in solepossession of the Ithaca. 

Two hours after the departure of the men into the jungle Virginia heardthe fall of axes on timber and knew that the site of her future homehad been chosen and the work of clearing begun. She sat musing on thestrange freak which had prompted her father to bury them in this savagecorner of the globe; and as she pondered there came a wistfulexpression to her eyes, and an unwonted sadness drooped the corners ofher mouth. 

Of a sudden she realized how wide had become the gulf between them now. So imperceptibly had it grown since those three horrid days in Ithacajust prior to their departure for what was to have been but a fewmonths' cruise that she had not until now comprehended that the oldrelations of open, good-fellowship had gone, possibly forever. 

Had she needed proof of the truth of her sad discovery it had beenenough to point to the single fact that her father had brought her hereto this little island without making the slightest attempt to explainthe nature of his expedition. She had gleaned enough from von Horn tounderstand that some important scientific experiments were to beundertaken; but what their nature she could not imagine, for she hadnot the slightest conception of the success that had crowned herfather's last experiment at Ithaca, although she had for years known ofhis keen interest in the subject. 

The girl became aware also of other subtle changes in her father. Hehad long since ceased to be the jovial, carefree companion who hadshared with her her every girlish joy and sorrow and in whom she hadconfided both the trivial and momentous secrets of her childhood. Hehad become not exactly morose, but rather moody and absorbed, so thatshe had of late never found an opportunity for the cozy chats that hadformerly meant so much to them both. There had been too, recently, astrange lack of consideration for herself that had wounded her morethan she had imagined. Today there had been a glaring example of it inhis having left her alone upon the boat without a single Europeancompanion--something that he would never have thought of doing a fewmonths before. 

As she sat speculating on the strange change which had come over herfather her eyes had wandered aimlessly along the harbor's entrance; thelow reef that protected it from the sea, and the point of land to thesouth, that projected far out into the strait like a gigantic indexfinger pointing toward the mainland, the foliage covered heights ofwhich were just visible above the western horizon. 

Presently her attention was arrested by a tossing speck far out uponthe rolling bosom of the strait. For some time the girl watched theobject until at length it resolved itself into a boat moving head ontoward the island. Later she saw that it was long and low, propelledby a single sail and many oars, and that it carried quite a company. 

Thinking it but a native trading boat, so many of which ply thesouthern seas, Virginia viewed its approach with but idle curiosity. When it had come to within half a mile of the anchorage of the Ithaca, and was about to enter the mouth of the harbor Sing Lee's eyes chancedto fall upon it. On the instant the old Chinaman was electrified intosudden and astounding action. 

"Klick! Klick!" he cried, running toward Virginia. "Go b'low, klick. "

"Why should I go below, Sing?" queried the girl, amazed by the demeanorof the cook. 

"Klick! Klick!" he urged grasping her by the arm--half leading, halfdragging her toward the companion-way. "Plilates! Mlalayplilates--Dyak plilates. "

"Pirates!" gasped Virginia. "Oh Sing, what can we do?"

"You go b'low. Mebbyso Sing flighten 'em. Shoot cannon. Bling help. Maxon come klick. Bling men. Chase'm 'way, " explained the Chinaman. "But plilates see 'em pletty white girl, " he shrugged his shoulders andshook his head dubiously, "then old Sing no can flighten 'em 'way. "

The girl shuddered, and crouching close behind Sing hurried below. Amoment later she heard the boom of the old brass six pounder which formany years had graced the Ithaca's stern. In the bow Professor Maxonhad mounted a modern machine gun, but this was quite beyond Sing'ssimple gunnery. The Chinaman had not taken the time to sight theancient weapon carefully, but a gleeful smile lit his wrinkled, yellowface as he saw the splash of the ball where it struck the water almostat the side of the prahu. 

Sing realized that the boat might contain friendly natives, but he hadcruised these waters too many years to take chances. Better kill ahundred friends, he thought, than be captured by a single pirate. 

At the shot the prahu slowed up, and a volley of musketry from her crewsatisfied Sing that he had made no mistake in classifying her. Herfire fell short as did the ball from the small cannon mounted in herbow. 

Virginia was watching the prahu from one of the cabin ports. She sawthe momentary hesitation and confusion which followed Sing's firstshot, and then to her dismay she saw the rowers bend to their oarsagain and the prahu move swiftly in the direction of the Ithaca. 

It was apparent that the pirates had perceived the almost defenselesscondition of the schooner. In a few minutes they would be swarming thedeck, for poor old Sing would be entirely helpless to repel them. IfDr. Von Horn were only there, thought the distracted girl. With themachine gun alone he might keep them off. 

At the thought of the machine gun a sudden resolve gripped her. Whynot man it herself? Von Horn had explained its mechanism to her indetail, and on one occasion had allowed her to operate it on the voyagefrom Singapore. With the thought came action. Running to the magazineshe snatched up a feed-belt, and in another moment was on deck besidethe astonished Sing. 

The pirates were skimming rapidly across the smooth waters of theharbor, answering Sing's harmless shots with yells of derision andwild, savage war cries. There were, perhaps, fifty Dyaks andMalays--fierce, barbaric men; mostly naked to the waist, or withwar-coats of brilliant colors. The savage headdress of the Dyaks, thelong, narrow, decorated shields, the flashing blades of parang and krissent a shudder through the girl, so close they seemed beneath theschooner's side. 

"What do? What do?" cried Sing in consternation. "Go b'low. Klick!"But before he had finished his exhortation Virginia was racing towardthe bow where the machine gun was mounted. Tearing the cover from itshe swung the muzzle toward the pirate prahu, which by now was nearlywithin range above the vessel's side--a moment more and she would betoo close to use the weapon upon the pirates. 

Virginia was quick to perceive the necessity for haste, while thepirates at the same instant realized the menace of the new danger whichconfronted them. A score of muskets belched forth their missiles atthe fearless girl behind the scant shield of the machine gun. Leadenpellets rained heavily upon her protection, or whizzed threateninglyabout her head--and then she got the gun into action. 

At the rate of fifty a minute, a stream of projectiles tore into thebow of the prahu when suddenly a richly garbed Malay in the stern roseto his feet waving a white cloth upon the point of his kris. It wasthe Rajah Muda Saffir--he had seen the girl's face and at the sight ofit the blood lust in his breast had been supplanted by another. 

At sight of the emblem of peace Virginia ceased firing. She saw thetall Malay issue a few commands, the oarsmen bent to their work, theprahu came about, making off toward the harbor's entrance. At the samemoment there was a shot from the shore followed by loud yelling, andthe girl turned to see her father and von Horn pulling rapidly towardthe Ithaca. 

2

THE HEAVY CHEST

Virginia and Sing were compelled to narrate the adventure of theafternoon a dozen times. The Chinaman was at a loss to understand whathad deterred the pirates at the very threshold of victory. Von Hornthought that they had seen the reinforcements embarking from the shore, but Sing explained that that was impossible since the Ithaca had beendirectly between them and the point at which the returning crew hadentered the boats. 

Virginia was positive that her fusillade had frightened them into ahasty retreat, but again Sing discouraged any such idea when he pointedto the fact that another instant would have carried the prahu close tothe Ithaca's side and out of the machine gun's radius of action. 

The old Chinaman was positive that the pirates had some ulterior motivefor simulating defeat, and his long years of experience upon pirateinfested waters gave weight to his opinion. The weak spot in hisargument was his inability to suggest a reasonable motive. And so itwas that for a long time they were left to futile conjecture as to theaction that had saved them from a bloody encounter with thesebloodthirsty sea wolves. 

For a week the men were busy constructing the new camp, but never againwas Virginia left without a sufficient guard for her protection. VonHorn was always needed at the work, for to him had fallen the entiredirection of matters of importance that were at all of a practicalnature. Professor Maxon wished to watch the building of the houses andthe stockade, that he might offer such suggestions as he thoughtnecessary, and again the girl noticed her father's comparativeindifference to her welfare. 

She had been shocked at his apathy at the time of the pirate attack, and chagrined that it should have been necessary for von Horn to haveinsisted upon a proper guard being left with her thereafter. 

The nearer the approach of the time when he might enter again uponthose experiments which had now been neglected for the better part of ayear the more self absorbed and moody became the professor. At timeshe was scarcely civil to those about him, and never now did he have apleasant word or a caress for the daughter who had been his whole lifebut a few short months before. 

It often seemed to Virginia when she caught her father's eyes upon herthat there was a gleam of dislike in them, as though he would have beenglad to have been rid of her that she might not in any way embarrass orinterfere with his work. 

The camp was at last completed, and on a Saturday afternoon all theheavier articles from the ship had been transported to it. On thefollowing Monday the balance of the goods was to be sent on shore andthe party were to transfer their residence to their new quarters. 

Late Sunday afternoon a small native boat was seen rounding the pointat the harbor's southern extremity, and after a few minutes it drewalongside the Ithaca. There were but three men in it--two Dyaks and aMalay. The latter was a tall, well built man of middle age, of asullen and degraded countenance. His garmenture was that of theordinary Malay boatman, but there was that in his mien and his attitudetoward his companions which belied his lowly habiliments. 

In answer to von Horn's hail the man asked if he might come aboard andtrade; but once on the deck it developed that he had not broughtnothing wherewith to trade. He seemed not the slightest disconcertedby this discovery, stating that he would bring such articles as theywished when he had learned what their requirements were. 

The ubiquitous Sing was on hand during the interview, but from hisexpressionless face none might guess what was passing through thetortuous channels of his Oriental mind. The Malay had been aboardnearly half an hour talking with von Horn when the mate, Bududreen, came on deck, and it was Sing alone who noted the quickly concealedflash of recognition which passed between the two Malays. 

The Chinaman also saw the gleam that shot into the visitor's eye asVirginia emerged from the cabin, but by no word or voluntary outwardsign did the man indicate that he had even noticed her. Shortlyafterward he left, promising to return with provisions the followingday. But it was to be months before they again saw him. 

That evening as Sing was serving Virginia's supper he asked her if shehad recognized their visitor of the afternoon. 

"Why no, Sing, " she replied, "I never saw him before. "

"Sh!" admonished the celestial. "No talkee so strong, wallee have earall same labbit. "

"What do you mean, Sing?" asked the girl in a low voice. "Howperfectly weird and mysterious you are. Why you make the cold chillsrun up my spine, " she ended, laughing. But Sing did not return hersmile as was his custom. 

"You no lememba tallee Lajah stand up wavee lite clothee in plilateboat, ah?" he urged. 

"Oh, Sing, " she cried, "I do indeed! But unless you had reminded me Ishould never have thought to connect him with our visitor oftoday--they do look very much alike, don't they?"

"Lookeelike! Ugh, they all samee one man. Sing know. You lookee out, Linee, " which was the closest that Sing had ever been able to come topronouncing Virginia. 

"Why should I look out? He doesn't want me, " said the girl, laughingly. 

"Don't you bee too damee sure 'bout lat, Linee, " was Sing's inelegantbut convincing reply, as he turned toward his galley. 

The following morning the party, with the exception of three Malays whowere left to guard the Ithaca, set out for the new camp. The journeywas up the bed of the small stream which emptied into the harbor, sothat although fifteen men had passed back and forth through the junglefrom the beach to the camp every day for two weeks, there was no signthat human foot had ever crossed the narrow strip of sand that laybetween the dense foliage and the harbor. 

The gravel bottom of the rivulet made fairly good walking, and asVirginia was borne in a litter between two powerful lascars it was noteven necessary that she wet her feet in the ascent of the stream to thecamp. The distance was short, the center of the camp being but a milefrom the harbor, and less than half a mile from the opposite shore ofthe island which was but two miles at its greatest breadth, and two anda quarter at its greatest length. 

At the camp Virginia found that a neat clearing had been made upon alittle tableland, a palisade built about it, and divided into threeparts; the most northerly of which contained a small house for herselfand her father, another for von Horn, and a common cooking and eatinghouse over which Sing was to preside. 

The enclosure at the far end of the palisade was for the Malay andlascar crew and there also were quarters for Bududreen and the Malaysecond mate. The center enclosure contained Professor Maxon'sworkshop. This compartment of the enclosure Virginia was not invitedto inspect, but as members of the crew carried in the two great chestswhich the professor had left upon the Ithaca until the last moment, Virginia caught a glimpse of the two buildings that had been erectedwithin this central space--a small, square house which was quiteevidently her father's laboratory, and a long, low thatched sheddivided into several compartments, each containing a rude bunk. Shewondered for whom they could be intended. Quarters for all the partyhad already been arranged for elsewhere, nor, thought she, would herfather wish to house any in such close proximity to his workshop, wherehe would desire absolute quiet and freedom from interruption. Thediscovery perplexed her not a little, but so changed were her relationswith her father that she would not question him upon this or any othersubject. 

As the two chests were being carried into the central campong, Sing, who was standing near Virginia, called her attention to the fact thatBududreen was one of those who staggered beneath the weight of theheavier burden. 

"Bludleen, him mate. Why workee alsame lascar boy? Eh?" But Virginiacould give no reason. 

"I am afraid you don't like Bududreen, Sing, " she said. "Has he everharmed you in any way?"

"Him? No, him no hurt Sing. Sing poor, " with which more or lessenigmatical rejoinder the Chinaman returned to his work. But hemuttered much to himself the balance of the day, for Sing knew that achest that strained four men in the carrying could contain but onething, and he knew that Bududreen was as wise in such matters as he. 

For a couple of months the life of the little hidden camp went onpeacefully and without exciting incident. The Malay and lascar crewdivided their time between watch duty on board the Ithaca, policing thecamp, and cultivating a little patch of clearing just south of theirown campong. 

There was a small bay on the island's east coast, only a quarter of amile from camp, in which oysters were found, and one of the Ithaca'sboats was brought around to this side of the island for fishing. Bududreen often accompanied these expeditions, and on several occasionsthe lynx-eyed Sing had seen him returning to camp long after the othershad retired for the night. 

Professor Maxon scarcely ever left the central enclosure. For days andnights at a time Virginia never saw him, his meals being passed in tohim by Sing through a small trap door that had been cut in thepartition wall of the "court of mystery" as von Horn had christened thesection of the camp devoted to the professor's experimentations. 

Von Horn himself was often with his employer as he enjoyed the latter'scomplete confidence, and owing to his early medical training was wellfitted to act as a competent assistant; but he was often barred fromthe workshop, and at such times was much with Virginia. 

The two took long walks through the untouched jungle, exploring theirlittle island, and never failing to find some new and wonderful proofof Nature's creative power among its flora and fauna. 

"What a marvellous thing is creation, " exclaimed Virginia as she andvon Horn paused one day to admire a tropical bird of unusuallybrilliant plumage. "How insignificant is man's greatest achievementbeside the least of Nature's works. "

"And yet, " replied von Horn, "man shall find Nature's secret some day. What a glorious accomplishment for him who first succeeds. Can youimagine a more glorious consummation of a man's life work--yourfather's, for example?"

The girl looked at von Horn closely. 

"Dr. Von Horn, " she said, "pride has restrained me from asking what wasevidently intended that I should not know. For years my father hasbeen interested in an endeavor to solve the mystery of life--that hewould ever attempt to utilize the secret should he have been sofortunate as to discover it had never occurred to me. I mean that heshould try to usurp the functions of the Creator I could never havebelieved, but my knowledge of him, coupled with what you have said, andthe extreme lengths to which he has gone to maintain absolute secrecyfor his present experiments can only lead to one inference; and that, that his present work, if successful, would have results that would notbe countenanced by civilized society or government. Am I right?"

Von Horn had attempted to sound the girl that he might, if possible, discover her attitude toward the work in which her father and he wereengaged. He had succeeded beyond his hopes, for he had not intendedthat she should guess so much of the truth as she had. Should herinterest in the work have proved favorable it had been his intention toacquaint her fully with the marvellous success which already hadattended their experiments, and to explain their hopes and plans forthe future, for he had seen how her father's attitude had hurt her andhoped to profit himself by reposing in her the trust and confidencethat her father denied her. 

And so it was that her direct question left him floundering in a sea ofembarrassment, for to tell her the truth now would gain him no favor inher eyes, while it certainly would lay him open to the suspicion anddistrust of her father should he learn of it. 

"I cannot answer your question, Miss Maxon, " he said, finally, "foryour father's strictest injunction has been that I divulge to no onethe slightest happening within the court of mystery. Remember that Iam in your father's employ, and that no matter what my personalconvictions may be regarding the work he has been doing I may only actwith loyalty to his lightest command while I remain upon his payroll. That you are here, " he added, "is my excuse for continuing myconnection with certain things of which my conscience does not approve. "

The girl glanced at him quickly. She did not fully understand themotive for his final avowal, and a sudden intuition kept her fromquestioning him. She had learned to look upon von Horn as a verypleasant companion and a good friend--she was not quite certain thatshe would care for any change in their relations, but his remark hadsowed the seed of a new thought in her mind as he had intended that itshould. 

When von Horn returned to the court of mystery, he narrated toProfessor Maxon the gist of his conversation with Virginia, wishing toforestall anything which the girl might say to her father that wouldgive him an impression that von Horn had been talking more than heshould. Professor Maxon listened to the narration in silence. Whenvon Horn had finished, he cautioned him against divulging to Virginiaanything that took place within the inner campong. 

"She is only a child, " he said, "and would not understand theimportance of the work we are doing. All that she would be able to seeis the immediate moral effect of these experiments upon the subjectsthemselves--she would not look into the future and appreciate theimmense advantage to mankind that must accrue from a successfultermination of our research. The future of the world will be assuredwhen once we have demonstrated the possibility of the chemicalproduction of a perfect race. "

"Number One, for example, " suggested von Horn. 

Professor Maxon glanced at him sharply. 

"Levity, Doctor, is entirely out of place in the contemplation of themagnificent work I have already accomplished, " said the professortartly. "I admit that Number One leaves much to be desired--much to bedesired; but Number Two shows a marked advance along certain lines, andI am sure that tomorrow will divulge in experiment Number Three suchstrides as will forever silence any propensity toward scoffing whichyou may now entertain. "

"Forgive me, Professor, " von Horn hastened to urge. "I did not intendto deride the wonderful discoveries which you have made, but it is onlynatural that we should both realize that Number One is not beautiful. To one another we may say what we would not think of suggesting tooutsiders. "

Professor Maxon was mollified by this apology, and turned to resume hiswatch beside a large, coffin-shaped vat. For a while von Horn wassilent. There was that upon his mind which he had wished to discusswith his employer since months ago, but the moment had never arrivedwhich seemed at all propitious, nor did it appear likely ever toarrive. So the doctor decided to broach the subject now, as beingpsychologically as favorable a time as any. 

"Your daughter is far from happy, Professor, " he said, "nor do I feelthat, surrounded as we are by semi-savage men, she is entirely safe. "

Professor Maxon looked up from his vigil by the vat, eyeing von Hornclosely. 

"Well?" he asked. 

"It seemed to me that had I a closer relationship I might better assistin adding to her happiness and safety--in short, Professor, I shouldlike your permission to ask Virginia to marry me. "

There had been no indication in von Horn's attitude toward the girlthat he loved her. That she was beautiful and intelligent could not bedenied, and so it was small wonder that she might appeal strongly toany man, but von Horn was quite evidently not of the marrying type. For years he had roved the world in search of adventure and excitement. Just why he had left America and his high place in the navy he neverhad divulged; nor why it was that for seven years he had not set hisfoot upon ground which lay beneath the authority of Uncle Sam. 

Sing Lee who stood just without the trap door through which he wasabout to pass Professor Maxon's evening meal to him could not be blamedfor overhearing the conversation, though it may have been culpable inhim in making no effort to divulge his presence, and possibly equallyunpraiseworthy, as well as lacking in romance, to attribute thedoctor's avowal to his knowledge of the heavy chest. 

As Professor Maxon eyed the man before replying to his abrupt request, von Horn noted a strange and sudden light in the older man's eyes--asomething which he never before had seen there and which caused anuncomfortable sensation to creep over him--a manner of bristling thatwas akin either to fear or horror, von Horn could not tell which. 

Then the professor arose from his seat and came very close to theyounger man, until his face was only a few inches from von Horn's. 

"Doctor, " he whispered in a strange, tense voice, "you are mad. You donot know what you ask. Virginia is not for such as you. Tell me thatshe does not know of your feelings toward her. Tell me that she doesnot reciprocate your love. Tell me the truth, man. " Professor Maxonseized von Horn roughly by both shoulders, his glittering eyes glaringterribly into the other's. 

"I have never spoken to her of love, Professor, " replied von Hornquietly, "nor do I know what her sentiments toward me may be. Nor do Iunderstand, sir, what objections you may have to me--I am of a very oldand noble family. " His tone was haughty but respectful. 

Professor Maxon released his hold upon his assistant, breathing a sighof relief. 

"I am glad, " he said, "that it has gone no further, for it must not be. I have other, nobler aspirations for my daughter. She must wed aperfect man--none such now exists. It remains for me to bring forththe ideal mate for her--nor is the time far distant. A few more weeksand we shall see such a being as I have long dreamed. " Again the queerlight flickered for a moment in the once kindly and jovial eyes of thescientist. 

Von Horn was horrified. He was a man of little sentiment. He could incold blood have married this girl for the wealth he knew that she wouldinherit; but the thought that she was to be united with such aTHING--"Lord! It is horrible, " and his mind pictured the fearfulatrocity which was known as Number One. 

Without a word he turned and left the campong. A moment later Sing'sknock aroused Professor Maxon from the reverie into which he hadfallen, and he stepped to the trap door to receive his evening meal. 

3

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

One day, about two weeks later, von Horn and the professor wereoccupied closely with their work in the court of mystery. Developmentswere coming in riotous confusion. A recent startling discovery badefare to simplify and expedite the work far beyond the fondest dreams ofthe scientist. 

Von Horn's interest in the marvellous results that had been obtainedwas little short of the professor's--but he foresaw a very differentoutcome of it all, and by day never moved without a gun at either hip, and by night both of them were beside him. 

Sing Lee, the noonday meal having been disposed of, set forth with rod, string and bait to snare gulls upon the beach. He moved quietlythrough the jungle, his sharp eyes and ears always alert for anythingthat might savor of the unusual, and so it was that he saw the two menupon the beach, while they did not see him at all. 

They were Bududreen and the same tall Malay whom Sing had seen twicebefore--once in splendid raiment and commanding the pirate prahu, andagain as a simple boatman come to the Ithaca to trade, but without thegoods to carry out his professed intentions. 

The two squatted on the beach at the edge of the jungle a shortdistance above the point at which Sing had been about to emerge when hediscovered them, so that it was but the work of a moment or two for theChinaman to creep stealthily through the dense underbrush to a pointdirectly above them and not three yards from where they conversed inlow tones--yet sufficiently loud that Sing missed not a word. 

"I tell you, Bududreen, that it will be quite safe, " the tall Malay wassaying. "You yourself tell me that none knows of the whereabouts ofthese white men, and if they do not return your word will be acceptedas to their fate. Your reward will be great if you bring the girl tome, and if you doubt the loyalty of any of your own people a kris willsilence them as effectually as it will silence the white men. "

"It is not fear of the white men, oh, Rajah Muda Saffir, that detersme, " said Bududreen, "but how shall I know that after I have come toyour country with the girl I shall not myself be set upon and silencedwith a golden kris--there be many that will be jealous of the greatservice I have done for the mighty rajah. "

Muda Saffir knew perfectly well that Bududreen had but diplomaticallyexpressed a fear as to his own royal trustworthiness, but it did notanger him, since the charge was not a direct one; but what he did notknow was of the heavy chest and Bududreen's desire to win the price ofthe girl and yet be able to save for himself a chance at the fargreater fortune which he knew lay beneath that heavy oaken lid. 

Both men had arisen now and were walking across the beach toward asmall, native canoe in which Muda Saffir had come to the meeting place. They were out of earshot before either spoke again, so that whatfurther passed between them Sing could not even guess, but he had heardenough to confirm the suspicions he had entertained for a long while. 

He did not fish for gulls that day. Bududreen and Muda Saffir stoodtalking upon the beach, and the Chinaman did not dare venture forth forfear they might suspect that he had overheard them. If old Sing Leeknew his Malays, he was also wise enough to give them credit forknowing their Chinamen, so he waited quietly in hiding until MudaSaffir had left, and Bududreen returned to camp. 

Professor Maxon and von Horn were standing over one of the six vatsthat were arranged in two rows down the center of the laboratory. Theprofessor had been more communicative and agreeable today than for sometime past, and their conversation had assumed more of the familiaritythat had marked it during the first month of their acquaintance atSingapore. 

"And what of these first who are so imperfect?" asked von Horn. "Youcannot take them into civilization, nor would it be right to leave themhere upon this island. What will you do with them?"

Professor Maxon pondered the question for a moment. 

"I have given the matter but little thought, " he said at length. "Theyare but the accidents of my great work. It is unfortunate that theyare as they are, but without them I could have never reached theperfection that I am sure we are to find here, " and he tapped lovinglyupon the heavy glass cover of the vat before which he stood. "And thisis but the beginning. There can be no more mistakes now, though Idoubt if we can ever improve upon that which is so rapidly developinghere. " Again he passed his long, slender hand caressingly over thecoffin-like vat at the head of which was a placard bearing the words, NUMBER THIRTEEN. 

"But the others, Professor!" insisted von Horn. "We must decide. Already they have become a problem of no small dimensions. YesterdayNumber Five desired some plantains that I had given to Number Seven. Itried to reason with him, but, as you know, he is mentally defective, and for answer he rushed at Number Seven to tear the coveted morselfrom him. The result was a battle royal that might have put to shametwo Bengal tigers. Twelve is tractable and intelligent. With hisassistance and my bull whip I succeeded in separating them beforeeither was killed. Your greatest error was in striving at first forsuch physical perfection. You have overdone it, with the result thatthe court of mystery is peopled by a dozen brutes of awful muscularity, and scarcely enough brain among the dozen to equip three properly. "

"They are as they are, " replied the professor. "I shall do for themwhat I can--when I am gone they must look to themselves. I can see noway out of it. "

"What you have given you may take away, " said von Horn, in a low tone. 

Professor Maxon shuddered. Those three horrid days in the workshop atIthaca flooded his memory with all the gruesome details he had triedfor so many months to forget. The haunting ghosts of the mentalanguish that had left him an altered man--so altered that there weretimes when he had feared for his sanity!

"No, no!" he almost shouted. "It would be murder. They are--"

"They are THINGS, " interrupted von Horn. "They are not human--they arenot even beast. They are terrible, soulless creatures. You have noright to permit them to live longer than to substantiate your theory. None but us knows of their existence--no other need know of theirpassing. It must be done. They are a constant and growing menace tous all, but most of all to your daughter. "

A cunning look came into the professor's eyes. 

"I understand, " he said. "The precedent once established, all mustperish by its edict--even those which may not be grotesque orbestial--even this perfect one, " and he touched again the vat, "andthus you would rid yourself of rival suitors. But no!" he went on in ahigh, trembling voice. "I shall not be led to thus compromise myself, and be thwarted in my cherished plan. Be this one what he may he shallwed my daughter!"

The man had raised himself upon his toes as he reached his climax--hisclenched hand was high above his head--his voice fairly thundered outthe final sentence, and with the last word he brought his fist downupon the vat before him. In his eyes blazed the light of unchainedmadness. 

Von Horn was a brave man, but he shuddered at the maniacal ferocity ofthe older man, and shrank back. The futility of argument was apparent, and he turned and left the workshop. 

Sing Lee was late that night. In fact he did not return from hisfruitless quest for gulls until well after dark, nor would he vouchsafeany explanation of the consequent lateness of supper. Nor could he befound shortly after the evening meal when Virginia sought him. 

Not until the camp was wrapped in the quiet of slumber did Sing Leereturn--stealthy and mysterious--to creep under cover of a moonlessnight to the door of the workshop. How he gained entrance only SingLee knows, but a moment later there was a muffled crash of broken glasswithin the laboratory, and the Chinaman had slipped out, relocked thedoor, and scurried to his nearby shack. But there was no occasion forhis haste--no other ear than his had heard the sound within theworkshop. 

It was almost nine the following morning before Professor Maxon and vonHorn entered the laboratory. Scarcely had the older man passed thedoorway than he drew up his hands in horrified consternation. VatNumber Thirteen lay dashed to the floor--the glass cover was broken toa million pieces--a sticky, brownish substance covered the matting. Professor Maxon hid his face in his hands. 

"God!" he cried. "It is all ruined. Three more days would have--"

"Look!" cried von Horn. "It is not too soon. "

Professor Maxon mustered courage to raise his eyes from his hands, andthere he beheld, seated in a far corner of the room a handsome giant, physically perfect. The creature looked about him in a dazed, uncomprehending manner. A great question was writ large upon hisintelligent countenance. Professor Maxon stepped forward and took himby the hand. 

"Come, " he said, and led him toward a smaller room off the mainworkshop. The giant followed docilely, his eyes roving about theroom--the pitiful questioning still upon his handsome features. VonHorn turned toward the campong. 

Virginia, deserted by all, even the faithful Sing, who, cheated of hissport on the preceding day, had again gone to the beach to snare gulls, became restless of the enforced idleness and solitude. For a time shewandered about the little compound which had been reserved for thewhites, but tiring of this she decided to extend her stroll beyond thepalisade, a thing which she had never before done unless accompanied byvon Horn--a thing both he and her father had cautioned her against. 

"What danger can there be?" she thought. "We know that the island isuninhabited by others than ourselves, and that there are no dangerousbeasts. And, anyway, there is no one now who seems to care whatbecomes of me, unless--unless--I wonder if he does care. I wonder if Icare whether or not he cares. Oh, dear, I wish I knew, " and as shesoliloquized she wandered past the little clearing and into the junglethat lay behind the campong. 

As von Horn and Professor Maxon talked together in the laboratorybefore the upsetting of vat Number Thirteen, a grotesque and horriblecreature had slunk from the low shed at the opposite side of thecampong until it had crouched at the flimsy door of the building inwhich the two men conversed. For a while it listened intently, butwhen von Horn urged the necessity for dispatching certain "terrible, soulless creatures" an expression of intermingled fear and hatredconvulsed the hideous features, and like a great grizzly it turned andlumbered awkwardly across the campong toward the easterly, or back wallof the enclosure. 

Here it leaped futilely a half dozen times for the top of the palisade, and then trembling and chattering in rage it ran back and forth alongthe base of the obstacle, just as a wild beast in captivity pacesangrily before the bars of its cage. 

Finally it paused to look once more at the senseless wood that barredits escape, as though measuring the distance to the top. Then the eyesroamed about the campong to rest at last upon the slanting roof of thethatched shed which was its shelter. Presently a slow idea was born inthe poor, malformed brain. 

The creature approached the shed. He could just reach the saplingsthat formed the frame work of the roof. Like a huge sloth he drewhimself to the roof of the structure. From here he could see beyondthe palisade, and the wild freedom of the jungle called to him. He didnot know what it was but in its leafy wall he perceived many breaks andopenings that offered concealment from the creatures who were plottingto take his life. 

Yet the wall was not fully six feet from him, and the top of it atleast five feet above the top of the shed--those who had designed thecampong had been careful to set this structure sufficiently far fromthe palisade to prevent its forming too easy an avenue of escape. 

The creature glanced fearfully toward the workshop. He remembered thecruel bull whip that always followed each new experiment on his partthat did not coincide with the desires of his master, and as he thoughtof von Horn a nasty gleam shot his mismated eyes. 

He tried to reach across the distance between the roof and thepalisade, and in the attempt lost his balance and nearly precipitatedhimself to the ground below. Cautiously he drew back, still lookingabout for some means to cross the chasm. One of the saplings of theroof, protruding beyond the palm leaf thatch, caught his attention. With a single wrench he tore it from its fastenings. Extending ittoward the palisade he discovered that it just spanned the gap, but hedared not attempt to cross upon its single slender strand. 

Quickly he ripped off a half dozen other poles from the roof, andlaying them side by side, formed a safe and easy path to freedom. Amoment more and he sat astride the top of the wall. Drawing the polesafter him, he dropped them one by one to the ground outside thecampong. Then he lowered himself to liberty. 

Gathering the saplings under one huge arm he ran, lumberingly, into thejungle. He would not leave evidence of the havoc he had wrought; thefear of the bull whip was still strong upon him. The green foliageclosed about him and the peaceful jungle gave no sign of the horridbrute that roamed its shadowed mazes. 

As von Horn stepped into the campong his quick eye perceived the havocthat had been wrought with the roof at the east end of the shed. Quickly he crossed to the low structure. Within its compartments anumber of deformed monsters squatted upon their haunches, or lay proneupon the native mats that covered the floor. 

As the man entered they looked furtively at the bull whip which trailedfrom his right hand, and then glanced fearfully at one another asthough questioning which was the malefactor on this occasion. 

Von Horn ran his eyes over the hideous assemblage. 

"Where is Number One?" he asked, directing his question toward a thingwhose forehead gave greater promise of intelligence than any of hiscompanions. 

The one addressed shook his head. 

Von Horn turned and made a circuit of the campong. There was no signof the missing one and no indication of any other irregularity than thedemolished portion of the roof. With an expression of mild concernupon his face he entered the workshop. 

"Number One has escaped into the jungle, Professor, " he said. 

Professor Maxon looked up in surprise, but before he had an opportunityto reply a woman's scream, shrill with horror, smote upon theirstartled ears. 

Von Horn was the first to reach the campong of the whites. ProfessorMaxon was close behind him, and the faces of both were white withapprehension. The enclosure was deserted. Not even Sing was there. Without a word the two men sprang through the gateway and raced for thejungle in the direction from which that single, haunting cry had come. 

Virginia Maxon, idling beneath the leafy shade of the tropical foliage, became presently aware that she had wandered farther from the campongthan she had intended. The day was sultry, and the heat, even in thedense shade of the jungle, oppressive. Slowly she retraced her steps, her eyes upon the ground, her mind absorbed in sad consideration of herfather's increasing moodiness and eccentricity. 

Possibly it was this very abstraction which deadened her senses to thenear approach of another. At any rate the girl's first intimation thatshe was not alone came when she raised her eyes to look full into thehorrid countenance of a fearsome monster which blocked her path towardcamp. 

The sudden shock brought a single involuntary scream from her lips. And who can wonder! The thing thrust so unexpectedly before her eyeswas hideous in the extreme. A great mountain of deformed flesh clothedin dirty, white cotton pajamas! Its face was of the ashen hue of afresh corpse, while the white hair and pink eyes denoted the absence ofpigment; a characteristic of albinos. 

One eye was fully twice the diameter of the other, and an inch abovethe horizontal plane of its tiny mate. The nose was but a gapingorifice above a deformed and twisted mouth. The thing was chinless, and its small, foreheadless head surrounded its colossal body like acannon ball on a hill top. One arm was at least twelve inches longerthan its mate, which was itself long in proportion to the torso, whilethe legs, similarly mismated and terminating in huge, flat feet thatprotruded laterally, caused the thing to lurch fearfully from side toside as it lumbered toward the girl. 

A sudden grimace lighted the frightful face as the grotesque eyes fellupon this new creature. Number One had never before seen a woman, butthe sight of this one awoke in the unplumbed depths of his soullessbreast a great desire to lay his hands upon her. She was verybeautiful. Number One wished to have her for his very own; nor wouldit be a difficult matter, so fragile was she, to gather her up in thosegreat, brute arms and carry her deep into the jungle far out of hearingof the bull-whip man and the cold, frowning one who was continuallymeasuring and weighing Number One and his companions, the while hescrutinized them with those strange, glittering eyes that frightenedone even more than the cruel lash of the bull whip. 

Number One lurched forward, his arms outstretched toward the horrorstricken girl. Virginia tried to cry out again--she tried to turn andrun; but the horror of her impending fate and the terror that thoseawful features induced left her paralyzed and helpless. 

The thing was almost upon her now. The mouth was wide in a hideousattempt to smile. The great hands would grasp her in anothersecond--and then there was a sudden crashing of the underbrush behindher, a yellow, wrinkled face and a flying pig-tail shot past her, andthe brave old Sing Lee grappled with the mighty monster that threatenedher. 

The battle was short--short and terrible. The valiant Chinaman soughtthe ashen throat of his antagonist, but his wiry, sinewy muscles wereas reeds beneath the force of that inhuman power that opposed them. Holding the girl at arm's length in one hand, Number One tore thebattling Chinaman from him with the other, and lifting him bodily abovehis head, hurled him stunned and bleeding against the bole of a giantbuttress tree. Then lifting Virginia in his arms once more he divedinto the impenetrable mazes of the jungle that lined the more openpathway between the beach and camp. 

4

A NEW FACE

As Professor Maxon and von Horn rushed from the workshop to their owncampong, they neglected, in their haste, to lock the door between, andfor the first time since the camp was completed it stood unlatched andajar. 

The professor had been engaged in taking careful measurements of thehead of his latest experiment, the while he coached the young man inthe first rudiments of spoken language, and now the subject of hislabors found himself suddenly deserted and alone. He had not yet beenwithout the four walls of the workshop, as the professor had wished tokeep him from association with the grotesque results of his earlierexperiments, and now a natural curiosity tempted him to approach thedoor through which his creator and the man with the bull whip had sosuddenly disappeared. 

He saw before him a great walled enclosure roofed by a lofty azuredome, and beyond the walls the tops of green trees swaying gently inthe soft breezes. His nostrils tasted the incense of fresh earth andgrowing things. For the first time he felt the breath of Nature, freeand unconfined, upon his brow. 

He drew his giant frame to its full height and drank in the freedom andthe sweetness of it all, filling his great lungs to their fullest; andwith the first taste he learned to hate the close and stuffy confinesof his prison. 

His virgin mind was filled with wonder at the wealth of new impressionswhich surged to his brain through every sense. He longed for more, andthe open gateway of the campong was a scarce needed invitation to passto the wide world beyond. With the free and easy tread of utterunconsciousness of self, he passed across the enclosure and stepped outinto the clearing which lay between the palisade and the jungle. 

Ah, here was a still more beautiful world! The green leaves nodded tohim, and at their invitation he came and the jungle reached out itsmillion arms to embrace him. Now before him, behind, on either sidethere was naught but glorious green beauty shot with splashes ofgorgeous color that made him gasp in wonderment. 

Brilliant birds rose from amidst it all, skimming hither and thitherabove his head--he thought that the flowers and the birds were thesame, and when he reached out and plucked a blossom, tenderly, hewondered that it did not flutter in his hand. On and on he walked, butslowly, for he must not miss a single sight in the strange andwonderful place; and then, of a sudden, the quiet beauty of the scenewas harshly broken by the crashing of a monster through the underbrush. 

Number Thirteen was standing in a little open place in the jungle whenthe discordant note first fell upon his ears, and as he turned his headin the direction of the sound he was startled at the hideous aspect ofthe thing which broke through the foliage before him. 

What a horrid creature! But on the same instant his eyes fell uponanother borne in the arms of the terrible one. This one wasdifferent--very different, --soft and beautiful and white. He wonderedwhat it all meant, for everything was strange and new to him; but whenhe saw the eyes of the lovely one upon him, and her arms outstretchedtoward him, though he did not understand the words upon her lips, heknew that she was in distress. Something told him that it was the uglything that carried her that was the author of her suffering. 

Virginia Maxon had been half unconscious from fright when she suddenlysaw a white man, clothed in coarse, white, native pajamas, confrontingher and the misshapen beast that was bearing her away to what frightfulfate she could but conjecture. 

At the sight of the man her voice returned with returning hope, and shereached her arms toward him, calling upon him to save her. Although hedid not respond she thought that he understood for he sprang towardthem before her appeal was scarce uttered. 

As before, when Sing had threatened to filch his new possession fromhim, Number One held the girl with one hand while he met the attack ofthis new assailant with the other; but here was very different metalthan had succumbed to him before. 

It is true that Number Thirteen knew nothing whatever of personalcombat, but Number One had but little advantage of him in the matter ofexperience, while the former was equipped with great naturalintelligence as well as steel muscles no whit less powerful than hisdeformed predecessor. 

So it was that the awful giant found his single hand helpless to copewith the strength of his foeman, and in a brief instant felt powerfulfingers clutching at his throat. Still reluctant to surrender his holdupon his prize, he beat futilely at the face of his enemy, but at lastthe agony of choking compelled him to drop the girl and grapple madlywith the man who choked him with one hand and rained mighty andmerciless blows upon his face and head with the other. 

His captive sank to the ground, too weak from the effects of nervousshock to escape, and with horror-filled eyes watched the two whobattled over her. She saw that her would-be rescuer was young andstrong featured--all together a very fine specimen of manhood; and toher great wonderment it was soon apparent that he was no unequal matchfor the great mountain of muscle that he fought. 

Both tore and struck and clawed and bit in the frenzy of mad, untutoredstrife, rolling about on the soft carpet of the jungle almostnoiselessly except for their heavy breathing and an occasionalbeast-like snarl from Number One. For several minutes they fought thusuntil the younger man succeeded in getting both hands upon the throatof his adversary, and then, choking relentlessly, he raised the brutewith him from the ground and rushed him fiercely backward against thestem of a tree. Again and again he hurled the monstrous thing upon theunyielding wood, until at last it hung helpless and inert in hisclutches, then he cast it from him, and without another glance at itturned toward the girl. 

Here was a problem indeed. Now that he had won her, what was he to dowith her? He was but an adult child, with the brain and brawn of aman, and the ignorance and inexperience of the new-born. And so heacted as a child acts, in imitation of what it has seen others do. Thebrute had been carrying the lovely creature, therefore that must be thething for him to do, and so he stooped and gathered Virginia Maxon inhis great arms. 

She tried to tell him that she could walk after a moment's rest, but itwas soon evident that he did not understand her, as a puzzledexpression came to his face and he did not put her down as she asked. Instead he stood irresolute for a time, and then moved slowly throughthe jungle. By chance his direction was toward the camp, and this factso relieved the girl's mind that presently she was far from loath toremain quietly in his arms. 

After a moment she gained courage to look up into his face. Shethought that she never had seen so marvellously clean cut features, ora more high and noble countenance, and she wondered how it was thatthis white man was upon the island and she not have known it. Possiblyhe was a new arrival--his presence unguessed even by her father. Thathe was neither English nor American was evident from the fact that hecould not understand her native tongue. Who could he be! What was hedoing upon their island!

As she watched his face he suddenly turned his eyes down upon her, andas she looked hurriedly away she was furious with herself as she felt acrimson flush mantle her cheek. The man only half sensed, in a vaguesort of way, the meaning of the tell tale color and the quickly avertedeyes; but he became suddenly aware of the pressure of her delicate bodyagainst his, as he had not been before. Now he kept his eyes upon herface as he walked, and a new emotion filled his breast. He did notunderstand it, but it was very pleasant, and he knew that it wasbecause of the radiant thing that he carried in his arms. 

The scream that had startled von Horn and Professor Maxon led themalong the trail toward the east coast of the island, and about halfwayof the distance they stumbled upon the dazed and bloody Sing just as hewas on the point of regaining consciousness. 

"For God's sake, Sing, what is the matter?" cried von Horn. "Where isMiss Maxon?"

"Big blute, he catchem Linee. Tly kill Sing. Head hit tlee. No seeany more. Wakee up--all glone, " moaned the Chinaman as he tried togain his feet. 

"Which way did he take her?" urged von Horn. 

Sing's quick eyes scanned the surrounding jungle, and in a moment, staggering to his feet, he cried, "Look see, klick! Foot plint!" andran, weak and reeling drunkenly, along the broad trail made by thegiant creature and its prey. 

Von Horn and Professor Maxon followed closely in Sing's wake, theyounger man horrified by the terrible possibilities that obtrudedthemselves into his imagination despite his every effort to assurehimself that no harm could come to Virginia Maxon before they reachedher. The girl's father had not spoken since they discovered that shewas missing from the campong, but his face was white and drawn; hiseyes wide and glassy as those of one whose mind is on the verge ofmadness from a great nervous shock. 

The trail of the creature was bewilderingly erratic. A dozen pacesstraight through the underbrush, then a sharp turn at right angles forno apparent reason, only to veer again suddenly in a new direction!Thus, turning and twisting, the tortuous way led them toward the southend of the island, until Sing, who was in advance, gave a sharp cry ofsurprise. 

"Klick! Look see!" he cried excitedly. "Blig blute dead--vely mucheedead. "

Von Horn rushed forward to where the Chinaman was leaning over the bodyof Number One. Sure enough, the great brute lay motionless, its horridface even more hideous in death than in life, if it were possible. Theface was black, the tongue protruded, the skin was bruised from theheavy fists of his assailant and the thick skull crushed and splinteredfrom terrific impact with the tree. 

Professor Maxon leaned over von Horn's shoulder. "Ah, poor NumberOne, " he sighed, "that you should have come to such an untimely end--mychild, my child. "

Von Horn looked at him, a tinge of compassion in his rather hard face. It touched the man that his employer was at last shocked from theobsession of his work to a realization of the love and duty he owed hisdaughter; he thought that the professor's last words referred toVirginia. 

"Though there are twelve more, " continued Professor Maxon, "you were myfirst born son and I loved you most, dear child. "

The younger man was horrified. 

"My God, Professor!" he cried. "Are you mad? Can you call this thing'child' and mourn over it when you do not yet know the fate of your owndaughter?"

Professor Maxon looked up sadly. "You do not understand, Dr. VonHorn, " he replied coldly, "and you will oblige me, in the future, bynot again referring to the offspring of my labors as 'things. '"

With an ugly look upon his face von Horn turned his back upon the olderman--what little feeling of loyalty and affection he had ever felt forhim gone forever. Sing was looking about for evidences of the cause ofNumber One's death and the probable direction in which Virginia Maxonhad disappeared. 

"What on earth could have killed this enormous brute, Sing? Have youany idea?" asked von Horn. 

The Chinaman shook his head. 

"No savvy, " he replied. "Blig flight. Look see, " and he pointed tothe torn and trampled turf, the broken bushes, and to one or two smalltrees that had been snapped off by the impact of the two mighty bodiesthat had struggled back and forth about the little clearing. 

"This way, " cried Sing presently, and started off once more into thebrush, but this time in a northwesterly direction, toward camp. 

In silence the three men followed the new trail, all puzzled beyondmeasure to account for the death of Number One at the hands of whatmust have been a creature of superhuman strength. What could it havebeen! It was impossible that any of the Malays or lascars could havedone the thing, and there were no other creatures, brute or human, uponthe island large enough to have coped even for an instant with theferocious brutality of the dead monster, except--von Horn's brain cameto a sudden halt at the thought. Could it be? There seemed no otherexplanation. Virginia Maxon had been rescued from one soullessmonstrosity to fall into the hands of another equally irresponsible andterrifying. 

Others then must have escaped from the campong. Von Horn loosened hisguns in their holsters, and took a fresh grip upon his bull whip as heurged Sing forward upon the trail. He wondered which one it was, butnot once did it occur to him that the latest result of ProfessorMaxon's experiments could be the rescuer of Virginia Maxon. In hismind he could see only the repulsive features of one of the others. 

Quite unexpectedly they came upon the two, and with a shout von Hornleaped forward, his bull whip upraised. Number Thirteen turned insurprise at the cry, and sensing a new danger for her who lay in hisarms, he set her gently upon the ground behind him and advanced to meethis assailant. 

"Out of the way, you--monstrosity, " cried von Horn. "If you haveharmed Miss Maxon I'll put a bullet in your heart!"

Number Thirteen did not understand the words that the other addressedto him but he interpreted the man's actions as menacing, not tohimself, but to the creature he now considered his particular charge;and so he met the advancing man, more to keep him from the girl than tooffer him bodily injury for he recognized him as one of the two who hadgreeted his first dawning consciousness. 

Von Horn, possibly intentionally, misinterpreted the other's motive, and raising his bull whip struck Number Thirteen a vicious cut acrossthe face, at the same time levelling his revolver point blank at thebroad beast. But before ever he could pull the trigger an avalanche ofmuscle was upon him, and he went down to the rotting vegetation of thejungle with five sinewy fingers at his throat. 

His revolver exploded harmlessly in the air, and then another handwrenched it from him and hurled it far into the underbrush. NumberThirteen knew nothing of the danger of firearms, but the noise hadstartled him and his experience with the stinging cut of the bull whipconvinced him that this other was some sort of instrument of torture ofwhich it would be as well to deprive his antagonist. 

Virginia Maxon looked on in horror as she realized that her rescuer wasquickly choking Dr. Von Horn to death. With a little cry she sprang toher feet and ran toward them, just as her father emerged from theunderbrush through which he had been struggling in the trail of theagile Chinaman and von Horn. Placing her hand upon the great wrist ofthe giant she tried to drag his fingers from von Horn's throat, pleading meanwhile with both voice and eyes for the life of the man shethought loved her. 

Again Number Thirteen translated the intent without understanding thewords, and releasing von Horn permitted him to rise. With a bound hewas upon his feet and at the same instant brought his other gun fromhis side and levelled it upon the man who had released him; but as hisfinger tightened upon the trigger Virginia Maxon sprang between themand grasping von Horn's wrist deflected the muzzle of the gun just asthe cartridge exploded. Simultaneously Professor Maxon sprang from hisgrasp and hurled him back with the superhuman strength of a maniac. 

"Fool!" he cried. "What would you do? Kill--, " and then of a suddenhe realized his daughter's presence and the necessity for keeping theorigin of the young giant from her knowledge. 

"I am surprised at you, Dr. Von Horn, " he continued in a more levelvoice. "You must indeed have forgotten yourself to thus attack astranger upon our island until you know whether he be friend or foe. Come! Escort my daughter to the camp, while I make the properapologies to this gentleman. " As he saw that both Virginia and vonHorn hesitated, he repeated his command in a peremptory tone, adding;"Quick, now; do as I bid you. "

The moment had given von Horn an opportunity to regain hisself-control, and realizing as well as did his employer, but fromanother motive, the necessity of keeping the truth from the girl, hetook her arm and led her gently from the scene. At Professor Maxon'sdirection Sing accompanied them. 

Now in Number Thirteen's brief career he had known no other authoritythan Professor Maxon's, and so it was that when his master laid a handupon his wrist he remained beside him while another walked away withthe lovely creature he had thought his very own. 

Until after dark the professor kept the young man hidden in the jungle, and then, safe from detection, led him back to the laboratory. 

5

TREASON

On their return to camp after her rescue Virginia talked a great dealto von Horn about the young giant who had rescued her, until the manfeared that she was more interested in him than seemed good for his ownplans. 

He had now cast from him the last vestige of his loyalty for hisemployer, and thus freed had determined to use every means within hispower to win Professor Maxon's daughter, and with her the heritage ofwealth which he knew would be hers should her father, through someunforeseen mishap, meet death before he could return to civilizationand alter his will, a contingency which von Horn knew he might have toconsider should he marry the girl against her father's wishes, and thusthwart the crazed man's mad, but no less dear project. 

He realized that first he must let the girl fully understand the graveperil in which she stood, and turn her hope of protection from herfather to himself. He imagined that the initial step in underminingVirginia's confidence in her father would be to narrate every detail ofthe weird experiments which Professor Maxon had brought to suchsuccessful issues during their residence upon the island. 

The girl's own questioning gave him the lead he needed. 

"Where could that horrid creature have come from that set upon me inthe jungle and nearly killed poor Sing?" she asked. 

For a moment von Horn was silent, in well simulated hesitancy to replyto her query. 

"I cannot tell you, Miss Maxon, " he said sadly, "how much I should hateto be the one to ignore your father's commands, and enlighten you uponthis and other subjects which lie nearer to your personal welfare thanyou can possibly guess; but I feel that after the horrors of this dayduty demands that I must lay all before you--you cannot again beexposed to the horrors from which you were rescued only by a miracle. "

"I cannot imagine what you hint at, Dr. Von Horn, " said Virginia, "butif to explain to me will necessitate betraying my father's confidence Iprefer that you remain silent. "

"You do not understand, " broke in the man, "you cannot guess thehorrors that I have seen upon this island, or the worse horrors thatare to come. Could you dream of what lies in store for you, you wouldseek death rather than face the future. I have been loyal to yourfather, Virginia, but were you not blind, or indifferent, you wouldlong since have seen that your welfare means more to me than my loyaltyto him--more to me than my life or my honor. 

"You asked where the creature came from that attacked you today. Ishall tell you. It is one of a dozen similarly hideous things thatyour father has created in his mad desire to solve the problem of life. He has solved it; but, God, at what a price in misshapen, soulless, hideous monsters!"

The girl looked up at him, horror stricken. 

"Do you mean to say that my father in a mad attempt to usurp thefunctions of God created that awful thing?" she asked in a low, faintvoice, "and that there are others like it upon the island?"

"In the campong next to yours there are a dozen others, " replied vonHorn, "nor would it be easy to say which is the most hideous andrepulsive. They are grotesque caricatures of humanity--without souland almost without brain. "

"God!" murmured the girl, burying her face in her hands, "he has gonemad; he has gone mad. "

"I truly believe that he is mad, " said von Horn, "nor could you doubtit for a moment were I to tell you the worst. "

"The worst!" exclaimed the girl. "What could be worse than that whichyou already have divulged? Oh, how could you have permitted it?"

"There is much worse than I have told you, Virginia. So much worsethat I can scarce force my lips to frame the words, but you must betold. I would be more criminally liable than your father were I tokeep it from you, for my brain, at least, is not crazed. Virginia, youhave in your mind a picture of the hideous thing that carried you offinto the jungle?"

"Yes, " and as the girl replied a convulsive shudder racked her frame. 

Von Horn grasped her arm gently as he went on, as though to support andprotect her during the shock that he was about to administer. 

"Virginia, " he said in a very low voice, "it is your father's intentionto wed you to one of his creatures. "

The girl broke from him with an angry cry. 

"It is not true!" she exclaimed. "It is not true. Oh, Dr. Von Hornhow could you tell me such a cruel and terrible untruth. "

"As God is my judge, Virginia, " and the man reverently uncovered as hespoke, "it is the truth. Your father told me it in so many words whenI asked his permission to pay court to you myself--you are to marryNumber Thirteen when his education is complete. "

"I shall die first!" she cried. 

"Why not accept me instead?" suggested the man. 

For a moment Virginia looked straight into his eyes as though to readhis inmost soul. 

"Let me have time to consider it, Doctor, " she replied. "I do not knowthat I care for you in that way at all. "

"Think of Number Thirteen, " he suggested. "It should not be difficultto decide. "

"I could not marry you simply to escape a worse fate, " replied thegirl. "I am not that cowardly--but let me think it over. There can beno immediate danger, I am sure. "

"One can never tell, " replied von Horn, "what strange, new vagaries mayenter a crazed mind to dictate this moment's action or the next. "

"Where could we wed?" asked Virginia. 

"The Ithaca would bear us to Singapore, and when we returned you wouldbe under my legal protection and safe. "

"I shall think about it from every angle, " she answered sadly, "and nowgood night, my dear friend, " and with a wan smile she entered herquarters. 

For the next month Professor Maxon was busy educating Number Thirteen. He found the young man intelligent far beyond his most sanguine hopes, so that the progress made was little short of uncanny. 

Von Horn during this time continued to urge upon Virginia the necessityfor a prompt and favorable decision in the matter of his proposal; butwhen it came time to face the issue squarely the girl found itimpossible to accede to his request--she thought that she loved him, but somehow she dared not say the word that would make her his for life. 

Bududreen, the Malay mate was equally harassed by conflicting desires, though of a different nature, or he had his eye upon the main chancethat was represented to him by the great chest, and also upon thelesser reward which awaited him upon delivery of the girl to Rajah MudaSaffir. The fact that he could find no safe means for accomplishingboth these ends simultaneously was all that had protected either fromhis machinations. 

The presence of the uncanny creatures of the court of mystery hadbecome known to the Malay and he used this knowledge as an argument tofoment discord and mutiny in the ignorant and superstitious crew underhis command. By boring a hole in the partition wall separating theircampong from the inner one he had disclosed to the horrified view ofhis men the fearsome brutes harbored so close to them. The mate, ofcourse, had no suspicion of the true origin of these monsters, but hisknowledge of the fact that they had not been upon the island when theIthaca arrived and that it would have been impossible for them to havelanded and reached the camp without having been seen by himself or somemember of his company, was sufficient evidence to warrant him inattributing their presence to some supernatural and malignant power. 

This explanation the crew embraced willingly, and with it Bududreen'ssuggestion that Professor Maxon had power to transform them all intosimilar atrocities. The ball once started gained size and momentum asit progressed. The professor's ofttimes strange expression wasattributed to an evil eye, and every ailment suffered by any member ofthe crew was blamed upon their employer's Satanic influence. There wasbut one escape from the horrors of such a curse--the death of itsauthor; and when Bududreen discovered that they had reached this point, and were even discussing the method of procedure, he added all that wasneeded to the dangerously smouldering embers of bloody mutiny byexplaining that should anything happen to the white men he would becomesole owner of their belongings, including the heavy chest, and that thereward of each member of the crew would be generous. 

Von Horn was really the only stumbling block in Bududreen's path. Withthe natural cowardice of the Malay he feared this masterful Americanwho never moved without a brace of guns slung about his hips; and itwas at just this psychological moment that the doctor played into thehands of his subordinate, much to the latter's inward elation. 

Von Horn had finally despaired of winning Virginia by peaceful court, and had about decided to resort to force when he was precipitatelyconfirmed in his decision by a conversation with the girl's father. 

He and the professor were talking in the workshop of the remarkableprogress of Number Thirteen toward a complete mastery of English andthe ways and manners of society, in which von Horn had been assistinghis employer to train the young giant. The breach between the latterand von Horn had been patched over by Professor Maxon's explanations toNumber Thirteen as soon as the young man was able to comprehend--in themeantime it had been necessary to keep von Horn out of the workshopexcept when the giant was confined in his own room off the larger one. 

Von Horn had been particularly anxious, for the furtherance of certainplans he had in mind, to effect a reconciliation with Number Thirteen, to reach a basis of friendship with the young man, and had left nostone unturned to accomplish this result. To this end he had spentconsiderable time with Number Thirteen, coaching him in English and inthe ethics of human association. 

"He is progressing splendidly, Doctor, " Professor Maxon had said. "Itwill be but a matter of a day or so when I can introduce him toVirginia, but we must be careful that she has no inkling of his originuntil mutual affection has gained a sure foothold between them. "

"And if that should not occur?" questioned von Horn. 

"I should prefer that they mated voluntarily, " replied the professor, the strange gleam leaping to his eyes at the suggestion of possibleantagonism to his cherished plan, "but if not, then they shall becompelled by the force of my authority--they both belong to me, bodyand soul. "

"You will wait for the final consummation of your desires until youreturn with them to civilization, I presume, " said von Horn. 

"And why?" returned the professor. "I can wed them here myself--itwould be the surer way--yes, that is what I shall do. "

It was this determination on the part of Professor Maxon that decidedvon Horn to act at once. Further, it lent a reasonable justificationfor his purposed act. 

Shortly after their talk the older man left the workshop, and von Horntook the opportunity to inaugurate the second move of his campaign. Number Thirteen was sitting near a window which let upon the innercourt, busy with the rudiments of written English. Von Horn approachedhim. 

"You are getting along nicely, Jack, " he said kindly, looking over theother's shoulder and using the name which had been adopted at hissuggestion to lend a more human tone to their relations with thenameless man. 

"Yes, " replied the other, looking up with a smile. "Professor Maxonsays that in another day or two I may come and live in his own house, and again meet his beautiful daughter. It seems almost too good to betrue that I shall actually live under the same roof with her and seeher every day--sit at the same table with her--and walk with her amongthe beautiful trees and flowers that witnessed our first meeting. Iwonder if she will remember me. I wonder if she will be as glad to seeme again as I shall be to see her. "

"Jack, " said von Horn, sadly, "I am afraid there is a terrible anddisappointing awakening for you. It grieves me that it should be so, but it seems only fair to tell you, what Professor Maxon either doesnot know or has forgotten, that his daughter will not look withpleasure upon you when she learns your origin. 

"You are not as other men. You are but the accident of a laboratoryexperiment. You have no soul, and the soul is all that raises manabove the beasts. Jack, poor boy, you are not a human being--you arenot even a beast. The world, and Miss Maxon is of the world, will lookupon you as a terrible creature to be shunned--a horrible monstrosityfar lower in the scale of creation than the lowest order of brutes. 

"Look, " and the man pointed through the window toward the group ofhideous things that wandered aimlessly about the court of mystery. "You are of the same breed as those, you differ from them only in thesymmetry of your face and features, and the superior development ofyour brain. There is no place in the world for them, nor for you. 

"I am sorry that it is so. I am sorry that I should have to be the oneto tell you; but it is better that you know it now from a friend thanthat you meet the bitter truth when you least expected it, and possiblyfrom the lips of one like Miss Maxon for whom you might have formed ahopeless affection. "

As von Horn spoke the expression on the young man's face became moreand more hopeless, and when he had ceased he dropped his head into hisopen palms, sitting quiet and motionless as a carven statue. No sobshook his great frame, there was no outward indication of the terriblegrief that racked him inwardly--only in the pose was utter dejectionand hopelessness. 

The older man could not repress a cold smile--it had had more effectthan he had hoped. 

"Don't take it too hard, my boy, " he continued. "The world is wide. It would be easy to find a thousand places where your antecedents wouldbe neither known nor questioned. You might be very happy elsewhere andthere a hundred thousand girls as beautiful and sweet as VirginiaMaxon--remember that you have never seen another, so you can scarcelyjudge. "

"Why did he ever bring me into the world?" exclaimed the young mansuddenly. "It was wicked--wicked--terribly cruel and wicked. "

"I agree with you, " said von Horn quickly, seeing another possibilitythat would make his future plans immeasurably easier. "It was wicked, and it is still more wicked to continue the work and bring still otherunfortunate creatures into the world to be the butt and plaything ofcruel fate. "

"He intends to do that?" asked the youth. 

"Unless he is stopped, " replied von Horn. 

"He must be stopped, " cried the other. "Even if it were necessary tokill him. "

Von Horn was quite satisfied with the turn events had taken. Heshrugged his shoulders and turned on his heel toward the outer campong. 

"If he had wronged me as he has you, and those others, " with a gesturetoward the court of mystery, "I should not be long in reaching adecision. " And with that he passed out, leaving the door unlatched. 

Von Horn went straight to the south campong and sought out Bududreen. Motioning the Malay to follow him they walked across the clearing andentered the jungle out of sight and hearing of the camp. Sing, hangingclothes in the north end of the clearing saw them depart, and wondereda little. 

"Bududreen, " said von Horn, when the two had reached a safe distancefrom the enclosures, "there is no need of mincing matters--somethingmust be done at once. I do not know how much you know of the work thatProfessor Maxon has been engaged in since we reached this island; butit has been hellish enough and it must go no further. You have seenthe creatures in the campong next to yours?"

"I have seen, " replied Bududreen, with a shudder. 

"Professor Maxon intends to wed one of these to his daughter, " von Horncontinued. "She loves me and we wish to escape--can I rely on you andyour men to aid us? There is a chest in the workshop which we musttake along too, and I can assure you that you all will be well rewardedfor your work. We intend merely to leave Professor Maxon here with thecreatures he has created. "

Bududreen could scarce repress a smile--it was indeed too splendid tobe true. 

"It will be perilous work, Captain, " he answered. "We should all behanged were we caught. "

"There will be no danger of that, Bududreen, for there will be no oneto divulge our secret. "

"There will be the Professor Maxon, " urged the Malay. "Some day hewill escape from the island, and then we shall all hang. "

"He will never escape, " replied von Horn, "his own creatures will seeto that. They are already commencing to realize the horrible crime hehas committed against them, and when once they are fully aroused therewill be no safety for any of us. If you wish to leave the island atall it will be best for you to accept my proposal and leave while yourhead yet remains upon your shoulders. Were we to suggest to theprofessor that he leave now he would not only refuse but he would takesteps to make it impossible for any of us to leave, even to sinking theIthaca. The man is mad--quite mad--Bududreen, and we cannot longerjeopardize our own throats merely to humor his crazy and criminalwhims. "

The Malay was thinking fast, and could von Horn have guessed whatthoughts raced through the tortuous channels of that semi-barbarousbrain he would have wished himself safely housed in the American prisonwhere he belonged. 

"When do you wish to sail?" asked the Malay. 

"Tonight, " replied von Horn, and together they matured their plans. Anhour later the second mate with six men disappeared into the jungletoward the harbor. They, with the three on watch, were to get thevessel in readiness for immediate departure. 

After the evening meal von Horn sat on the verandah with Virginia Maxonuntil the Professor came from the workshop to retire for the night. Ashe passed them he stopped for a word with von Horn, taking him asideout of the girl's hearing. 

"Have you noticed anything peculiar in the actions of Thirteen?" askedthe older man. "He was sullen and morose this evening, and at timesthere was a strange, wild light in his eyes as he looked at me. Can itbe possible that, after all, his brain is defective? It would beterrible. My work would have gone for naught, for I can see no way inwhich I can improve upon him. "

"I will go and have a talk with him later, " said von Horn, "so if youhear us moving about in the workshop, or even out here in the campongthink nothing of it. I may take him for a long walk. It is possiblethat the hard study and close confinement to that little building havebeen too severe upon his brain and nerves. A long walk each eveningmay bring him around all right. "

"Splendid--splendid, " replied the professor. "You may be quite right. Do it by all means, my dear doctor, " and there was a touch of the old, friendly, sane tone which had been so long missing, that almost causedvon Horn to feel a trace of compunction for the hideous act ofdisloyalty that he was on the verge of perpetrating. 

As Professor Maxon entered the house von Horn returned to Virginia andsuggested that they take a short walk outside the campong beforeretiring. The girl readily acquiesced to the plan, and a moment laterfound them strolling through the clearing toward the southern end ofthe camp. In the dark shadows of the gateway leading to the men'senclosure a figure crouched. The girl did not see it, but as they cameopposite it von Horn coughed twice, and then the two passed on towardthe edge of the jungle. 

6

TO KILL!

The Rajah Muda Saffir, tiring of the excuses and delays which Bududreeninterposed to postpone the fulfillment of his agreement with theformer, whereby he was to deliver into the hands of the rajah a certainbeautiful maiden, decided at last to act upon his own initiative. Thetruth of the matter was that he had come to suspect the motives of thefirst mate of the Ithaca, and not knowing of the great chest attributedthem to Bududreen's desire to possess the girl for himself. 

So it was that as the second mate of the Ithaca with his six men wadeddown the bed of the little stream toward the harbor and the ship, afleet of ten war prahus manned by over five hundred fierce Dyaks andcommanded by Muda Saffir himself, pulled cautiously into the littlecove upon the opposite side of the island, and landed but a quarter ofa mile from camp. 

At the same moment von Horn was leading Virginia Maxon farther andfarther from the north campong where resistance, if there was to beany, would be most likely to occur. At his superior's cough Bududreenhad signalled silently to the men within the enclosure, and a momentlater six savage lascars crept stealthily to his side. 

The moment that von Horn and the girl were entirely concealed by thedarkness, the seven moved cautiously along the shadow of the palisadetoward the north campong. There was murder in the cowardly hearts ofseveral of them, and stupidity and lust in the hearts of all. Therewas no single one who would not betray his best friend for a handful ofsilver, nor any but was inwardly hoping and scheming to the end that hemight alone possess both the chest and the girl. 

It was such a pack of scoundrels that Bududreen led toward the northcampong to bear away the treasure. In the breast of the leader was thehope that he had planted enough of superstitious terror in their heartsto make the sight of the supposed author of their imagined wrongssufficient provocation for his murder; for Bududreen was too sly togive the order for the killing of a white man--the arm of the whiteman's law was too long--but he felt that he would rest easier were heto leave the island with the knowledge that only a dead man remainedbehind with the secret of his perfidy. 

While these events were transpiring Number Thirteen was pacingrestlessly back and forth the length of the workshop. But a short timebefore he had had his author--the author of his misery--within the fourwalls of his prison, and yet he had not wreaked the vengeance that wasin his heart. Twice he had been on the point of springing upon theman, but both times the other's eyes had met his and something which hewas not able to comprehend had stayed him. Now that the other had goneand he was alone contemplation of the hideous wrong that had been doneloosed again the flood gates of his pent rage. 

The thought that he had been made by this man--made in the semblance ofa human being, yet denied by the manner of his creation a place amongthe lowest of Nature's creatures--filled him with fury, but it was notthis thought that drove him to the verge of madness. It was theknowledge, suggested by von Horn, that Virginia Maxon would look uponhim in horror, as a grotesque and loathsome monstrosity. 

He had no standard and no experience whereby he might classify hissentiments toward this wonderful creature. All he knew was that hislife would be complete could he be near her always--see her and speakwith her daily. He had thought of her almost constantly since thoseshort, delicious moments that he had held her in his arms. Again andagain he experienced in retrospection the exquisite thrill that had runthrough every fiber of his being at the sight of her averted eyes andflushed face. And the more he let his mind dwell upon the wonderfulhappiness that was denied him because of his origin, the greater becamehis wrath against his creator. 

It was now quite dark without. The door leading to Professor Maxon'scampong, left unlatched earlier in the evening by von Horn for sinistermotives of his own, was still unbarred through a fatal coincidence offorgetfulness on the part of the professor. 

Number Thirteen approached this door. He laid his hand upon the knob. A moment later he was moving noiselessly across the campong toward thehouse in which Professor Maxon lay peacefully sleeping; while at thesouth gate Bududreen and his six cutthroats crept cautiously within andslunk in the dense shadows of the palisade toward the workshop wherelay the heavy chest of their desire. At the same instant Muda Saffirwith fifty of his head-hunting Dyaks emerged from the jungle east ofthe camp, bent on discovering the whereabouts of the girl the Malaysought and bearing her away to his savage court far within the junglefastness of his Bornean principality. 

Number Thirteen reached the verandah of the house and peered throughthe window into the living room, where an oil lamp, turned low, dimlylighted the interior, which he saw was unoccupied. Going to the doorhe pushed it open and entered the apartment. All was still within. Helistened intently for some slight sound which might lead him to thevictim he sought, or warn him from the apartment of the girl or that ofvon Horn--his business was with Professor Maxon. He did not wish todisturb the others whom he believed to be sleeping somewhere within thestructure--a low, rambling bungalow of eight rooms. 

Cautiously he approached one of the four doors which opened from theliving room. Gently he turned the knob and pushed the door ajar. Theinterior of the apartment beyond was in inky darkness, but NumberThirteen's greatest fear was that he might have stumbled upon thesleeping room of Virginia Maxon, and that if she were to discover himthere, not only would she be frightened, but her cries would alarm theother inmates of the dwelling. 

The thought of the horror that his presence would arouse within her, the knowledge that she would look upon him as a terrifying monstrosity, added new fuel to the fires of hate that raged in his bosom against theman who had created him. With clenched fists, and tight set jaws thegreat, soulless giant moved across the dark chamber with the stealthynoiselessness of a tiger. Feeling before him with hands and feet hemade the circuit of the room before he reached the bed. 

Scarce breathing he leaned over and groped across the covers with hisfingers in search of his prey--the bed was empty. With the discoverycame a sudden nervous reaction that sent him into a cold sweat. Weakly, he seated himself upon the edge of the bed. Had his fingersfound the throat of Professor Maxon beneath the coverlet they wouldnever have released their hold until life had forever left the body ofthe scientist, but now that the highest tide of the young man's hatredhad come and gone he found himself for the first time assailed bydoubts. 

Suddenly he recalled the fact that the man whose life he sought was thefather of the beautiful creature he adored. Perhaps she loved him andwould be unhappy were he taken away from her. Number Thirteen did notknow, of course, but the idea obtruded itself, and had sufficientweight to cause him to remain seated upon the edge of the bedmeditating upon the act he contemplated. He had by no means given upthe idea of killing Professor Maxon, but now there were doubts andobstacles which had not been manifest before. 

His standards of right and wrong were but half formed, from the briefattempts of Professor Maxon and von Horn to inculcate proper moralperceptions in a mind entirely devoid of hereditary inclinations towardeither good or bad, but he realized one thing most perfectly--that tobe a soulless thing was to be damned in the estimation of VirginiaMaxon, and it now occurred to him that to kill her father would be theact of a soulless being. It was this thought more than another thatcaused him to pause in the pursuit of his revenge, since he knew thatthe act he contemplated would brand him the very thing he was, yetwished not to be. 

At length, however, he slowly comprehended that no act of his wouldchange the hideous fact of his origin; that nothing would make himacceptable in her eyes, and with a shake of his head he arose andstepped toward the living room to continue his search for the professor. 

In the workshop Bududreen and his men had easily located the chest. Dragging it into the north campong the Malay was about to congratulatehimself upon the ease with which the theft had been accomplished whenone of his fellows declared his intention of going to the house for thepurpose of dispatching Professor Maxon, lest the influence of his evileye should overtake them with some terrible curse when the loss of thechest should be discovered. 

While this met fully with Bududreen's plans he urged the man againstany such act that he might have witnesses to prove that he not only hadno hand in the crime, but had exerted his authority to prevent it; butwhen two of the men separated themselves from the party and crepttoward the bungalow no force was interposed to stop them. 

The moon had risen now, so that from the dark shadows of the palisadeMuda Saffir and his savages watched the party with Bududreen squattingabout the heavy chest, and saw the two who crept toward the house. ToMuda Saffir's evil mind there was but one explanation. Bududreen haddiscovered a rich treasure, and having stolen that had dispatched twoof his men to bring him the girl also. 

Rajah Muda Saffir was furious. In subdued whispers he sent a halfdozen of his Dyaks back beneath the shadow of the palisade to theopposite side of the bungalow where they were to enter the building, killing all within except the girl, whom they were to carry straight tothe beach and the war prahus. 

Then with the balance of his horde he crept alone in the darkness untilopposite Bududreen and the watchers about the chest. Just as the twowho crept toward the bungalow reached it, Muda Saffir gave the word forthe attack upon the Malays and lascars who guarded the treasure. Withsavage yells they dashed upon the unsuspecting men. Parangs and spearsglistened in the moonlight. There was a brief and bloody encounter, for the cowardly Bududreen and his equally cowardly crew had had noalternative but to fight, so suddenly had the foe fallen upon them. 

In a moment the savage Borneo head hunters had added five grislytrophies to their record. Bududreen and another were racing madlytoward the jungle beyond the campong. 

As Number Thirteen arose to continue his search for Professor Maxon hisquick ear caught the shuffling of bare feet upon the verandah. As hepaused to listen there broke suddenly upon the still night the hideouswar cries of the Dyaks, and the screams and shrieks of their frightenedvictims in the campong without. Almost simultaneously Professor Maxonand Sing rushed into the living room to ascertain the cause of the wildalarm, while at the same instant Bududreen's assassins sprang throughthe door with upraised krisses, to be almost immediately followed byMuda Saffir's six Dyaks brandishing their long spears and wickedparangs. 

In an instant the little room was filled with howling, fighting men. The Dyaks, whose orders as well as inclinations incited them to ageneral massacre, fell first upon Bududreen's lascars who, cornered inthe small room, fought like demons for their lives, so that when theDyaks had overcome them two of their own number lay dead beside thedead bodies of Bududreen's henchmen. 

Sing and Professor Maxon stood in the doorway to the professor's roomgazing upon the scene of carnage in surprise and consternation. Thescientist was unarmed, but Sing held a long, wicked looking Colt inreadiness for any contingency. It was evident the celestial was nostranger to the use of his deadly weapon, nor to the moments of extremeand sudden peril which demanded its use, for he seemed no moreperturbed than had he been but hanging out his weekly wash. 

As Number Thirteen watched the two men from the dark shadows of theroom in which he stood, he saw that both were calm--the Chinaman withthe calmness of perfect courage, the other through lack of fullunderstanding of the grave danger which menaced him. In the eyes ofthe latter shone a strange gleam--it was the wild light of insanitythat the sudden nervous shock of the attack had brought to a prematureculmination. 

Now the four remaining Dyaks were advancing upon the two men. Singlevelled his revolver and fired at the foremost, and at the sameinstant Professor Maxon, with a shrill, maniacal scream, launchedhimself full upon a second. Number Thirteen saw the blood spurt from asuperficial wound in the shoulder of the fellow who received Sing'sbullet, but except for eliciting a howl of rage the missile had noimmediate effect. Then Sing pulled the trigger again and again, butthe cylinder would not revolve and the hammer fell futilely upon theempty cartridge. As two of the head hunters closed upon him the braveChinaman clubbed his weapon and went down beneath them beating madly atthe brown skulls. 

The man with whom Professor Maxon had grappled had no opportunity touse his weapons for the crazed man held him close with one encirclingarm while he tore and struck at him with his free hand. The fourthDyak danced around the two with raised parang watching for an openingthat he might deliver a silencing blow upon the white man's skull. 

The great odds against the two men--their bravery in the face of death, their grave danger--and last and greatest, the fact that one was thefather of the beautiful creature he worshipped, wrought a sudden changein Number Thirteen. In an instant he forgot that he had come here tokill the white-haired man, and with a bound stood in the center of theroom--an unarmed giant towering above the battling four. 

The parang of the Dyak who sought Professor Maxon's life was alreadyfalling as a mighty hand grasped the wrist of the head hunter; but eventhen it was too late to more than lessen the weight of the blow, andthe sharp edge of the blade bit deep into the forehead of the whiteman. As he sank to his knees his other antagonist freed an arm fromthe embrace which had pinioned it to his side, but before he could dealthe professor a blow with the short knife that up to now he had beenunable to use, Number Thirteen had hurled his man across the room andwas upon him who menaced the scientist. 

Tearing him loose from his prey, he raised him far above his head andthrew him heavily against the opposite wall, then he turned hisattention toward Sing's assailants. All that had so far saved theChinaman from death was the fact that the two savages were each soanxious to secure his head for the verandah rafters of his ownparticular long-house that they interfered with one another in theconsummation of their common desire. 

Although battling for his life, Sing had not failed to note the adventof the strange young giant, nor the part he had played in succoring theprofessor, so that it was with a feeling of relief that he saw thenewcomer turn his attention toward those who were rapidly reducing thecitadel of his own existence. 

The two Dyaks who sought the trophy which nature had set upon theChinaman's shoulders were so busily engaged with their victim that theyknew nothing of the presence of Number Thirteen until a mighty handseized each by the neck and they were raised bodily from the floor, shaken viciously for an instant, and then hurled to the opposite end ofthe room upon the bodies of the two who had preceded them. 

As Sing came to his feet he found Professor Maxon lying in a pool ofhis own blood, a great gash in his forehead. He saw the white giantstanding silently looking down upon the old man. Across the room thefour stunned Dyaks were recovering consciousness. Slowly and fearfullythey regained their feet, and seeing that no attention was being paidthem, cast a parting, terrified look at the mighty creature who haddefeated them with his bare hands, and slunk quickly out into thedarkness of the campong. 

When they caught up with Rajah Muda Saffir near the beach, theynarrated a fearful tale of fifty terrible white men with whom they hadbattled valiantly, killing many, before they had been compelled toretreat in the face of terrific odds. They swore that even then theyhad only returned because the girl was not in the house--otherwise theyshould have brought her to their beloved master as he had directed. 

Now Muda Saffir believed nothing that they said, but he was wellpleased with the great treasure which had so unexpectedly fallen intohis hands, and he decided to make quite sure of that by transporting itto his own land--later he could return for the girl. So the ten warprahus of the Malay pulled quietly out of the little cove upon the eastside of the island, and bending their way toward the south circled itssouthern extremity and bore away for Borneo. 

In the bungalow within the north campong Sing and Number Thirteen hadlifted Professor Maxon to his bed, and the Chinaman was engaged inbathing and bandaging the wound that had left the older manunconscious. The white giant stood beside him watching his every move. He was trying to understand why sometimes men killed one another andagain defended and nursed. He was curious as to the cause of his ownsudden change in sentiment toward Professor Maxon. At last he gave theproblem up as beyond his powers of solution, and at Sing's command setabout the task of helping to nurse the man whom he considered theauthor of his unhappiness and whom a few short minutes before he hadcome to kill. 

As the two worked over the stricken man their ears were suddenlyassailed by a wild commotion from the direction of the workshop. Therewere sounds of battering upon wood, loud growls and roars, mingled withweird shrieks and screams and the strange, uncanny gibbering ofbrainless things. 

Sing looked quickly up at his companion. 

"Whallee mallee?" he asked. 

The giant did not answer. An expression of pain crossed his features, and he shuddered--but not from fear. 

7

THE BULL WHIP

As von Horn and Virginia Maxon walked slowly beneath the dense shadowsof the jungle he again renewed his suit. It would please him more tohave the girl accompany him voluntarily than to be compelled to takeher by force, but take her he would one way or another, and that, thisvery night, for all the plans were made and already under way. 

"I cannot do it, Doctor von Horn, " she had said. "No matter how muchdanger I may be in here I cannot desert my father on this lonely islewith only savage lascars and the terrible monsters of his own creationsurrounding him. Why, it would be little short of murder for us to dosuch a thing. I cannot see how you, his most trusted lieutenant, caneven give an instant's consideration to the idea. 

"And now that you insist that his mind is sorely affected, it is onlyan added reason why I must remain with him to protect him so far as Iam able, from himself and his enemies. "

Von Horn did not relish the insinuation in the accent which the girlput upon the last word. 

"It is because I love you so, Virginia, " he hastened to urge inextenuation of his suggested disloyalty. "I cannot see you sacrificedto his horrible mania. You do not realize the imminence of your peril. Tomorrow Number Thirteen was to have come to live beneath the same roofwith you. You recall Number One whom the stranger killed as the thingwas bearing you away through the jungle? Can you imagine sleeping inthe same house with such a soulless thing? Eating your three meals aday at the same table with it? And knowing all the time that in a fewshort weeks at the most you were destined to be given to the thing asits mate? Virginia, you must be mad to consider for a moment remainingwithin reach of such a terrible peril. 

"Come to Singapore with me--it will take but a few days--and then wecan return with some good medical man and a couple of Europeans, andtake your father away from the terrible creatures he has created. Youwill be mine then and safe from the awful fate that now lies back therein the camp awaiting you. We can take your father upon a long tripwhere rest and quiet can have an opportunity to restore his enfeebledmentality. Come, Virginia! Come with me now. We can go directly tothe Ithaca and safety. Say that you will come. "

The girl shook her head. 

"I do not love you, I am afraid, Doctor von Horn, or I should certainlybe moved by your appeal. If you wish to bring help for my father Ishall never cease to thank you if you will go to Singapore and fetchit, but it is not necessary that I go. My place is here, near him. "

In the darkness the girl did not see the change that came over theman's face, but his next words revealed his altered attitude withsufficient exactitude to thoroughly arouse her fears. 

"Virginia, " he said, "I love you, and I intend to have you. Nothing onearth can prevent me. When you know me better you will return my love, but now I must risk offending you that I may save you for myself fromthe monstrous connection which your father contemplates for you. Ifyou will not come away from the island with me voluntarily I considerit my duty to take you away by force. "

"You would never do that, Doctor von Horn!" she exclaimed. 

Von Horn had gone too far. He cursed himself inwardly for a fool. Whythe devil didn't that villain, Bududreen, come! He should have beenalong to act his part half an hour before. 

"No, Virginia, " said the man, softly, after a moment's silence, "Icould not do that; though my judgment tells me that I should do it. You shall remain here if you insist and I will be with you to serve andprotect both you and your father. "

The words were fair, but the girl could not forget the ugly tone thathad tinged his preceding statement. She felt that she would be gladwhen she found herself safely within the bungalow once more. 

"Come, " she said, "it is late. Let us return to camp. "

Von Horn was about to reply when the war cries of Muda Saffir's Dyaksas they rushed out upon Bududreen and his companions came to themdistinctly through the tropic night. 

"What was that?" cried the girl in an alarmed tone. 

"God knows, " replied von Horn. "Can it be that our men have mutinied?"

He thought the six with Bududreen were carrying out their part in amost realistic manner, and a grim smile tinged his hard face. 

Virginia Maxon turned resolutely toward the camp. 

"I must go back there to my father, " she said, "and so must you. Ourplace is there--God give that we be not too late, " and before von Horncould stop her she turned and ran through the darkness of the jungle inthe direction of the camp. 

Von Horn dashed after her, but so black was the night beneath theoverhanging trees, festooned with their dark myriad creepers, that thegirl was out of sight in an instant, and upon the soft carpet of therotting vegetation her light footfalls gave no sound. 

The doctor made straight for the camp, but Virginia, unused to jungletrailing even by day, veered sharply to the left. The sounds which hadguided her at first soon died out, the brush became thicker, andpresently she realized that she had no conception of the direction ofthe camp. Coming to a spot where the trees were less dense, and alittle moonlight filtered to the ground, she paused to rest and attemptto regain her bearings. 

As she stood listening for some sound which might indicate thewhereabouts of the camp, she detected the noise of a body approachingthrough the underbrush. Whether man or beast she could but conjectureand so she stood with every nerve taut waiting the thing thatfloundered heavily toward her. She hoped it might be von Horn, but thehideous war cries which had apprised her of enemies at the encampmentmade her fear that fate might be directing the footsteps of one ofthese upon her. 

Nearer and nearer came the sound, and the girl stood poised ready tofly when the dark face of Bududreen suddenly emerged into the moonlightbeside her. With an hysterical cry of relief the girl greeted him. 

"Oh, Bududreen, " she exclaimed, "what has happened at camp? Where ismy father? Is he safe? Tell me. "

The Malay could scarce believe the good fortune which had befallen himso quickly following the sore affliction of losing the treasure. Hisevil mind worked quickly, so that he grasped the full possibilitiesthat were his before the girl had finished her questioning. 

"The camp was attacked by Dyaks, Miss Maxon, " he replied. "Many of ourmen were killed, but your father escaped and has gone to the ship. Ihave been searching for you and Doctor von Horn. Where is he?"

"He was with me but a moment ago. When we heard the cries at camp Ihastened on to discover what calamity had befallen us--we becameseparated. "

"He will be safe, " said Bududreen, "for two of my men are waiting toguide you and the doctor to the ship in case you returned to campbefore I found you. Come, we will hasten on to the harbor. Yourfather will be worried if we are long delayed, and he is anxious tomake sail and escape before the Dyaks discover the location of theIthaca. "

The man's story seemed plausible enough to Virginia, although she couldnot repress a little pang of regret that her father had been willing togo on to the harbor before he knew her fate. However, she explainedthat by her belief that his mind was unbalanced through constantapplication to his weird obsession. 

Without demur, then, she turned and accompanied the rascally Malaytoward the harbor. At the bank of the little stream which led down tothe Ithaca's berth the man lifted her to his shoulder and thus bore herthe balance of the way to the beach. Here two of his men were awaitinghim in one of the ship's boats, and without words they embarked andpulled for the vessel. 

Once on board Virginia started immediately for her father's cabin. Asshe crossed the deck she noticed that the ship was ready to sail, andeven as she descended the companionway she heard the rattle of theanchor chain about the capstan. She wondered if von Horn could be onboard too. It seemed remarkable that all should have reached theIthaca so quickly, and equally strange that none of her own people wereon deck to welcome her, or to command the vessel. 

To her chagrin she found her father's cabin empty, and a moment'shurried investigation disclosed the fact that von Horn's was unoccupiedas well. Now her doubts turned quickly to fears, and with a littlegasp of dismay at the grim possibilities which surged through herimagination she ran quickly to the companionway, but above her she sawthat the hatch was down, and when she reached the top that it wasfastened. Futilely she beat upon the heavy planks with her delicatehands, calling aloud to Bududreen to release her, but there was noreply, and with the realization of the hopelessness of her position shedropped back to the deck, and returned to her stateroom. Here shelocked and barricaded the door as best she could, and throwing herselfupon the berth awaited in dry-eyed terror the next blow that fate heldin store for her. 

Shortly after von Horn became separated from Virginia he collided withthe fleeing lascar who had escaped the parangs of Muda Saffir's headhunters at the same time as had Bududreen. So terror stricken was thefellow that he had thrown away his weapons in the panic of flight, which was all that saved von Horn from death at the hands of the fearcrazed man. To him, in the extremity of his fright, every man was anenemy, and the doctor had a tough scuffle with him before he couldimpress upon the fellow that he was a friend. 

From him von Horn obtained an incoherent account of the attack, together with the statement that he was the only person in camp thatescaped, all the others having been cut down by the savage horde thatoverwhelmed them. It was with difficulty that von Horn persuaded theman to return with him to the campong, but finally, he consented to doso when the doctor with drawn revolver, presented death as the onlyalternative. 

Together they cautiously crept back toward the palisade, not knowing atwhat moment they might come upon the savage enemy that had wrought suchhavoc among their forces, for von Horn believed the lascar's story thatall had perished. His only motive for returning lay in his desire toprevent Virginia Maxon falling into the hands of the Dyaks, or, failingthat, rescuing her from their clutches. 

Whatever faults and vices were Carl von Horn's cowardice was not one ofthem, and it was without an instant's hesitation that he had elected toreturn to succor the girl he believed to have returned to camp, although he entertained no scruples regarding the further pursuit ofhis dishonorable intentions toward her, should he succeed in saving herfrom her other enemies. 

As the two approached the campong quiet seemed to have again fallenabout the scene of the recent alarm. Muda Saffir had passed on towardthe cove with the heavy chest, and the scrimmage in the bungalow wasover. But von Horn did not abate his watchfulness as he stole silentlywithin the precincts of the north campong, and, hugging the densershadows of the palisade, crept toward the house. 

The dim light in the living room drew him to one of the windows whichoverlooked the verandah. A glance within showed him Sing and NumberThirteen bending over the body of Professor Maxon. He noted thehandsome face and perfect figure of the young giant. He saw the bodiesof the dead lascars and Dyaks. Then he saw Sing and the young man liftProfessor Maxon tenderly in their arms and bear him to his own room. 

A sudden wave of jealous rage swept through the man's vicious brain. He saw that the soulless thing within was endowed with a kindlier andmore noble nature than he himself possessed. He had planted the seedof hatred and revenge within his untutored heart without avail, for heread in the dead bodies of Bududreen's men and the two Dyaks the storyof Number Thirteen's defense of the man von Horn had hoped he wouldkill. 

Von Horn was quite sure now that Virginia Maxon was not within thecampong. Either she had become confused and lost in the jungle aftershe left him, or had fallen into the hands of the wild horde that hadattacked the camp. Convinced of this, there was no obstacle to thwartthe sudden plan which entered his malign brain. With a single act hecould rid himself of the man whom he had come to look upon as a rival, whose physical beauty aroused his envy and jealousy; he could remove, in the person of Professor Maxon, the parental obstacle which mighteither prevent his obtaining the girl, or make serious trouble for himin case he took her by force, and at the same time he could transfer tothe girl's possession the fortune which was now her father's--and hecould accomplish it all without tainting his own hands with the bloodof his victims. 

As the full possibilities of his devilish scheme unfolded before hismind's eye a grim smile curled his straight, thin lips at the thoughtof the fate which it entailed for the creator of the hideous monstersof the court of mystery. 

As he turned away from the bungalow his eye fell upon the tremblinglascar who had accompanied him to the edge of the verandah. He must berid of the fellow in some way--no eye must see him perpetrate the deedhe had in mind. A solution quickly occurred to him. 

"Hasten to the harbor, " he said to the man in a low voice, "and tellthose on board the ship that I shall join them presently. Have all inreadiness to sail. I wish to fetch some of my belongings--all withinthe bungalow are dead. "

No command could have better suited the sailor. Without a word heturned and fled toward the jungle. Von Horn walked quickly to theworkshop. The door hung open. Through the dark interior he strodestraight to the opposite door which let upon the court of mystery. Ona nail driven into the door frame hung a heavy bull whip. The doctortook it down as he raised the strong bar which held the door. Then hestepped through into the moonlit inner campong--the bull whip in hisright hand, a revolver in his left. 

A half dozen misshapen monsters roved restlessly about the hard packedearth of the pen. The noise of the battle in the adjoining enclosurehad aroused them from slumber and awakened in their half formed brainsvague questionings and fears. At sight of von Horn several of themrushed for him with menacing growls, but a swift crack of the bull whipbrought them to a sudden realization of the identity of the intruder, so that they slunk away, muttering and whining in rage. 

Von Horn passed quickly to the low shed in which the remainder of theeleven were sleeping. With vicious cuts from the stinging lash he layabout him upon the sleeping things. Roaring and shrieking in pain andanger the creatures stumbled to their feet and lumbered awkwardly intothe open. Two of them turned upon their tormentor, but the burningweapon on their ill protected flesh sent them staggering back out ofreach, and in another moment all were huddled in the center of thecampong. 

As cattle are driven, von Horn drove the miserable creatures toward thedoor of the workshop. At the threshold of the dark interior thefrightened things halted fearfully, and then as von Horn urged them onfrom behind with his cruel whip they milled as cattle at the entranceto a strange corral. 

Again and again he urged them for the door, but each time they turnedaway, and to escape the whip beat and tore at the wall of the palisadein a vain effort to batter it from their pathway. Their roars andshrieks were almost deafening as von Horn, losing what little remainedof his scant self-control, dashed among them laying to right and leftwith the stern whip and the butt of his heavy revolver. 

Most of the monsters scattered and turned back into the center of theenclosure, but three of them were forced through the doorway into theworkshop, from the darkness of which they saw the patch of moonlightthrough the open door upon the opposite side. Toward this theyscurried as von Horn turned back into the court of mystery for theothers. 

Three more herculean efforts he made before he beat the last of thecreatures through the outer doorway of the workshop into the northcampong. 

Among the age old arts of the celestials none is more strangelyinspiring than that of medicine. Odd herbs and unspeakable things whenproperly compounded under a favorable aspect of the heavenly bodies arepotent to achieve miraculous cures, and few are the Chinamen who do notbrew some special concoction of their own devising for the lesser illswhich beset mankind. 

Sing was no exception in this respect. In various queerly shaped, bamboo covered jars he maintained a supply of tonics, balms andlotions. His first thought when he had made Professor Maxoncomfortable upon the couch was to fetch his pet nostrum, for thereburned strong within his yellow breast the same powerful yearning toexperiment that marks the greatest of the profession to whose mysterieshe aspired. 

Though the hideous noises from the inner campong rose threateningly, the imperturbable Sing left the bungalow and passed across the northcampong to the little lean-to that he had built for himself against thepalisade that separated the north enclosure from the court of mystery. 

Here he rummaged about in the dark until he had found the two phials hesought. The noise of the monsters upon the opposite side of thepalisade had now assumed the dimensions of pandemonium, and through itall the Chinaman heard the constant crack that was the sharp voice ofthe bull whip. 

He had completed his search and was about to return to the bungalowwhen the first of the monsters emerged into the north campong from theworkshop. At the door of his shack Sing Lee drew back to watch, for heknew that behind them some one was driving these horribly grotesquecreatures from their prison. 

One by one they came lumbering into the moonlight until Sing hadcounted eleven, and then, after them, came a white man, bull whip andrevolver in hand. It was von Horn. The equatorial moon shone fullupon him--there could be no mistake. The Chinaman saw him turn andlock the workshop door; saw him cross the campong to the outer gate;saw him pass through toward the jungle, closing the gate. 

Of a sudden there was a sad, low moaning through the surrounding trees;dense, black clouds obscured the radiant moon; and then with hideousthunder and vivid flashes of lightning the tempest broke in all itsfury of lashing wind and hurtling deluge. It was the first great stormof the breaking up of the monsoon, and under the cover of its darknessSing Lee scurried through the monster filled campong to the bungalow. Within he found the young man bathing Professor Maxon's head as he haddirected him to do. 

"All gettee out, " he said, jerking his thumb in the direction of thecourt of mystery. "Eleven devils. Plenty soon come bung'low. Whatdo?"

Number Thirteen had seen von Horn's extra bull whip hanging upon a pegin the living room. For answer he stepped into that room and took theweapon down. Then he returned to the professor's side. 

Outside the frightened monsters groped through the blinding rain anddarkness in search of shelter. Each vivid lightning flash, andbellowing of booming thunder brought responsive cries of rage andterror from their hideous lips. It was Number Twelve who first spiedthe dim light showing through the bungalow's living room window. Witha low guttural to his companions he started toward the building. Upthe low steps to the verandah they crept. Number Twelve peered throughthe window. He saw no one within, but there was warmth and dryness. 

His little knowledge and lesser reasoning faculties suggested nothought of a doorway. With a blow he shattered the glass of thewindow. Then he forced his body through the narrow aperture. At thesame moment a gust of wind sucking through the broken panes drew openthe door, and as Number Thirteen, warned by the sound of breakingglass, sprang into the living room he was confronted by the entirehorde of misshapen beings. 

His heart went out in pity toward the miserable crew, but he knew thathis life as well as those of the two men in the adjoining room dependedupon the force and skill with which he might handle the grave crisiswhich confronted them. He had seen and talked with most of thecreatures when from time to time they had been brought singly into theworkshop that their creator might mitigate the wrong he had done bytraining the poor minds with which he had endowed them to reasonintelligently. 

A few were hopeless imbeciles, unable to comprehend more than therudimentary requirements of filling their bellies when food was placedbefore them; yet even these were endowed with superhuman strength; andwhen aroused battled the more fiercely for the very reason of theirbrainlessness. Others, like Number Twelve, were of a higher order ofintelligence. They spoke English, and, after a fashion, reasoned in acrude sort of way. These were by far the most dangerous, for as thepower of comparison is the fundamental principle of reasoning, so theywere able to compare their lot with that of the few other men they hadseen, and with the help of von Horn to partially appreciate thehorrible wrong that had been done them. 

Von Horn, too, had let them know the identity of their creator, andthus implanted in their malformed brains the insidious poison ofrevenge. Envy and jealousy were there as well, and hatred of allbeings other than themselves. They envied the ease and comparativebeauty of the old professor and his assistant, and hated the latter forthe cruelty of the bull whip and the constant menace of the ever readyrevolver; and so as they were to them the representatives of the greathuman world of which they could never be a part, their envy andjealousy and hatred of these men embraced the entire race which theyrepresented. 

It was such that Number Thirteen faced as he emerged from theprofessor's apartment. 

"What do you want here?" he said, addressing Number Twelve, who stood alittle in advance of the others. 

"We have come for Maxon, " growled the creature. "We have been pennedup long enough. We want to be out here. We have come to kill Maxonand you and all who have made us what we are. "

"Why do you wish to kill me?" asked the young man. "I am one of you. I was made in the same way that you were made. "

Number Twelve opened his mismated eyes in astonishment. 

"Then you have already killed Maxon?" he asked. 

"No. He was wounded by a savage enemy. I have been helping to makehim well again. He has wronged me as much as he has you. If I do notwish to kill him, why should you? He did not mean to wrong us. Hethought that he was doing right. He is in trouble now and we shouldstay and protect him. "

"He lies, " suddenly shouted another of the horde. "He is not one ofus. Kill him! Kill him! Kill Maxon, too, and then we shall be asother men, for it is these men who keep us as we are. "

The fellow started forward toward Number Thirteen as he spoke, andmoved by the impulse of imitation the others came on with him. 

"I have spoken fairly to you, " said Number Thirteen in a low voice. "If you cannot understand fairness here is something you canunderstand. "

Raising the bull whip above his head the young giant leaped among theadvancing brutes and lay about him with mighty strokes that put toshame the comparatively feeble blows with which von Horn had been wontto deal out punishment to the poor, damned creatures of the court ofmystery. 

For a moment they stood valiantly before his attack, but after two hadgrappled with him and been hurled headlong to the floor they gave upand rushed incontinently out into the maelstrom of the screamingtempest. 

In the doorway behind him Sing Lee had been standing waiting theoutcome of the encounter and ready to lend a hand were it required. Asthe two men turned back into the professor's room they saw that thewounded man's eyes were open and upon them. At sight of NumberThirteen a questioning look came into his eyes. 

"What has happened?" he asked feebly of Sing. "Where is my daughter?Where is Dr. Von Horn? What is this creature doing out of his pen?"

The blow of the parang upon the professor's skull had shocked hisoverwrought mind back into the path of sanity. It had left him with aclear remembrance of the past, other than the recent fight in theliving room--that was a blank--and it had given him a clearerperspective of the plans he had been entertaining for so long relativeto this soulless creature. 

The first thought that sprang to his mind as he saw Number Thirteenbefore him was of his mad intention to give his daughter to such amonstrous thing. With the recollection came a sudden loathing andhatred of this and the other creatures of his unholy experimentations. 

Presently he realized that his questions had not been answered. 

"Sing!" he shouted. "Answer me. Where are Virginia and Dr. Von Horn?"

"All gonee. Me no know. All gonee. Maybeso allee dead. "

"My God!" groaned the stricken man; and then his eyes again fallingupon the silent giant in the doorway, "Out of my sight, " he shrieked. "Out of my sight! Never let me see you again--and to think that Iwould have given my only daughter to a soulless thing like you. Away!Before I go mad and slay you. "

Slowly the color mounted to the neck and face of the giant--thensuddenly it receded, leaving him as ashen as death. His great handgripped the stock of the bull whip. A single blow was all that wouldhave been needed to silence Professor Maxon forever. There was murderin the wounded heart. The man took a step forward into the room, andthen something drew his eyes to a spot upon the wall just aboveProfessor Maxon's shoulder--it was a photograph of Virginia Maxon. 

Without a word Number Thirteen turned upon his heel and passed out intothe storm. 

8

THE SOUL OF NUMBER 13

Scarcely had the Ithaca cleared the reef which lies almost across themouth of the little harbor where she had been moored for so many monthsthan the tempest broke upon her in all its terrific fury. Bududreenwas no mean sailor, but he was short handed, nor is it reasonable tosuppose that even with a full crew he could have weathered the terrificgale which beat down upon the hapless vessel. Buffeted by great waves, and stripped of every shred of canvas by the force of the mighty windthat howled about her, the Ithaca drifted a hopeless wreck soon afterthe storm struck her. 

Below deck the terrified girl clung desperately to a stanchion as thestricken ship lunged sickeningly before the hurricane. For half anhour the awful suspense endured, and then with a terrific crash thevessel struck, shivering and trembling from stem to stern. 

Virginia Maxon sank to her knees in prayer, for this she thought mustsurely be the end. On deck Bududreen and his crew had lashedthemselves to the masts, and as the Ithaca struck the reef before theharbor, back upon which she had been driven, the tall poles with theirliving freight snapped at the deck and went overboard carrying everything with them amid shrieks and cries of terror that were drowned andchoked by the wild tumult of the night. 

Twice the girl felt the ship strike upon the reef, then a great wavecaught and carried her high into the air, dropping her with anauseating lunge which seemed to the imprisoned girl to be carrying theship to the very bottom of the ocean. With closed eyes she clung insilent prayer beside her berth waiting for the moment that would bringthe engulfing waters and oblivion--praying that the end might comespeedily and release her from the torture of nervous apprehension thathad terrorized her for what seemed an eternity. 

After the last, long dive the Ithaca righted herself laboriously, wallowing drunkenly, but apparently upon an even keel in less turbulentwaters. One long minute dragged after another, yet no suffocatingdeluge poured in upon the girl, and presently she realized that theship had, at least temporarily, weathered the awful buffeting of thesavage elements. Now she felt but a gentle roll, though the wildturmoil of the storm still came to her ears through the heavy plankingof the Ithaca's hull. 

For a long hour she lay wondering what fate had overtaken the vesseland whither she had been driven, and then, with a gentle grindingsound, the ship stopped, swung around, and finally came to rest with aslight list to starboard. The wind howled about her, the torrentialrain beat loudly upon her, but except for a slight rocking the ship layquiet. 

Hours passed with no other sounds than those of the rapidly waningtempest. The girl heard no signs of life upon the ship. Her curiositybecame more and more keenly aroused. She had that indefinable, intuitive feeling that she was utterly alone upon the vessel, and atlength, unable to endure the inaction and uncertainty longer, made herway to the companion ladder where for half an hour she futilelyattempted to remove the hatch. 

As she worked she failed to hear the scraping of naked bodiesclambering over the ship's side, or the padding of unshod feet upon thedeck above her. She was about to give up her work at the hatch whenthe heavy wooden cover suddenly commenced to move above her as thoughactuated by some supernatural power. Fascinated, the girl stood gazingin wide-eyed astonishment as one end of the hatch rose higher andhigher until a little patch of blue sky revealed the fact that morninghad come. Then the cover slid suddenly back and Virginia Maxon foundherself looking into a savage and terrible face. 

The dark skin was creased in fierce wrinkles about the eyes and mouth. Gleaming tiger cat's teeth curved upward from holes pierced to receivethem in the upper half of each ear. The slit ear lobes supported heavyrings whose weight had stretched the skin until the long loop restedupon the brown shoulders. The filed and blackened teeth behind theloose lips added the last touch of hideousness to this terriblecountenance. 

Nor was this all. A score of equally ferocious faces peered down frombehind the foremost. With a little scream Virginia Maxon sprang backto the lower deck and ran toward her stateroom. Behind her she heardthe commotion of many men descending the companionway. 

As Number Thirteen came into the campong after quitting the bungalowhis heart was a chaos of conflicting emotions. His little world hadbeen wiped out. His creator--the man whom he thought his only friendand benefactor--had suddenly turned against him. The beautifulcreature he worshipped was either lost or dead; Sing had said so. Hewas nothing but a miserable THING. There was no place in the world forhim, and even should he again find Virginia Maxon, he had von Horn'sword for it that she would shrink from him and loathe him even morethan another. 

With no plans and no hopes he walked aimlessly through the blindingrain, oblivious of it and of the vivid lightning and deafening thunder. The palisade at length brought him to a sudden stop. Mechanically hesquatted on his haunches with his back against it, and there, in themidst of the fury of the storm he conquered the tempest that raged inhis own breast. The murder that rose again and again in his untaughtheart he forced back by thoughts of the sweet, pure face of the girlwhose image he had set up in the inner temple of his being, as agentle, guiding divinity. 

"He made me without a soul, " he repeated over and over again tohimself, "but I have found a soul--she shall be my soul. Von Horncould not explain to me what a soul is. He does not know. None ofthem knows. I am wiser than all the rest, for I have learned what asoul is. Eyes cannot see it--fingers cannot feel it, but he whopossess it knows that it is there for it fills his whole breast with agreat, wonderful love and worship for something infinitely finer thanman's dull senses can gauge--something that guides him into paths farabove the plain of soulless beasts and bestial men. 

"Let those who will say that I have no soul, for I am satisfied withthe soul I have found. It would never permit me to inflict on othersthe terrible wrong that Professor Maxon has inflicted on me--yet henever doubts his own possession of a soul. It would not allow me torevel in the coarse brutalities of von Horn--and I am sure that vonHorn thinks he has a soul. And if the savage men who came tonight tokill have souls, then I am glad that my soul is after my ownchoosing--I would not care for one like theirs. "

The sudden equatorial dawn found the man still musing. The storm hadceased and as the daylight brought the surroundings to view NumberThirteen became aware that he was not alone in the campong. All abouthim lay the eleven terrible men whom he had driven from the bungalowthe previous night. The sight of them brought a realization of newresponsibilities. To leave them here in the campong would mean theimmediate death of Professor Maxon and the Chinaman. To turn them intothe jungle might mean a similar fate for Virginia Maxon were shewandering about in search of the encampment-- Number Thirteen couldnot believe that she was dead. It seemed too monstrous to believe thathe should never see her again, and he knew so little of death that itwas impossible for him to realize that that beautiful creature evercould cease to be filled with the vivacity of life. 

The young man had determined to leave the camp himself--partly onaccount of the cruel words Professor Maxon had hurled at him the nightbefore, but principally in order that he might search for the lostgirl. Of course he had not the remotest idea where to look for her, but as von Horn had explained that they were upon a small island hefelt reasonably sure that he should find her in time. 

As he looked at the sleeping monsters near him he determined that theonly solution of his problem was to take them all with him. NumberTwelve lay closest to him, and stepping to his side he nudged him withthe butt of the bull whip he still carried. The creature opened hisdull eyes. 

"Get up, " said Number Thirteen. 

Number Twelve rose, looking askance at the bull whip. 

"We are not wanted here, " said Number Thirteen. "I am going away andyou are all going with me. We shall find a place where we may live inpeace and freedom. Are you not tired of always being penned up?"

"Yes, " replied Number Twelve, still looking at the whip. 

"You need not fear the whip, " said the young man. "I shall not use iton those who make no trouble. Wake the others and tell them what Ihave said. All must come with me--those who refuse shall feel thewhip. "

Number Twelve did as he was bid. The creatures mumbled amongthemselves for a few minutes. Finally Number Thirteen cracked his longwhip to attract their attention. 

"Come!" he said. 

Nine of them shuffled after him as he turned toward the outergate--only Number Ten and Number Three held back. The young man walkedquickly to where they stood eyeing him sullenly. The others halted towatch--ready to spring upon their new master should the tide of theimpending battle turn against him. The two mutineers backed awaysnarling, their hideous features distorted in rage. 

"Come!" repeated Number Thirteen. 

"We will stay here, " growled Number Ten. "We have not yet finishedwith Maxon. "

A loop in the butt of the bull whip was about the young man's wrist. Dropping the weapon from his hand it still dangled by the loop. At thesame instant he launched himself at the throat of Number Ten, for herealized that a decisive victory now without the aid of the weapon theyall feared would make the balance of his work easier. 

The brute met the charge with lowered head and outstretched hands, andin another second they were locked in a clinch, tearing at one anotherlike two great gorillas. For a moment Number Three stood watching thebattle, and then he too sprang in to aid his fellow mutineer. NumberThirteen was striking heavy blows with his giant hands upon the faceand head of his antagonist, while the long, uneven fangs of the latterhad found his breast and neck a half dozen times. Blood covered themboth. Number Three threw his enormous weight into the conflict withthe frenzy of a mad bull. 

Again and again he got a hold upon the young giant's throat only to beshaken loose by the mighty muscles. The excitement of the conflict wastelling upon the malformed minds of the spectators. Presently one whowas almost brainless, acting upon the impulse of suggestion, leaped inamong the fighters, striking and biting at Number Thirteen. It was allthat was needed--another second found the whole monstrous crew upon thesingle man. 

His mighty strength availed him but little in the unequalconflict--eleven to one were too great odds even for those powerfulthews. His great advantage lay in his superior intelligence, but eventhis seemed futile in the face of the enormous weight of numbers thatopposed him. Time and again he had almost shaken himself free only tofall once more--dragged down by hairy arms about his legs. 

Hither and thither about the campong the battle raged until thefighting mass rolled against the palisade, and here, at last, with hisback to the structure, Number Thirteen regained his feet, and with theheavy stock of the bull whip beat off, for a moment, those nearest him. All were winded, but when those who were left of the eleven originalantagonists drew back to regain their breath, the young giant gave themno respite, but leaped among them with the long lash they had such goodreason to hate and fear. 

The result was as his higher intelligence had foreseen--the creaturesscattered to escape the fury of the lash and a moment later he had themat his mercy. About the campong lay four who had felt the full forceof his heavy fist, while not one but bore some mark of the battle. 

Not a moment did he give them to recuperate after he had scattered thembefore he rounded them up once more near the outer gate--but now theywere docile and submissive. In pairs he ordered them to lift theirunconscious comrades to their shoulders and bear them into the jungle, for Number Thirteen was setting out into the world with his grim tribein search of his lady love. 

Once well within the jungle they halted to eat of the more familiarfruit which had always formed the greater bulk of their sustenance. Thus refreshed, they set out once more after the leader who wanderedaimlessly beneath the shade of the tall jungle trees amidst thegorgeous tropic blooms and gay, songless birds--and of the twelve onlythe leader saw the beauties that surrounded them or felt the strange, mysterious influence of the untracked world they trod. Chance tookthem toward the west until presently they emerged upon the harbor'sedge, where from the matted jungle they overlooked for the first timethe waters of the little bay and the broader expanse of strait beyond, until their eyes rested at last upon the blurred lines of distantBorneo. 

From other vantage points at the jungle's border two other watcherslooked out upon the scene. One was the lascar whom von Horn had sentdown to the Ithaca the night before but who had reached the harborafter she sailed. The other was von Horn himself. And both werelooking out upon the dismantled wreck of the Ithaca where it lay in thesand near the harbor's southern edge. 

Neither ventured forth from his place of concealment, for beyond theIthaca ten prahus were pulling gracefully into the quiet waters of thebasin. 

Rajah Muda Saffir, caught by the hurricane the preceding night as hehad been about to beat across to Borneo, had scurried for shelterwithin one of the many tiny coves which indent the island's entirecoast. It happened that his haven of refuge was but a short distancesouth of the harbor in which he knew the Ithaca to be moored, and inthe morning he decided to pay that vessel a visit in the hope that hemight learn something of advantage about the girl from one of herlascar crew. 

The wily Malay had long refrained from pillaging the Ithaca for fearsuch an act might militate against the larger villainy he purposedperpetrating against her white owner, but when he rounded the point andcame in sight of the stranded wreck he put all such thoughts from himand made straight for the helpless hulk to glean whatever of salvagemight yet remain within her battered hull. 

The old rascal had little thought of the priceless treasure hiddenbeneath the Ithaca's clean swept deck as he ordered his savage henchmenup her sides while he lay back upon his sleeping mat beneath the canopywhich protected his vice-regal head from the blistering tropic sun. 

Number Thirteen watched the wild head hunters with keenest interest asthey clambered aboard the vessel. With von Horn he saw the evidentamazement which followed the opening of the hatch, though neitherguessed its cause. He saw the haste with which a half dozen of thewarriors leaped down the companionway and heard their savage shouts asthey pursued their quarry within the bowels of the ship. 

A few minutes later they emerged dragging a woman with them. Von Hornand Number Thirteen recognized the girl simultaneously, but the doctor, though he ground his teeth in futile rage, knew that he was helpless toavert the tragedy. Number Thirteen neither knew nor cared. 

"Come!" he called to his grotesque horde. "Kill the men and save thegirl--the one with the golden hair, " he added as the sudden realizationcame to him that none of these creatures ever had seen a woman before. Then he dashed from the shelter of the jungle, across the beach andinto the water, his fearful pack at his heels. 

The Ithaca lay now in about five feet of water, and the war prahus ofMuda Saffir rode upon her seaward side, so that those who manned themdid not see the twelve who splashed through the water from land. Neverbefore had any of the rescuers seen a larger body of water than thelittle stream which wound through their campong, but accidents andexperiments in that had taught them the danger of submerging theirheads. They could not swim, but all were large and strong, so thatthey were able to push their way rapidly through the water to the veryside of the ship. 

Here they found difficulty in reaching the deck, but in a moment NumberThirteen had solved the problem by requiring one of the taller of hiscrew to stand close in by the ship while the others clambered upon hisshoulders and from there to the Ithaca's deck. 

Number Thirteen was the first to pull himself over the vessel's side, and as he did so he saw some half dozen Dyaks preparing to quit herupon the opposite side. They were the last of the boarding party--thegirl was nowhere in sight. Without waiting for his men the young giantsprang across the deck. His one thought was to find Virginia Maxon. 

At the sound of his approach the Dyak turned, and at the sight of apajama clad white man armed only with a long whip they emitted savagecries of anticipation, counting the handsome trophy upon the whiteone's shoulders as already theirs. Number Thirteen would have paid noattention whatever to them had they not molested him, for he wishedonly to reach the girl's side as quickly as possible; but in anothermoment he found himself confronted by a half dozen dancing wild men, brandishing wicked looking parangs, and crying tauntingly. 

Up went the great bull whip, and without abating his speed a particlethe man leaped into the midst of the wicked blades that menaced him. Right and left with the quickness of thought the heavy lash fell uponheads, shoulders and sword arms. There was no chance to wield a bladein the face of that terrific onslaught, for the whip fell, not with theordinary force of a man-held lash, but with all the stupendous power ofthose giant shoulders and arms behind it. 

A single blow felled the foremost head hunter, breaking his shoulderand biting into the flesh and bone as a heavy sword bites. Again andagain the merciless leather fell, while in the boats below Muda Saffirand his men shouted loud cries of encouragement to their companions onthe ship, and a wide-eyed girl in the stern of Muda Saffir's own prahulooked on in terror, hope and admiration at the man of her own racewhom she felt was battling against all these odds for her alone. 

Virginia Maxon recognized her champion instantly as he who had foughtfor her and saved her once before, from the hideous creature of herfather's experiments. With hands tight pressed against her bosom thegirl leaned forward, tense with excitement, watching every move of thelithe, giant figure, as, silhouetted against the brazen tropic sky, ittowered above the dancing, shrieking head hunters who writhed beneaththe awful lash. 

Muda Saffir saw that the battle was going against his men, and itfilled him with anger. Turning to one of his headmen he ordered twomore boatloads of warriors to the Ithaca's deck. As they were rushingto obey their leader's command there was a respite in the fighting onthe ship, for the three who had not fallen beneath the bull whip hadleaped overboard to escape the fate which had overtaken their comrades. 

As the reinforcements started to scale the vessel's side NumberThirteen's searching eyes found the girl in Muda Saffir's prahu, whereit lay a little off from the Ithaca, and as the first of the enemyclambered over the rail she saw a smile of encouragement light theclear cut features of the man above her. Virginia Maxon sent back ananswering smile--a smile that filled the young giant's heart with prideand happiness--such a smile as brave men have been content to fight anddie for since woman first learned the art of smiling. 

Number Thirteen could have beaten back many of the reinforcing partybefore they reached the deck, but he did not care to do so. In thespontaneous ethics of the man there seemed no place for an unfairadvantage over an enemy, and added to this was his newly acquired loveof battle, so he was content to wait until his foes stood on an evenfooting with him before he engaged them. But they never came withinreach of his ready lash. Instead, as they came above the ship's sidethey paused, wide-eyed and terror stricken, and with cries of fear andconsternation dropped precipitately back into the sea, shoutingwarnings to those who were about to scale the hull. 

Muda Saffir arose in his prahu cursing and reviling the frightenedDyaks. He did not know the cause of their alarm, but presently he sawit behind the giant upon the Ithaca's deck--eleven horriblemonstrosities lumbering forward, snarling and growling, to theirleader's side. 

At the sight his own dark countenance went ashen, and with tremblinglips he ordered his oarsmen to pull for the open sea. The girl, too, saw the frightful creatures that surrounded the man upon the deck. Shethought that they were about to attack him, and gave a little cry ofwarning, but in another instant she realized that they were hiscompanions, for with him they rushed to the side of the ship to standfor a moment looking down upon the struggling Dyaks in the water below. 

Two prahus lay directly beneath them, and into these the head hunterswere scrambling. The balance of the flotilla was now making rapidheadway under oars and sail toward the mouth of the harbor, and asNumber Thirteen saw that the girl was being borne away from him, heshouted a command to his misshapen crew, and without waiting to see ifthey would follow him leaped into the nearer of the two boats beneath. 

It was already half filled with Dyaks, some of whom were hastilymanning the oars. Others of the head hunters were scrambling over thegunwale. In an instant pandemonium reigned in the little vessel. Savage warriors sprang toward the tall figure towering above them. Parangs flashed. The bull whip hissed and cracked, and then into themidst of it all came a horrid avalanche of fearful and grotesquemonsters--the young giant's crew had followed at his command. 

The battle in the prahu was short and fierce. For an instant the Dyaksattempted to hold their own, but in the face of the snarling, rendinghorde that engulfed them terror got the better of them all, so thatthose who were not overcome dived overboard and swam rapidly towardshore. 

The other prahu had not waited to assist its companion, but before itwas entirely filled had gotten under way and was now rapidlyoverhauling the balance of the fleet. 

Von Horn had been an excited witness to all that had occurred upon thetranquil bosom of the little harbor. He had been filled withastonishment at sight of the inhabitants of the court of mysteryfighting under the leadership of Number Thirteen, and now he watchedinterestedly the outcome of the adventure. 

The sight of the girl being borne away in the prahu of the Malay rajahto a fate worse than death, had roused in him both keen regret andsavage rage, but it was the life of ease that he was losing thatconcerned him most. He had felt so sure of winning Professor Maxon'sfortune through either a forced or voluntary marriage with the girlthat his feelings now were as of one whose rightful heritage has beenfoully wrested from him. The thought of the girl's danger andsuffering were of but secondary consideration to him, for the man wasincapable of either deep love or true chivalry. 

Quite the contrary were the emotions which urged on the soullesscreature who now found himself in undisputed possession of a Dyak warprahu. His only thought was of the girl being rapidly borne awayacross the glimmering waters of the strait. He knew not to whatdangers she was exposed, or what fate threatened her. All he knew wasthat she had been taken by force against her will. He had seen thelook of terror in her eyes, and the dawning hope die out as the boatthat carried her had turned rapidly away from the Ithaca. His onethought now was to rescue her from her abductors and return her to herfather. Of his own reward or profit he entertained no singlethought--it was enough if he could fight for her. That would be rewardsufficient. 

Neither Number Thirteen nor any of his crew had ever before seen aboat, and outside of the leader there was scarcely enough brains in theentire party to render it at all likely that they could ever navigateit, but the young man saw that the other prahus were being propelled bythe long sticks which protruded from their sides, and he also saw thesails bellying with wind, though he had but a vague conception of theirpurpose. 

For a moment he stood watching the actions of the men in the nearestboat, and then he set himself to the task of placing his own men at theoars and instructing them in the manner of wielding the unfamiliarimplements. For an hour he worked with the brainless things thatconstituted his party. They could not seem to learn what was requiredof them. The paddles were continually fouling one another, or beingmerely dipped into the water and withdrawn without the faintestsemblance of a stroke made. 

The tiresome maneuvering had carried them about in circles back andforth across the harbor, but by it Number Thirteen had himself learnedsomething of the proper method of propelling and steering his craft. At last, more through accident than intent, they came opposite themouth of the basin, and then chance did for them what days of arduousendeavor upon their part might have failed to accomplish. 

As they hung wavering in the opening, the broad strait before them, andtheir quarry fast diminishing to small specks upon the distant horizon, a vagrant land breeze suddenly bellied the flapping sail. The prahuswung quickly about with nose pointed toward the sea, the sail filled, and the long, narrow craft shot out of the harbor and sped on over thedancing waters in the wake of her sisters. 

On shore behind them the infuriated Dyaks who had escaped to the beachdanced and shrieked; von Horn, from his hiding place, looked on insurprised wonder, and Bududreen's lascar cursed the fate that had lefta party of forty head hunters upon the same small island with him. 

Smaller and smaller grew the retreating prahu as, straight as an arrow, she sped toward the dim outline of verdure clad Borneo. 

9

INTO SAVAGE BORNEO

Von Horn cursed the chance that had snatched the girl from him, but hetried to content himself with the thought that the treasure probablystill rested in the cabin of the Ithaca, where Bududreen was to havedeposited it. He wished that the Dyaks would take themselves off sothat he could board the vessel and carry the chest ashore to bury itagainst the time that fate should provide a means for transporting itto Singapore. 

In the water below him floated the Ithaca's masts, their grisly burdensstill lashed to their wave swept sides. Bududreen lay there, hiscontorted features set in a horrible grimace of death which grinned upat the man he would have cheated, as though conscious of the fact thatthe white man would have betrayed him had the opportunity come, thewhile he enjoyed in anticipation the other's disappointment in the lossof both the girl and the treasure. 

The tide was rising now, and presently the Ithaca began to float. Nosooner was it apparent that she was free than the Dyaks sprang into thewater and swam to her side. Like monkeys they scrambled aboard, swarming below deck in search, thought von Horn, of pillage. He prayedthat they would not discover the chest. 

Presently a half dozen of them leaped overboard and swam to the mass oftangled spars and rigging which littered the beach. Selecting whatthey wished they returned to the vessel, and a few minutes later vonHorn was chagrined to see them stepping a jury mast--he thought thetreasure lay in the Ithaca's cabin. 

Before dark the vessel moved slowly out of the harbor, setting a courseacross the strait in the direction that the war prahus had taken. Whenit was apparent that there was no danger that the head hunters wouldreturn, the lascar came from his hiding place, and dancing up and downupon the shore screamed warlike challenges and taunts at the retreatingenemy. 

Von Horn also came forth, much to the sailor's surprise, and in silencethe two stood watching the disappearing ship. At length they turnedand made their way up the stream toward camp--there was no longer aughtto fear there. Von Horn wondered if the creatures he had loosed uponProfessor Maxon had done their work before they left, or if they hadall turned to mush as had Number Thirteen. 

Once at the encampment his questions were answered, for he saw a lightin the bungalow, and as he mounted the steps there were Sing andProfessor Maxon just coming from the living room. 

"Von Horn!" exclaimed the professor. "You, then, are not dead; butwhere is Virginia? Tell me that she is safe. "

"She has been carried away" was the startling answer. "Your creatures, under the thing you wished to marry her to, have taken her to Borneowith a band of Malay and Dyak pirates. I was alone and could donothing to prevent them. "

"God!" moaned the old man. "Why did I not kill the thing when it stoodwithin my power to do so. Only last night he was here beside me, andnow it is too late. "

"I warned you, " said von Horn, coldly. 

"I was mad, " retorted the professor. "Could you not see that I wasmad? Oh, why did you not stop me? You were sane enough. You at leastmight have forced me to abandon the insane obsession which hasoverpowered my reason for all these terrible months. I am sane now, but it is too late--too late. "

"Both you and your daughter could only have interpreted any such actionon my part as instigated by self-interest, for you both knew that Iwanted to make her my wife, " replied the other. "My hands were tied. I am sorry now that I did not act, but you can readily see the positionin which I was placed. "

"Can nothing be done to get her back?" cried the father. "There mustbe some way to save her. Do it von Horn, and not only is my daughteryours but my wealth as well--every thing that I possess shall be yoursif you will but save her from those frightful creatures. "

"The Ithaca is gone, too, " replied the doctor. "There is only a smallboat that I hid in the jungle for some such emergency. It will carryus to Borneo, but what can we four do against five hundred pirates andthe dozen monsters you have brought into the world? No, ProfessorMaxon, I fear there is little hope, though I am willing to give my lifein an attempt to save Virginia. You will not forget your promiseshould we succeed?"

"No, doctor, " replied the old man. "I swear that you shall haveVirginia as your wife, and all my property shall be made over to you ifshe is rescued. "

Sing Lee had been a silent listener to this strange conversation. Anodd look came into his slant eyes as he heard von Horn exact aconfirmation from the professor, but what passed in his shrewd mindonly he could say. 

It was too late to attempt to make a start that day for Borneo, asdarkness had already fallen. Professor Maxon and von Horn walked overto the workshop and the inner campong to ascertain what damage had beendone there. 

On their return Sing was setting the table on the verandah for theevening meal. The two men were talking, and without making hispresence noticeable the Chinaman hovered about ever within ear shot. 

"I cannot make it out, von Horn, " Professor Maxon was saying. "Not aboard broken, and the doors both apparently opened intentionally bysomeone familiar with locks and bolts. Who could have done it?"

"You forget Number Thirteen, " suggested the doctor. 

"But the chest!" expostulated the other. "What in the world would hewant of that enormous and heavy chest?"

"He might have thought that it contained treasure, " hazarded von Horn, in an innocent tone of voice. 

"Bosh, my dear man, " replied Professor Maxon. "He knew nothing oftreasures, or money, or the need or value of either. I tell you theworkshop was opened, and the inner campong as well by some one who knewthe value of money and wanted that chest, but why they should havereleased the creatures from the inner enclosure is beyond me. "

"And I tell you Professor Maxon that it could have been none other thanNumber Thirteen, " insisted von Horn. "Did I not myself see him leadinghis eleven monsters as easily as a captain commands his company? Thefellow is brighter than we have imagined. He has learned much from usboth, he has reasoned, and he has shrewdly guessed many things that hecould not have known through experience. "

"But his object?" asked the professor. 

"That is simple, " returned von Horn. "You have held out hopes to himthat soon he should come to live under your roof with Virginia. Thecreature has been madly infatuated with her ever since the day he tookher from Number One, and you have encouraged his infatuation untilyesterday. Then you regained your sanity and put him in his rightfulplace. What is the result? Denied the easy prey he expected heimmediately decided to take it by force, and with that end in view, andtaking advantage of the series of remarkable circumstances which playedinto his hands, he liberated his fellows, and with them hastened to thebeach in search of Virginia and in hopes of being able to fly with herupon the Ithaca. There he met the Malay pirates, and together theyformed an alliance under terms of which Number Thirteen is to have thegirl, and the pirates the chest in return for transporting him and hiscrew to Borneo. Why it is all perfectly simple and logical, ProfessorMaxon; do you not see it now?"

"You may be right, doctor, " answered the old man. "But it is idle toconjecture. Tomorrow we can be up and doing, so let us get what sleepwe can tonight. We shall need all our energies if we are to save mypoor, dear girl, from the clutches of that horrid, soulless thing. "

At the very moment that he spoke the object of his contumely wasentering the dark mouth of a broad river that flowed from out of theheart of savage Borneo. In the prahu with him his eleven hideouscompanions now bent to their paddles with slightly increasedefficiency. Before them the leader saw a fire blazing upon a tinyisland in the center of the stream. Toward this they turned theirsilent way. Grimly the war prahu with its frightful freight nosedcloser to the bank. 

At last Number Thirteen made out the figures of men about the fire, andas they came still closer he was sure that they were members of thevery party he had been pursuing across the broad waters for hours. Theprahus were drawn up upon the bank and the warriors were preparing toeat. 

Just as the young giants' prahu came within the circle of firelight aswarthy Malay approached the fire, dragging a white girl roughly by thearm. No more was needed to convince Number Thirteen of the identity ofthe party. With a low command to his fellows he urged them toredoubled speed. At the same instant a Dyak warrior caught sight ofthe approaching boat as it sped into the full glare of the light. 

At sight of the occupants the head hunters scattered for their ownprahus. The frightful aspect of the enemy turned their savage heartsto water, leaving no fight in their ordinarily warlike souls. 

So quickly they moved that as the pursuing prahu touched the bank allthe nearer boats had been launched, and the remaining pirates werescurrying across the little island for those which lay upon theopposite side. Among these was the Malay who guarded the girl, but hehad not been quick enough to prevent Virginia Maxon recognizing thestalwart figure standing in the bow of the oncoming craft. 

As he dragged her away toward the prahu of Muda Saffir she cried out tothe strange white man who seemed her self-appointed protector. 

"Help! Help!" she called. "This way! Across the island!" And thenthe brown hand of her jailer closed over her mouth. Like a tigress shefought to free herself, or to detain her captor until the rescue partyshould catch up with them, but the scoundrel was muscled like a bull, and when the girl held back he lifted her across his shoulder and brokeinto a run. 

Rajah Muda Saffir had no stomach for a fight himself, but he was loatheto lose the prize he had but just won, and seeing that his men werepanic-stricken he saw no alternative but to rally them for a briefstand that would give the little moment required to slip away in hisown prahu with the girl. 

Calling aloud for those around him to come to his support he haltedfifty yards from his boat just as Number Thirteen with his fierce, brainless horde swept up from the opposite side of the island in thewake of him who bore Virginia Maxon. The old rajah succeeded ingathering some fifty warriors about him from the crews of the two boatswhich lay near his. His own men he hastened to their posts in hisprahu that they might be ready to pull swiftly away the moment that heand the captive were aboard. 

The Dyak warriors presented an awe inspiring spectacle in the fitfullight of the nearby camp fire. The ferocity of their fierce faces wasaccentuated by the upturned, bristling tiger cat's teeth whichprotruded from every ear; while the long feathers of the Argus pheasantwaving from their war-caps, the brilliant colors of their war-coatstrimmed with the black and white feathers of the hornbill, and thestrange devices upon their gaudy shields but added to the savagery oftheir appearance as they danced and howled, menacing and intimidating, in the path of the charging foe. 

A single backward glance was all that Virginia Maxon found it possibleto throw in the direction of the rescue party, and in that she saw asight that lived forever in her memory. At the head of his hideous, misshapen pack sprang the stalwart young giant straight into the heartof the flashing parangs of the howling savages. To right and left fellthe mighty bull whip cutting down men with all the force and dispatchof a steel saber. The Dyaks, encouraged by the presence of Muda Saffirin their rear, held their ground; and the infuriated, brainless thingsthat followed the wielder of the bull whip threw themselves upon thehead hunters with beating hands and rending fangs. 

Number Ten wrested a parang from an adversary, and acting upon hisexample the other creatures were not long in arming themselves in asimilar manner. Cutting and jabbing they hewed their way through thesolid ranks of the enemy, until Muda Saffir, seeing that defeat wasinevitable turned and fled toward his prahu. 

Four of his creatures lay dead as the last of the Dyaks turned toescape from the mad white man who faced naked steel with only a rawhidewhip. In panic the head hunters made a wild dash for the two remainingprahus, for Muda Saffir had succeeded in getting away from the islandin safety. 

Number Thirteen reached the water's edge but a moment after the prow ofthe rajah's craft had cleared the shore and was swinging up streamunder the vigorous strokes of its fifty oarsmen. For an instant hestood poised upon the bank as though to spring after the retreatingprahu, but the knowledge that he could not swim held him back--it wasuseless to throw away his life when the need of it was so great ifVirginia Maxon was to be saved. 

Turning to the other prahus he saw that one was already launched, butthat the crew of the other was engaged in a desperate battle with theseven remaining members of his crew for possession of the boat. Leaping among the combatants he urged his fellows aboard the prahuwhich was already half filled with Dyaks. Then he shoved the boat outinto the river, jumping aboard himself as its prow cleared the gravellybeach. 

For several minutes that long, hollowed log was a veritable floatinghell of savage, screaming men locked in deadly battle. The sharpparangs of the head hunters were no match for the superhuman muscles ofthe creatures that battered them about; now lifting one high above hisfellows and using the body as a club to beat down those nearby; againsnapping an arm or leg as one might break a pipe stem; or hurling aliving antagonist headlong above the heads of his fellows to the darkwaters of the river. And above them all in the thickest of the fight, towering even above his own giants, rose the mighty figure of theterrible white man, whose very presence wrought havoc with the valor ofthe brown warriors. 

Two more of Number Thirteen's creatures had been cut down in the prahu, but the loss among the Dyaks had been infinitely greater, and to it wasnow added the desertions of the terror stricken savages who seemed tofear the frightful countenances of their adversaries even as much asthey did their prowess. 

There remained but a handful of brown warriors in one end of the boatwhen the advantage of utilizing their knowledge of the river and ofnavigation occurred to Number Thirteen. Calling to his men hecommanded them to cease killing, making prisoners of those who remainedinstead. So accustomed had his pack now become to receiving and actingupon his orders that they changed their tactics immediately, and one byone the remaining Dyaks were overpowered, disarmed and held. 

With difficulty Number Thirteen communicated with them, for among themthere was but a single warrior who had ever had intercourse with anEnglishman, but at last by means of signs and the few words that werecommon to them both he made the native understand that he would sparethe lives of himself and his companions if they would help him inpursuit of Muda Saffir and the girl. 

The Dyaks felt but little loyalty for the rascally Malay they served, since in common with all their kind they and theirs had suffered forgenerations at the hands of the cruel, crafty and unscrupulous racethat had usurped the administration of their land. So it was notdifficult to secure from them the promise of assistance in return fortheir lives. 

Number Thirteen noticed that when they addressed him it was always asBulan, and upon questioning them he discovered that they had given himthis title of honor partly in view of his wonderful fighting abilityand partly because the sight of his white face emerging from out of thedarkness of the river into the firelight of their blazing camp fire hadcarried to their impressionable minds a suggestion of the tropic moonwhich they admired and reverenced. Both the name and the idea appealedto Number Thirteen and from that time he adopted Bulan as his rightfulcognomen. 

The loss of time resulting from the fight in the prahu and the ensuingpeace parley permitted Muda Saffir to put considerable distance betweenhimself and his pursuers. The Malay's boat was now alone, for of theeight prahus that remained of the original fleet it was the only onewhich had taken this branch of the river, the others having scurriedinto a smaller southerly arm after the fight upon the island, that theymight the more easily escape their hideous foemen. 

Only Barunda, the headman, knew which channel Rajah Muda Saffirintended following, and Muda wondered why it was that the two boatsthat were to have borne Barunda's men did not catch up with his. Whilehe had left Barunda and his warriors engaged in battle with thestrangers he did not for an instant imagine that they would suffer anysevere loss, and that one of their boats should be captured was beyondbelief. But this was precisely what had happened, and the second boat, seeing the direction taken by the enemy, had turned down stream themore surely to escape them. 

So it was that while Rajah Muda Saffir moved leisurely up the rivertoward his distant stronghold waiting for the other boats of his fleetto overtake him, Barunda, the headman, guided the white enemy swiftlyafter him. Barunda had discovered that it was the girl alone thiswhite man wanted. Evidently he either knew nothing of the treasurechest lying in the bottom of Muda Saffir's boat, or, knowing, wasindifferent. In either event Barunda thought that he saw a chance topossess himself of the rich contents of the heavy box, and so servedhis new master with much greater enthusiasm than he had the old. 

Beneath the paddles of the natives and the five remaining members ofhis pack Bulan sped up the dark river after the single prahu with itspriceless freight. Already six of the creatures of Professor Maxon'sexperiments had given up their lives in the service of his daughter, and the remaining six were pushing forward through the inky blacknessof the jungle night into the untracked heart of savage Borneo to rescueher from her abductors though they sacrificed their own lives in theendeavor. 

Far ahead of them in the bottom of the great prahu crouched the girlthey sought. Her thoughts were of the man she felt intuitively topossess the strength, endurance and ability to overcome every obstacleand reach her at last. Would he come in time? Ah, that was thequestion. The mystery of the stranger appealed to her. A thousandtimes she had attempted to solve the question of his first appearanceon the island at the very moment that his mighty muscles were needed torescue her from the horrible creature of her father's creation. Thenthere was his unaccountable disappearance for weeks; there was vonHorn's strange reticence and seeming ignorance as to the circumstanceswhich brought the young man to the island, or his equally unaccountabledisappearance after having rescued her from Number One. And now, whenshe suddenly found herself in need of protection, here was the sameyoung man turning up in a most miraculous fashion, and at the head ofthe terrible creatures of the inner campong. 

The riddle was too deep for her--she could not solve it; and then herthoughts were interrupted by the thin, brown hand of Rajah Muda Saffiras it encircled her waist and drew her toward him. Upon the evil lipswere hot words of passion. The girl wrenched herself from the man'sembrace, and, with a little scream of terror, sprang to her feet, andas Muda Saffir arose to grasp her again she struck him full in the facewith one small, clenched fist. 

Directly behind the Malay lay the heavy chest of Professor Maxon. Asthe man stepped backward to recover his equilibrium both feet struckthe obstacle. For an instant he tottered with wildly waving arms in anendeavor to regain his lost balance, then, with a curse upon his lips, he lunged across the box and over the side of the prahu into the darkwaters of the river. 

10

DESPERATE CHANCE

The great chest in the bottom of Rajah Muda Saffir's prahu had awakenedin other hearts as well as his, blind greed and avarice; so that as ithad been the indirect cause of his disaster it now proved the incentiveto another to turn the mishap to his own profit, and to the finalundoing of the Malay. 

The panglima Ninaka of the Signana Dyaks who manned Muda Saffir's warprahu saw his chief disappear beneath the swift waters of the river, but the word of command that would have sent the boat hurriedly back topick up the swimmer was not given. Instead a lusty cry for greaterspeed ahead urged the sinuous muscles gliding beneath the sleek brownhides; and when Muda Saffir rose to the surface with a cry for helpupon his lips Ninaka shouted back to him in derision, consigning hiscarcass to the belly of the nearest crocodile. 

In futile rage Muda Saffir called down the most terrible curses ofAllah and his Prophet upon the head of Ninaka and his progeny to thefifth generation, and upon the shades of his forefathers, and upon thegrim skulls which hung from the rafters of his long-house. Then heturned and swam rapidly toward the shore. 

Ninaka, now in possession of both the chest and the girl, was richindeed, but with Muda Saffir dead he scarce knew to whom he coulddispose of the white girl for a price that would make it worth while tobe burdened with the danger and responsibility of retaining her. Hehad had some experience of white men in the past and knew that direwere the punishments meted to those who wronged the white man's women. All through the remainder of the long night Ninaka pondered thequestion deeply. At last he turned to Virginia. 

"Why does the big white man who leads the ourang outangs follow us?" heasked. "Is it the chest he desires, or you?"

"It is certainly not the chest, " replied the girl. "He wishes to takeme back to my father, that is all. If you will return me to him youmay keep the chest, if that is what you wish. "

Ninaka looked at her quizzically for a moment. Evidently then she wasof some value. Possibly should he retain her he could wring a handsomeransom from the white man. He would wait and see, it were always aneasy matter to rid himself of her should circumstances require. Theriver was there, deep, dark and silent, and he could place theresponsibility for her loss upon Muda Saffir. 

Shortly after day break Ninaka beached his prahu before the long-houseof a peaceful river tribe. The chest he hid in the underbrush close byhis boat, and with the girl ascended the notched log that led to theverandah of the structure, which, stretching away for three hundredyards upon its tall piles, resembled a huge centipede. 

The dwellers in the long-house extended every courtesy to Ninaka andhis crew. At the former's request Virginia was hidden away in a darksleeping closet in one of the windowless living rooms which openedalong the verandah for the full length of the house. Here a nativegirl brought her food and water, sitting, while she ate, in raptcontemplation of the white skin and golden hair of the strange female. 

At about the time that Ninaka pulled his prahu upon the beach beforethe long-house, Muda Saffir from the safety of the concealingunderbrush upon the shore saw a familiar war prahu forging rapidly upthe stream. As it approached him he was about to call aloud to thosewho manned it, for in the bow he saw a number of his own men; but asecond glance as the boat came opposite him caused him to alter hisintention and drop further into the engulfing verdure, for behind hismen squatted five of the terrible monsters that had wrought such havocwith his expedition, and in the stern he saw his own Barunda infriendly converse with the mad white man who had led them. 

As the boat disappeared about a bend in the river Rajah Muda Saffirarose, shaking his fist in the direction it had vanished and, cursinganew and volubly, damned each separate hair in the heads of thefaithless Barunda and the traitorous Ninaka. Then he resumed his watchfor the friendly prahu, or smaller sampan which he knew time wouldeventually bring from up or down the river to his rescue, for who ofthe surrounding natives would dare refuse succor to the powerful Rajahof Sakkan!

At the long-house which harbored Ninaka and his crew, Barunda and Bulanstopped with theirs to obtain food and rest. The quick eye of the Dyakchieftain recognized the prahu of Rajah Muda Saffir where it lay uponthe beach, but he said nothing to his white companion of what itaugured--it might be well to discover how the land lay before hecommitted himself too deeply to either faction. 

At the top of the notched log he was met by Ninaka, who, withhorror-wide eyes, looked down upon the fearsome monstrosities thatlumbered awkwardly up the rude ladder in the wake of the agile Dyaksand the young white giant. 

"What does it mean?" whispered the panglima to Barunda. 

"These are now my friends, " replied Barunda. "Where is Muda Saffir?"

Ninaka jerked his thumb toward the river. "Some crocodile has feastedwell, " he said significantly. Barunda smiled. 

"And the girl?" he continued. "And the treasure?"

Ninaka's eyes narrowed. "They are safe, " he answered. 

"The white man wants the girl, " remarked Barunda. "He does not suspectthat you are one of Muda Saffir's people. If he guessed that you knewthe whereabouts of the girl he would torture the truth from you andthen kill you. He does not care for the treasure. There is enough inthat great chest for two, Ninaka. Let us be friends. Together we candivide it; otherwise neither of us will get any of it. What do yousay, Ninaka?"

The panglima scowled. He did not relish the idea of sharing his prize, but he was shrewd enough to realize that Barunda possessed the power torob him of it all, so at last he acquiesced, though with poor grace. 

Bulan had stood near during this conversation, unable, of course, tounderstand a single word of the native tongue. 

"What does the man say?" he asked Barunda. "Has he seen anything ofthe prahu bearing the girl?"

"Yes, " replied the Dyak. "He says that two hours ago such a war prahupassed on its way up river--he saw the white girl plainly. Also heknows whither they are bound, and how, by crossing through the jungleon foot, you may intercept them at their next stop. "

Bulan, suspecting no treachery, was all anxiety to be off at once. Barunda suggested that in case of some possible emergency causing thequarry to return down the river it would be well to have a force remainat the long-house to intercept them. He volunteered to undertake thecommand of this party. Ninaka, he said, would furnish guides to escortBulan and his men through the jungle to the point at which they mightexpect to find Muda Saffir. 

And so, with the girl he sought lying within fifty feet of him, Bulanstarted off through the jungle with two of Ninaka's Dyaks asguides--guides who had been well instructed by their panglima as totheir duties. Twisting and turning through the dense maze ofunderbrush and close-growing, lofty trees the little party of eightplunged farther and farther into the bewildering labyrinth. 

For hours the tiresome march was continued, until at last the guideshalted, apparently to consult each other as to the proper direction. By signs they made known to Bulan that they did not agree upon theright course to pursue from there on, and that they had decided that itwould be best for each to advance a little way in the direction hethought the right one while Bulan and his five creatures remained wherethey were. 

"We will go but a little way, " said the spokesman, "and then we shallreturn and lead you in the proper direction. "

Bulan saw no harm in this, and without a shade of suspicion sat downupon a fallen tree and watched his two guides disappear into the junglein opposite directions. Once out of sight of the white man the twoturned back and met a short distance in the rear of the party they haddeserted--in another moment they were headed for the long-house fromwhich they had started. 

It was fully an hour thereafter that doubts began to enter Bulan'shead, and as the day dragged on he came to realize that he and hisweird pack were alone and lost in the heart of a strange and tangledweb of tropical jungle. 

No sooner had Bulan and his party disappeared in the jungle thanBarunda and Ninaka made haste to embark with the chest and the girl andpush rapidly on up the river toward the wild and inaccessible regionsof the interior. Virginia Maxon's strong hope of succor had beengradually waning as no sign of the rescue party appeared as the daywore on. Somewhere behind her upon the broad river she was sure along, narrow native prahu was being urged forward in pursuit, and thatin command of it was the young giant who was now never for a momentabsent from her thoughts. 

For hours she strained her eyes over the stern of the craft that wasbearing her deeper and deeper into the wild heart of fierce Borneo. Oneither shore they occasionally passed a native long-house, and the girlcould not help but wonder at the quiet and peace which reigned overthese little settlements. It was as though they were passing along abeaten highway in the center of a civilized community; and yet she knewthat the men who lolled upon the verandahs, puffing indolently upontheir cigarettes or chewing betel nut, were all head hunters, and thatalong the verandah rafters above them hung the grisly trophies of theirprowess. 

Yet as she glanced from them to her new captors she could not but feelthat she would prefer captivity in one of the settlements they werepassing--there at least she might find an opportunity to communicatewith her father, or be discovered by the rescue party as it came up theriver. The idea grew upon her as the day advanced until she spent thetime in watching furtively for some means of escape should they buttouch the shore momentarily; and though they halted twice her captorswere too watchful to permit her the slightest opportunity for puttingher plan into action. 

Barunda and Ninaka urged their men on, with brief rests, all day, nordid they halt even after night had closed down upon the river. On, onthe swift prahu sped up the winding channel which had now dwindled to anarrow stream, at intervals rushing strongly between rocky walls with acurrent that tested the strength of the strong, brown paddlers. 

Long-houses had become more and more infrequent until for some time nowno sign of human habitation had been visible. The jungle undergrowthwas scantier and the spaces between the boles of the forest trees moreopen. Virginia Maxon was almost frantic with despair as the utterhelplessness of her position grew upon her. Each stroke of thoseslender paddles was driving her farther and farther from friends, orthe possibility of rescue. Night had fallen, dark and impenetrable, and with it had come the haunting fears that creep in when the sun hasdeserted his guardian post. 

Barunda and Ninaka were whispering together in low gutturals, and tothe girl's distorted and fear excited imagination it seemed possiblethat she alone must be the subject of their plotting. The prahu wasgliding through a stretch of comparatively quiet and placid water wherethe stream spread out into a little basin just above a narrow gorgethrough which they had just forced their way by dint of the mostlaborious exertions on the part of the crew. 

Virginia watched the two men near her furtively. They were deeplyengrossed in their conversation. Neither was looking in her direction. The backs of the paddlers were all toward her. Stealthily she rose toa stooping position at the boat's side. For a moment she paused, andthen, almost noiselessly, dove overboard and disappeared beneath theblack waters. 

It was the slight rocking of the prahu that caused Barunda to looksuddenly about to discover the reason for the disturbance. For amoment neither of the men apprehended the girl's absence. Ninaka wasthe first to do so, and it was he who called loudly to the paddlers tobring the boat to a stop. Then they dropped down the river with thecurrent, and paddled about above the gorge for half an hour. 

The moment that Virginia Maxon felt the waters close above her head shestruck out beneath the surface for the shore upon the opposite side tothat toward which she had dived into the river. She knew that if anyhad seen her leave the prahu they would naturally expect to intercepther on her way toward the nearest shore, and so she took this means ofoutwitting them, although it meant nearly double the distance to becovered. 

After swimming a short distance beneath the surface the girl rose andlooked about her. Up the river a few yards she caught thephosphorescent gleam of water upon the prahu's paddles as they broughther to a sudden stop in obedience to Ninaka's command. Then she sawthe dark mass of the war-craft drifting down toward her. 

Again she dove and with strong strokes headed for the shore. The nexttime that she rose she was terrified to see the prahu looming closebehind her. The paddlers were propelling the boat slowly in herdirection--it was almost upon her now--there was a shout from a man inthe bow--she had been seen. 

Like a flash she dove once more and, turning, struck out rapidlystraight back beneath the oncoming boat. When she came to the surfaceagain it was to find herself as far from shore as she had been when shefirst quitted the prahu, but the craft was now circling far below her, and she set out once again to retrace her way toward the inky mass ofshore line which loomed apparently near and yet, as she knew, was someconsiderable distance from her. 

As she swam, her mind, filled with the terrors of the night, conjuredrecollection of the stories she had heard of the fierce crocodileswhich infest certain of the rivers of Borneo. Again and again shecould have sworn that she felt some huge, slimy body sweep beneath herin the mysterious waters of this unknown river. 

Behind her she saw the prahu turn back up stream, but now her mind wassuddenly engaged with a new danger, for the girl realized that thestrong current was bearing her down stream more rapidly than she hadimagined. Already she could hear the increasing roar of the river asit rushed, wild and tumultuous, through the entrance to the narrowgorge below her. How far it was to shore she could not guess, or howfar to the certain death of the swirling waters toward which she wasbeing drawn by an irresistible force; but of one thing she was certain, her strength was rapidly waning, and she must reach the bank quickly. 

With redoubled energy she struck out in one last mighty effort to reachthe shore. The tug of the current was strong upon her, like a gianthand reaching up out of the cruel river to bear her back to death. Shefelt her strength ebbing quickly--her strokes now were feeble andfutile. With a prayer to her Maker she threw her hands above her headin the last effort of the drowning swimmer to clutch at even thin airfor support--the current caught and swirled her downward toward thegorge, and, at the same instant her fingers touched and closed uponsomething which swung low above the water. 

With the last flickering spark of vitality that remained in her poor, exhausted body Virginia Maxon clung to the frail support that a kindProvidence had thrust into her hands. How long she hung there shenever knew, but finally a little strength returned to her, andpresently she realized that it was a pendant creeper hanging low from ajungle tree upon the bank that had saved her from the river's rapaciousmaw. 

Inch by inch she worked herself upward toward the bank, and at last, weak and panting, sunk exhausted to the cool carpet of grass that grewto the water's edge. Almost immediately tired, Nature plunged her intoa deep sleep. It was daylight when she awoke, dreaming that the tallyoung giant had rescued her from a band of demons and was lifting herin his arms to carry her back to her father. 

Through half open lids she saw the sunlight filtering through the leafycanopy above her--she wondered at the realism of her dream; fullconsciousness returned and with it the conviction that she was in truthbeing held close by strong arms against a bosom that throbbed to thebeating of a real heart. 

With a sudden start she opened her eyes wide to look up into thehideous face of a giant ourang outang. 

11

"I AM COMING!"

The morning following the capture of Virginia Maxon by Muda Saffir, Professor Maxon, von Horn, Sing Lee and the sole surviving lascar fromthe crew of the Ithaca set out across the strait toward the mainland ofBorneo in the small boat which the doctor had secreted in the junglenear the harbor. The party was well equipped with firearms andammunition, and the bottom of the boat was packed full with provisionsand cooking utensils. Von Horn had been careful to see that the boatwas furnished with a mast and sail, and now, under a good breeze theparty was making excellent time toward the mysterious land of theirdestination. 

They had scarcely cleared the harbor when they sighted a ship far outacross the strait. Its erratic movements riveted their attention uponit, and later, as they drew nearer, they perceived that the strangecraft was a good sized schooner with but a single short mast and tinysail. For a minute or two her sail would belly with the wind and thevessel make headway, then she would come suddenly about, only to repeatthe same tactics a moment later. She sailed first this way and thenthat, losing one minute what she had gained the minute before. 

Von Horn was the first to recognize her. 

"It is the Ithaca, " he said, "and her Dyak crew are having a devil of atime managing her--she acts as though she were rudderless. "

Von Horn ran the small boat within hailing distance of the dismastedhulk whose side was now lined with waving, gesticulating natives. Theywere peaceful fishermen, they explained, whose prahus had been wreckedin the recent typhoon. They had barely escaped with their lives byclambering aboard this wreck which Allah had been so merciful as toplace directly in their road. Would the Tuan Besar be so good as totell them how to make the big prahu steer?

Von Horn promised to help them on condition that they would guide himand his party to the stronghold of Rajah Muda Saffir in the heart ofBorneo. The Dyaks willingly agreed, and von Horn worked his small boatin close under the Ithaca's stern. Here he found that the rudder hadbeen all but unshipped, probably as the vessel was lifted over the reefduring the storm, but a single pintle remaining in its gudgeon. A halfhour's work was sufficient to repair the damage, and then the two boatscontinued their journey toward the mouth of the river up which thosethey sought had passed the night before. 

Inside the river's mouth an anchorage was found for the Ithaca near thevery island upon which the fierce battle between Number Thirteen andMuda Saffir's forces had occurred. From the deck of the larger vesselthe deserted prahu which had borne Bulan across the strait was visible, as were the bodies of the slain Dyaks and the misshapen creatures ofthe white giant's forces. 

In excited tones the head hunters called von Horn's attention to theseevidences of conflict, and the doctor drew his boat up to the islandand leaped ashore, followed by Professor Maxon and Sing. Here theyfound the dead bodies of the four monsters who had fallen in an attemptto rescue their creator's daughter, though little did any there imaginethe real truth. 

About the corpses of the four were the bodies of a dozen Dyak warriorsattesting to the ferocity of the encounter and the savage prowess ofthe unarmed creatures who had sold their poor lives so dearly. 

"Evidently they fell out about the possession of the captive, "suggested von Horn. "Let us hope that she did not fall into theclutches of Number Thirteen--any fate would be better than that. "

"God give that that has not befallen her, " moaned Professor Maxon. "The pirates might but hold her for ransom, but should that soullessfiend possess her my prayer is that she found the strength and themeans to take her own life before he had an opportunity to have his waywith her. "

"Amen, " agreed von Horn. 

Sing Lee said nothing, but in his heart he hoped that Virginia Maxonwas not in the power of Rajah Muda Saffir. The brief experience he hadhad with Number Thirteen during the fight in the bungalow had ratherwarmed his wrinkled old heart toward the friendless young giant, and hewas a sufficiently good judge of human nature to be confident that thegirl would be comparatively safe in his keeping. 

It was quickly decided to abandon the small boat and embark the entireparty in the deserted war prahu. A half hour later saw the strangelymixed expedition forging up the river, but not until von Horn hadboarded the Ithaca and discovered to his dismay that the chest was noton board her. 

Far above them on the right bank Muda Saffir still squatted in hishiding place, for no friendly prahu or sampan had passed his way sincedawn. His keen eyes roving constantly up and down the long stretch ofriver that was visible from his position finally sighted a war prahucoming toward him from down stream. As it drew closer he recognized itas one which had belonged to his own fleet before his unhappy encounterwith the wild white man and his abhorrent pack, and a moment later hisheart leaped as he saw the familiar faces of several of his men; butwho were the strangers in the stern, and what was a Chinaman doingperched there upon the bow?

The prahu was nearly opposite him before he recognized Professor Maxonand von Horn as the white men of the little island. He wondered howmuch they knew of his part in the raid upon their encampment. Bududreen had told him much concerning the doctor, and as Muda Saffirrecalled the fact that von Horn was anxious to possess himself of boththe treasure and the girl he guessed that he would be safe in the man'shands so long as he could hold out promises of turning one or the otherover to him; and so, as he was tired of squatting upon theuncomfortable bank and was very hungry, he arose and hailed the passingprahu. 

His men recognized his voice immediately and as they knew nothing ofthe defection of any of their fellows, turned the boat's prow towardshore without waiting for the command from von Horn. The latter, fearing treachery, sprang to his feet with raised rifle, but when oneof the paddlers explained that it was the Rajah Muda Saffir who hailedthem and that he was alone von Horn permitted them to draw nearer theshore, though he continued to stand ready to thwart any attemptedtreachery and warned both the professor and Sing to be on guard. 

As the prahu's nose touched the bank Muda Saffir stepped aboard andwith many protestations of gratitude explained that he had fallenoverboard from his own prahu the night before and that evidently hisfollowers thought him drowned, since none of his boats had returned tosearch for him. Scarcely had the Malay seated himself before von Hornbegan questioning him in the rajah's native tongue, not a word of whichwas intelligible to Professor Maxon. Sing, however, was as familiarwith it as was von Horn. 

"Where are the girl and the treasure?" he asked. 

"What girl, Tuan Besar?" inquired the wily Malay innocently. "And whattreasure? The white man speaks in riddles. "

"Come, come, " cried von Horn impatiently. "Let us have no foolishness. You know perfectly well what I mean--it will go far better with you ifwe work together as friends. I want the girl--if she is unharmed--andI will divide the treasure with you if you will help me to obtain them;otherwise you shall have no part of either. What do you say? Shall webe friends or enemies?"

"The girl and the treasure were both stolen from me by a rascallypanglima, Ninaka, " said Muda Saffir, seeing that it would be as well tosimulate friendship for the white man for the time being atleast--there would always be an opportunity to use a kris upon him inthe remote fastness of the interior to which Muda Saffir would leadthem. 

"What became of the white man who led the strange monsters?" asked vonHorn. 

"He killed many of my men, and the last I saw of him he was pushing upthe river after the girl and the treasure, " replied the Malay. 

"If another should ask you, " continued von Horn with a meaningfulglance toward Professor Maxon, "it will be well to say that the girlwas stolen by this white giant and that you suffered defeat in anattempt to rescue her because of your friendship for us. Do youunderstand?"

Muda Saffir nodded. Here was a man after his own heart, which lovedintrigue and duplicity. Evidently he would be a good ally in wreakingvengeance upon the white giant who had caused all hisdiscomfiture--afterward there was always the kris if the other shouldbecome inconvenient. 

At the long-house at which Barunda and Ninaka had halted, Muda Saffirlearned all that had transpired, his informants being the two Dyaks whohad led Bulan and his pack into the jungle. He imparted theinformation to von Horn and both men were delighted that thus theirmost formidable enemy had been disposed of. It would be but a questionof time before the inexperienced creatures perished in the denseforest--that they ever could retrace their steps to the river was mostunlikely, and the chances were that one by one they would be dispatchedby head hunters while they slept. 

Again the party embarked, reinforced by the two Dyaks who were only tooglad to renew their allegiance to Muda Saffir while he was backed bythe guns of the white men. On and on they paddled up the river, gleaning from the dwellers in the various long-houses information ofthe passing of the two prahus with Barunda, Ninaka, and the white girl. 

Professor Maxon was impatient to hear every detail that von Hornobtained from Muda Saffir and the various Dyaks that were interviewedat the first long-house and along the stretch of river they covered. The doctor told him that Number Thirteen still had Virginia and wasfleeing up the river in a swift prahu. He enlarged upon the valorshown by Muda Saffir and his men in their noble attempt to rescue hisdaughter, and through it all Sing Lee sat with half closed eyes, apparently oblivious to all that passed before him. What were theworkings of that intricate celestial brain none can say. 

Far in the interior of the jungle Bulan and his five monsters stumbledon in an effort to find the river. Had they known it they were movingparallel with the stream, but a few miles from it. At times it woundin wide detours close to the path of the lost creatures, and again itcircled far away from them. 

As they travelled they subsisted upon the fruits with which they hadbecome familiar upon the island of their creation. They sufferedgreatly for lack of water, but finally stumbled upon a small stream atwhich they filled their parched stomachs. Here it occurred to Bulanthat it would be wise to follow the little river, since they could beno more completely lost than they now were no matter where it shouldlead them, and it would at least insure them plenty of fresh water. 

As they proceeded down the bank of the stream it grew in size untilpresently it became a fair sized river, and Bulan had hopes that itmight indeed prove the stream that they had ascended from the ocean andthat soon he would meet with the prahus and possibly find VirginiaMaxon herself. The strenuous march of the six through the jungle hadtorn their light cotton garments into shreds so that they were allpractically naked, while their bodies were scratched and bleeding fromcountless wounds inflicted by sharp thorns and tangled brambles throughwhich they had forced their way. 

Bulan still carried his heavy bull whip while his five companions werearmed with the parangs they had taken from the Dyaks they hadoverpowered upon the island at the mouth of the river. It was uponthis strange and remarkable company that the sharp eyes of a score ofriver Dyaks peered through the foliage. The head hunters had beenengaged in collecting camphor crystals when their quick ears caught thenoisy passage of the six while yet at a considerable distance, and withready parangs the savages crept stealthily toward the sound of theadvancing party. 

At first they were terror stricken at the hideous visages of five ofthe creatures they beheld, but when they saw how few their numbers, andhow poorly armed they were, as well as the awkwardness with which theycarried their parangs, denoting their unfamiliarity with the weapons, they took heart and prepared to ambush them. 

What prizes those terrible heads would be when properly dried anddecorated! The savages fairly trembled in anticipation of thecommotion they would cause in the precincts of their long-house whenthey returned with six such magnificent trophies. 

Their victims came blundering on through the dense jungle to where thetwenty sleek brown warriors lay in wait for them. Bulan was in thelead, and close behind him in single file lumbered his awkward crew. Suddenly there was a chorus of savage cries close beside him andsimultaneously he found himself in the midst of twenty cutting, slashing parangs. 

Like lightning his bull whip flew into action, and to the astonishedwarriors it was as though a score of men were upon them in the personof this mighty white giant. Following the example of their leader thefive creatures at his back leaped upon the nearest warriors, and thoughthey wielded their parangs awkwardly the superhuman strength back oftheir cuts and thrusts sent the already blood stained blades throughmany a brown body. 

The Dyaks would gladly have retreated after the first surprise of theirinitial attack, but Bulan urged his men on after them, and so they wereforced to fight to preserve their lives at all. At last five of themmanaged to escape into the jungle, but fifteen remained quietly uponthe earth where they had fallen--the victims of their own overconfidence. Beside them lay two of Bulan's five, so that now thelittle party was reduced to four--and the problem that had facedProfessor Maxon was so much closer to its own solution. 

From the bodies of the dead Dyaks Bulan and his three companions, Number Three, Number Ten, and Number Twelve, took enough loin cloths, caps, war-coats, shields and weapons to fit them out completely, afterdiscarding the ragged remnants of their cotton pajamas, and now, evenmore terrible in appearance than before, the rapidly vanishing companyof soulless monsters continued their aimless wandering down the river'sbrim. 

The five Dyaks who had escaped carried the news of the terriblecreatures that had fallen upon them in the jungle, and of the awfulprowess of the giant white man who led them. They told of how, armedonly with a huge whip, he had been a match and more than a match forthe best warriors of the tribe, and the news that they started spreadrapidly down the river from one long-house to another until it reachedthe broad stream into which the smaller river flowed, and then ittravelled up and down to the headwaters above and the ocean far belowin the remarkable manner that news travels in the wild places of theworld. 

So it was that as Bulan advanced he found the long-houses in his pathdeserted, and came to the larger river and turned up toward its headwithout meeting with resistance or even catching a glimpse of thebrown-skinned people who watched him from their hiding places in thebrush. 

That night they slept in the long-house near the bank of the greaterstream, while its rightful occupants made the best of it in the junglebehind. The next morning found the four again on the march ere the sunhad scarcely lighted the dark places of the forest, for Bulan was nowsure that he was on the right trail and that the new river that he hadcome to was indeed the same that he had traversed in the Prahu withBarunda. 

It must have been close to noon when the young giant's ears caught thesound of the movement of some animal in the jungle a short distance tohis right and away from the river. His experience with men had taughthim to be wary, for it was evident that every man's hand was againsthim, so he determined to learn at once whether the noise he heard camefrom some human enemy lurking along his trail ready to spring upon himwith naked parang at a moment that he was least prepared, or merelyfrom some jungle brute. 

Cautiously he threaded his way through the matted vegetation in thedirection of the sound. Although a parang from the body of avanquished Dyak hung at his side he grasped his bull whip ready in hisright hand, preferring it to the less accustomed weapon of the headhunter. For a dozen yards he advanced without sighting the object ofhis search, but presently his efforts were rewarded by a glimpse of areddish, hairy body, and a pair of close set, wicked eyes peering athim from behind a giant tree. 

At the same instant a slight movement at one side attracted hisattention to where another similar figure crouched in the underbrush, and then a third, fourth and fifth became evident about him. Bulanlooked in wonderment upon the strange, man-like creatures who eyed himthreateningly from every hand. They stood fully as high as the brownDyak warriors, but their bodies were naked except for the growth ofreddish hair which covered them, shading to black upon the face andhands. 

The lips of the nearest were raised in an angry snarl that exposedwicked looking fighting fangs, but the beasts did not seem inclined toinitiate hostilities, and as they were unarmed and evidently butengaged upon their own affairs Bulan decided to withdraw withoutarousing them further. As he turned to retrace his steps he found histhree companions gazing in wide-eyed astonishment upon the strange newcreatures which confronted them. 

Number Ten was grinning broadly, while Number Three advanced cautiouslytoward one of the creatures, making a low guttural noise, that couldonly be interpreted as peaceful and conciliatory--more like a felinepurr it was than anything else. 

"What are you doing?" cried Bulan. "Leave them alone. They have notoffered to harm us. "

"They are like us, " replied Number Three. "They must be our ownpeople. I am going with them. "

"And I, " said Number Ten. 

"And I, " echoed Number Twelve. "At last we have found our own, let usall go with them and live with them, far away from the men who wouldbeat us with great whips, and cut us with their sharp swords. "

"They are not human beings, " exclaimed Bulan. "We cannot live withthem. "

"Neither are we human beings, " retorted Number Twelve. "Has not vonHorn told us so many times?"

"If I am not now a human being, " replied Bulan, "I intend to be one, and so I shall act as a human being should act. I shall not go to livewith savage beasts, nor shall you. Come with me as I tell you, or youshall again taste the bull whip. "

"We shall do as we please, " growled Number Ten, baring his fangs. "Youare not our master. We have followed you as long as we intend to. Weare tired of forever walking, walking, walking through the bushes thattear our flesh and hurt us. Go and be a human being if you think youcan, but do not longer interfere with us or we shall kill you, " and helooked first at Number Three and then at Number Twelve for approval ofhis ultimatum. 

Number Three nodded his grotesque and hideous head--he was so coveredwith long black hair that he more nearly resembled an ourang outangthan a human being. Number Twelve looked doubtful. 

"I think Number Ten is right, " he said at last. "We are not human. Wehave no souls. We are things. And while you, Bulan, are beautiful, yet you are as much a soulless thing as we--that much von Horn taughtus well. So I believe that it would be better were we to keep foreverfrom the sight of men. I do not much like the thought of living withthese strange, hairy monsters, but we might find a place here in thejungle where we could live alone and in peace. "

"I do not want to live alone, " cried Number Three. "I want a mate, andI see a beautiful one yonder now. I am going after her, " and with thathe again started toward a female ourang outang; but the lady bared herfangs and retreated before his advance. 

"Even the beasts will have none of us, " cried Number Ten angrily. "Letus take them by force then, " and he started after Number Three. 

"Come back!" shouted Bulan, leaping after the two deserters. 

As he raised his voice there came an answering cry from a littledistance ahead--a cry for help, and it was in the agonized tones of awoman's voice. 

"I am coming!" shouted Bulan, and without another glance at hismutinous crew he sprang through the line of menacing ourang outangs. 

12

PERFIDY

On the morning that Bulan set out with his three monsters from thedeserted long-house in which they had spent the night, ProfessorMaxon's party was speeding up the river, constantly buoyed with hope bythe repeated reports of natives that the white girl had been seenpassing in a war prahu. 

In translating this information to Professor Maxon, von Horn habituallymade it appear that the girl was in the hands of Number Thirteen, orBulan, as they had now come to call him owing to the natives' constantuse of that name in speaking of the strange, and formidable white giantwho had invaded their land. 

At the last long-house below the gorge, the head of which had witnessedVirginia Maxon's escape from the clutches of Ninaka and Barunda, thesearching party was forced to stop owing to a sudden attack of feverwhich had prostrated the professor. Here they found a woman who had astrange tale to relate of a remarkable sight she had witnessed thatvery morning. 

It seemed that she had been straining tapioca in a little stream whichflowed out of the jungle at the rear of the long-house when herattention was attracted by the crashing of an animal through the bushesa few yards above her. As she looked she saw a huge MIAS PAPPAN crossthe stream, bearing in his arms the dead, or unconscious form of awhite-skinned girl with golden hair. 

Her description of the MIAS PAPPAN was such as to half convince vonHorn that she might have seen Number Three carrying Virginia Maxon, although he could not reconcile the idea with the story that the twoDyaks had told him of losing all of Bulan's monsters in the jungle. 

Of course it was possible that they might have made their way over landto this point, but it seemed scarcely credible--and then, how couldthey have come into possession of Virginia Maxon, whom every reportexcept this last agreed was still in the hands of Ninaka and Barunda. There was always the possibility that the natives had lied to him, andthe more he questioned the Dyak woman the more firmly convinced hebecame that this was the fact. 

The outcome of it was that von Horn finally decided to make an attemptto follow the trail of the creature that the woman had seen, and withthis plan in view persuaded Muda Saffir to arrange with the chief ofthe long-house at which they then were to furnish him with trackers andan escort of warriors, promising them some splendid heads should theybe successful in overhauling Bulan and his pack. 

Professor Maxon was too ill to accompany the expedition, and von Hornset out alone with his Dyak allies. For a time after they departedSing Lee fretted and fidgeted upon the verandah of the long-house. Hewholly distrusted von Horn, and from motives of his own finally decidedto follow him. The trail of the party was plainly discernible, and theChinaman had no difficulty in following them, so that they had gone nogreat way before he came within hearing distance of them. Always justfar enough behind to be out of sight, he kept pace with the littlecolumn as it marched through the torrid heat of the morning, until alittle after noon he was startled by the sudden cry of a woman indistress, and the answering shout of a man. 

The voices came from a point in the jungle a little to his right andbehind him, and without waiting for the column to return, or even toascertain if they had heard the cries, Sing ran rapidly in thedirection of the alarm. For a time he saw nothing, but was guided bythe snapping of twigs and the rustling of bushes ahead, where theauthors of the commotion were evidently moving swiftly through thejungle. 

Presently a strange sight burst upon his astonished vision. It was thehideous Number Three in mad pursuit of a female ourang outang, and aninstant later he saw Number Twelve and Number Ten in battle with twomales, while beyond he heard the voice of a man shouting encouragementto some one as he dashed through the jungle. It was in this last eventthat Sing's interest centered, for he was sure that he recognized thevoice as that of Bulan, while the first cry for help which he had heardhad been in a woman's voice, and Sing knew that its author could benone other than Virginia Maxon. 

Those whom he pursued were moving rapidly through the jungle which wasnow becoming more and more open, but the Chinaman was no mean runner, and it was not long before he drew within sight of the object of hispursuit. 

His first glimpse was of Bulan, running swiftly between two huge bullourang outangs that snapped and tore at him as he bounded forwardcutting and slashing at his foes with his heavy whip. Just in front ofthe trio was another bull bearing in his arms the unconscious form ofVirginia Maxon who had fainted at the first response to her cry forhelp. Sing was armed with a heavy revolver but he dared not attempt touse it for fear that he might wound either Bulan or the girl, and so hewas forced to remain but a passive spectator of what ensued. 

Bulan, notwithstanding the running battle the two bulls were forcingupon him, was gaining steadily upon the fleeing ourang outang that washandicapped by the weight of the fair captive he bore in his huge, hairy arms. As they came into a natural clearing in the jungle thefleeing bull glanced back to see his pursuer almost upon him, and withan angry roar turned to meet the charge. 

In another instant Bulan and the three bulls were rolling and tumblingabout the ground, a mass of flying fur and blood from which rose fierceand angry roars and growls, while Virginia Maxon lay quietly upon thesward where her captor had dropped her. 

Sing was about to rush forward and pick her up, when he saw von Hornand his Dyaks leap into the clearing, to which they had been guided bythe sounds of the chase and the encounter. The doctor halted at thesight that met his eyes--the prostrate form of the girl and the manbattling with three huge bulls. 

Then he gathered up Virginia Maxon, and with a sign to his Dyaks, whowere thoroughly frightened at the mere sight of the white giant of whomthey had heard such terrible stories, turned and hastened back in thedirection from which they had come, leaving the man to what seemed mustbe a speedy and horrible death. 

Sing Lee was astounded at the perfidy of the act. To Bulan alone wasdue the entire credit of having rescued Professor Maxon's daughter, andyet in the very presence of his self-sacrificing loyalty and devotionvon Horn had deserted him without making the least attempt to aid him. But the wrinkled old Chinaman was made of different metal, and hadstarted forward to assist Bulan when a heavy hand suddenly fell uponhis shoulder. Looking around he saw the hideous face of Number Tensnarling into his. The bloodshot eyes of the monster were flaming withrage. He had been torn and chewed by the bull with which he hadfought, and though he had finally overcome and killed the beast, afemale which he had pursued had eluded him. In a frenzy of passion andblood lust aroused by his wounds, disappointment and the taste of warmblood which still smeared his lips and face, he had been seeking thefemale when he suddenly stumbled upon the hapless Sing. 

With a roar he grasped the Chinaman as though to break him in two, butSing was not at all inclined to give up his life without a struggle, and Number Ten was quick to learn that no mean muscles moved beneaththat wrinkled, yellow hide. 

There could, however, have been but one outcome to the unequal strugglehad Sing not been armed with a revolver, though it was several secondsbefore he could bring it into play upon the great thing that shook andtossed him about as though he had been a rat in the mouth of a terrier. But suddenly there was the sharp report of a firearm, and another ofProfessor Maxon's unhappy experiments sank back into the nothingnessfrom which he had conjured it. 

Then Sing turned his attention to Bulan and his three savageassailants, but, except for the dead body of a bull ourang outang uponthe spot where he had last seen the four struggling, there was no signeither of the white man or his antagonists; nor, though he listenedattentively, could he catch the slightest sound within the jungle otherthan the rustling of the leaves and the raucous cries of the brilliantbirds that flitted among the gorgeous blooms about him. 

For half an hour he searched in every direction, but finally, fearingthat he might become lost in the mazes of the unfamiliar forest hereluctantly turned his face toward the river and the long-house thatsheltered his party. 

Here he found Professor Maxon much improved--the safe return ofVirginia having acted as a tonic upon him. The girl and her father satwith von Horn upon the verandah of the long-house as Sing clambered upthe notched log that led to it from the ground. At sight of Sing'swrinkled old face Virginia Maxon sprang to her feet and ran forward togreet him, for she had been very fond of the shrewd and kindly Chinamanof whom she had seen so much during the dreary months of herimprisonment within the campong. 

"Oh, Sing, " she cried, "where have you been? We were all so worried tothink that no sooner was one of us rescued than another became lost. "

"Sing takee walk, Linee, las all, " said the grinning Chinaman. "Vellyglad see Linee black 'gain, " and that was all that Sing Lee had to sayof the adventures through which he had just passed, and the strangesights that he had seen. 

Again and again the girl and von Horn narrated the stirring scenes ofthe day, the latter being compelled to repeat all that had transpiredfrom the moment that he had heard Virginia's cry, though it wasapparent that he only consented to speak of his part in her rescueunder the most considerable urging. Very pretty modesty, thought Singwhen he had heard the doctor's version of the affair. 

"You see, " said von Horn, "when I reached the spot Number Three, thebrute that you thought was an ape, had just turned you over to NumberThirteen, or, as the natives now call him, Bulan. You were then in afaint, and when I attacked Bulan he dropped you to defend himself. Ihad expected a bitter fight from him after the wild tales the nativeshave been telling of his ferocity, but it was soon evident that he isan arrant coward, for I did not even have to fire my revolver--a fewthumps with the butt of it upon his brainless skull sent him howlinginto the jungle with his pack at his heels. "

"How fortunate it is, my dear doctor, " said Professor Maxon, "that youwere bright enough to think of trailing the miscreant into the jungle. But for that Virginia would still be in his clutches and by this timehe would have been beyond all hope of capture. How can we ever repayyou, dear friend?"

"That you were generous enough to arrange when we first embarked uponthe search for your daughter, " replied von Horn. 

"Just so, just so, " said the professor, but a shade of trouble tingedthe expression of his face, and a moment later he arose, saying that hefelt weak and tired and would go to his sleeping room and lie down fora while. The fact was that Professor Maxon regretted the promise hehad made von Horn relative to his daughter. 

Once before he had made plans for her marriage only to regret themlater; he hoped that he had made no mistake this time, but he realizedthat it had scarcely been fair to Virginia to promise her to hisassistant without first obtaining her consent. Yet a promise was apromise, and, again, was it not true that but for von Horn she wouldhave been dead or worse than dead in a short time had she not beenrescued from the clutches of the soulless Bulan? Thus did the old manjustify his action, and clinch the determination that he had beforereached to compel Virginia to wed von Horn should she, from someincomprehensible motive, demur. Yet he hoped that the girl would makeit easy, by accepting voluntarily the man who had saved her life. 

Left alone, or as he thought alone, with the girl in the growingshadows of the evening, von Horn thought the moment propitious forrenewing his suit. He did not consider the natives squatting aboutthem as of sufficient consequence to consider, since they would notunderstand the language in which he addressed Virginia, and in the duskhe failed to note that Sing squatted with the Dyaks, close behind them. 

"Virginia, " he commenced, after an interval of silence, "often beforehave I broached the subject nearest to my heart, yet never have yougiven me much encouragement. Can you not feel for the man who wouldgladly give his life for you, sufficient affection to permit you tomake him the happiest man in the world? I do not ask for all your loveat first--that will come later. Just give me the right to cherish andprotect you. Say that you will be my wife, Virginia, and we need haveno more fears that the strange vagaries of your father's mind can everagain jeopardize your life or your happiness as they have in the past. "

"I feel that I owe you my life, " replied the girl in a quiet voice, "and while I am now positive that my father has entirely regained hissanity, and looks with as great abhorrence upon the terrible fate heplanned for me as I myself, I cannot forget the debt of gratitude whichbelongs to you. 

"At the same time I do not wish to be the means of making you unhappy, as surely would be the result were I to marry you without love. Let uswait until I know myself better. Though you have spoken to me of thematter before, I realize now that I never have made any effort todetermine whether or not I really can love you. There is time enoughbefore we reach civilization, if ever we are fortunate enough to do soat all. Will you not be as generous as you are brave, and give me afew days before I must make you a final answer?"

With Professor Maxon's solemn promise to insure his ultimate successvon Horn was very gentle and gracious in deferring to the girl'swishes. The girl for her part could not put from her mind thedisappointment she had felt when she discovered that her rescuer wasvon Horn, and not the handsome young giant whom she had been positivewas in close pursuit of her abductors. 

When Number Thirteen had been mentioned she had always pictured him asa hideous monster, similar to the creature that had seized her in thejungle beside the encampment that first day she had seen the mysteriousstranger, of whom she could obtain no information either from herfather or von Horn. When she had recently insisted that the same manhad been at the head of her father's creatures in an attempt to rescueher, both von Horn and Professor Maxon scoffed at the idea, until atlast she was convinced that the fright and the firelight had conspiredto conjure in her brain the likeness of one who was linked by memory toanother time of danger and despair. 

Virginia could not understand why it was that the face of the strangerpersisted in obtruding itself in her memory. That the man wasunusually good looking was undeniable, but she had known many goodlooking men, nor was she especially impressionable to mere superficialbeauty. No words had passed between them on the occasion of theirfirst meeting, so it could have been nothing that he said which causedthe memory of him to cling so tenaciously in her mind. 

What was it then? Was it the memory of the moments that she had lainin his strong arms--was it the shadow of the sweet, warm glow that hadsuffused her as his eyes had caught hers upon his face?

The thing was tantalizing--it was annoying. The girl blushed inmortification at the very thought that she could cling so resolutely tothe memory of a total stranger, and--still greater humiliation--long inthe secret depths of her soul to see him again. 

She was angry with herself, but the more she tried to forget the younggiant who had come into her life for so brief an instant, the more shespeculated upon his identity and the strange fate that had brought himto their little, savage island only to snatch him away again asmysteriously as he had come, the less was the approval with which shelooked upon the suit of Doctor von Horn. 

Von Horn had left her, and strolled down to the river. FinallyVirginia arose to seek the crude couch which had been spread for her inone of the sleeping rooms of the long-house. As she passed a group ofnatives squatted nearby one of the number arose and approached her, andas she halted, half in fright, a low voice whispered:

"Lookee out, Linee, dloctor Hornee velly bad man. "

"Why, Sing!" exclaimed Virginia. "What in the world do you mean bysaying such a thing as that?"

"Never mind, Linee; you always good to old Sing. Sing no likee see yousadee. Dloctor Hornee velly bad man, las allee, " and without anotherword the Chinaman turned and walked away. 

13

BURIED TREASURE

After the escape of the girl Barunda and Ninaka had fallen out overthat affair and the division of the treasure, with the result that thepanglima had slipped a knife between the ribs of his companion anddropped the body overboard. 

Barunda's followers, however, had been highly enraged at the act, andin the ensuing battle which they waged for revenge of their murderedchief Ninaka and his crew had been forced to take to the shore and hidein the jungle. 

With difficulty they had saved the chest and dragged it after them intothe mazes of the underbrush. Finally, however, they succeeded ineluding the angry enemy, and took up their march through the interiorfor the head of a river which would lead them to the sea by anotherroute, it being Ninaka's intention to dispose of the contents of thechest as quickly as possible through the assistance of a rascally Malaywho dwelt at Gunung Tebor, where he carried on a thriving trade withpirates. 

But presently it became apparent that he had not so easily escaped thefruits of his villainy as he had supposed, for upon the evening of thefirst day the rear of his little column was attacked by some ofBarunda's warriors who had forged ahead of their fellows, with theresult that the head of Ninaka's brother went to increase the prestigeand glory of the house of the enemy. 

Ninaka was panic-stricken, since he knew that hampered as he was by theheavy chest he could neither fight nor run to advantage. And so, upona dark night near the head waters of the river he sought, he buried thetreasure at the foot of a mighty buttress tree, and with his parangmade certain cabalistic signs upon the bole whereby he might identifythe spot when it was safe to return and disinter his booty. Then, withhis men, he hastened down the stream until they reached the head ofprahu navigation where they stole a craft and paddled swiftly on towardthe sea. 

When the three bull ourang outangs closed upon Bulan he felt no fear asto the outcome of the battle, for never in his experience had he copedwith any muscles that his own mighty thews could not overcome. But asthe battle continued he realized that there might be a limit to thenumber of antagonists which he could successfully withstand, since hecould scarcely hope with but two hands to reach the throats of threeenemies, or ward off the blows and clutches of six powerful hands, orthe gnashing of three sets of savage fangs. 

When the truth dawned upon him that he was being killed the instinct ofself-preservation was born in him. The ferocity with which he hadfought before paled into insignificance beside the mad fury with whichhe now attacked the three terrible creatures upon him. Shaking himselflike a great lion he freed his arms for a moment from the clingingembrace of his foemen, and seizing the neck of the nearest in hismighty clutch wrenched the head completely around. 

There was one awful shriek from the tortured brute--the vertebraeparted with a snap, and Bulan's antagonists were reduced to two. Lunging and struggling the three combatants stumbled farther andfarther into the jungle beyond the clearing. With mighty blows the manbuffeted the beasts to right and left, but ever they returned inbestial rage to renew the encounter. Bulan was weakening rapidly underthe terrific strain to which he had been subjected, and from loss ofthe blood which flowed from his wounds; yet he was slowly mastering thefoaming brutes, who themselves were torn and bleeding and exhausted. Weaker and weaker became the struggles of them all, when a suddenmisstep sent Bulan stumbling headforemost against the stem of a tree, where, stunned, he sank unconscious, at the mercy of the relentlessbulls. 

They had already sprung upon the prostrate form of their victim tofinish what the accident had commenced, when the loud report of Sing'srevolver smote upon their startled ears as the Chinaman's bullet burieditself in the heart of Number Ten. Never had the ourang outangs heardthe sound of a firearm, and the noise, seemingly in such closeproximity, filled them with such terror that on the instant they forgotall else than this new and startling fear, and with headlong hasteleaped away into the jungle, leaving Bulan lying where he had fallen. 

So it was that though Sing passed within a few paces of the unconsciousman he neither saw nor heard aught of him or his antagonists. 

When Bulan returned to consciousness the day was drawing to a close. He was stiff and sore and weak. His head ached horribly. He thoughtthat he must indeed be dying, for how could one who suffered so revive?But at last he managed to stagger to his feet, and finally to reach thestream along which he had been travelling earlier in the day. Here hequenched his thirst and bathed his wounds, and as darkness came he laydown to sleep upon a bed of matted grasses. 

The next morning found him refreshed and in considerably less pain, forthe powers of recuperation which belonged to his perfect health andmighty physique had already worked an almost miraculous transformationin him. While he was hunting in the jungle for his breakfast he camesuddenly upon Number Three and Number Twelve similarly employed. 

At sight of him the two creatures started to run away, but he called tothem reassuringly and they returned. On closer inspection Bulan sawthat both were covered with terrible wounds, and after questioning themlearned that they had fared almost as badly at the hands of the ourangoutangs as had he. 

"Even the beasts loathe us, " exclaimed Number Twelve. "What are we todo?"

"Leave the beasts alone, as I told you, " replied Bulan. 

"Human beings hate us also, " persisted Number Twelve. 

"Then let us live by ourselves, " suggested Number Three. 

"We hate each other, " retorted the pessimistic Number Twelve. "Thereis no place for us in the world, and no companionship. We are butsoulless things. "

"Stop!" cried Bulan. "I am not a soulless thing. I am a man, andwithin me is as fine and pure a soul as any man may own, " and to hismind's eye came the vision of a fair face surmounted by a mass ofloosely waving, golden hair; but the brainless ones could notunderstand and only shook their heads as they resumed their feeding andforgot the subject. 

When the three had satisfied the cravings of their appetites two ofthem were for lying down to sleep until it should be time to feedagain, but Bulan, once more master, would not permit it, and forcedthem to accompany him in his seemingly futile search for the girl whohad disappeared so mysteriously after he had rescued her from theourang outangs. 

Both Number Twelve and Number Three had assured him that the beasts hadnot recaptured her, for they had seen the entire band flee madlythrough the jungle after hearing the report of the single shot whichhad so terrorized Bulan's antagonists. Bulan did not know what to makeof this occurrence which he had not himself heard, the shot having comeafter he had lost consciousness at the foot of the tree; but from thedescription of the noise given him by Number Twelve he felt sure thatit must have been the report of a gun, and hoped that it betokened thepresence of Virginia Maxon's friends, and that she was now safe intheir keeping. 

Nevertheless he did not relinquish his determination to continue hissearch for her, since it was quite possible that the gun had been firedby a native, many of whom possessed firearms. His first concern wasfor the girl's welfare, which spoke eloquently for the chivalry of hischaracter, and though he wished to see her for the pleasure that itwould give him, the hope of serving her was ever the firstconsideration in his mind. 

He was now confident that he was following the wrong direction, andwith the intention in view of discovering the tracks of the party whichhad rescued or captured Virginia after he had been forced to relinquishher, he set out in a totally new direction away from the river. Hissmall woodcraft and little experience in travelling resulted in hisbecoming completely confused, so that instead of returning to the spotwhere he had last seen the girl, as he wished to do, he bore far to thenortheast of the place, and missed entirely the path which von Horn andhis Dyaks had taken from the long-house into the jungle and back. 

All that day he urged his reluctant companions on through the fearfulheat of the tropics until, almost exhausted, they halted at dusk uponthe bank of a river, where they filled their stomachs with coolingdraughts, and after eating lay down to sleep. It was quite dark whenBulan was aroused by the sound of something approaching from up theriver, and as he lay listening he presently heard the subdued voices ofmen conversing in whispers. He recognized the language as that of theDyaks, though he could interpret nothing which they said. 

Presently he saw a dozen warriors emerge into a little patch ofmoonlight. They bore a huge chest among them which they depositedwithin a few paces of where Bulan lay. Then they commenced to dig inthe soft earth with their spears and parangs until they had excavated ashallow pit. Into this they lowered the chest, covering it over withearth and sprinkling dead grass, twigs and leaves above it, that itmight present to a searcher no sign that the ground had recently beendisturbed. The balance of the loose earth which would not go back intothe pit was thrown into the river. 

When all had been made to appear as it was before, one of the warriorsmade several cuts and scratches upon the stem of a tree which grewabove the spot where the chest was buried; then they hastened on insilence past Bulan and down the river. 

As von Horn stood by the river's bank after his conversation withVirginia, he saw a small sampan approaching from up stream. In it hemade out two natives, and the stealthiness of their approach caused himto withdraw into the shadow of a large prahu which was beached close towhere he had been standing. 

When the men had come close to the landing one of them gave a lowsignal, and presently a native came down from the long-house. 

"Who is it comes by night?" he asked. "And what want you?"

"News has just reached us that Muda Saffir is alive, " replied one ofthe men in the boat, "and that he sleeps this night in your long-house. Is it true?"

"Yes, " answered the man on shore. "What do you wish of the Rajah MudaSaffir?"

"We are men of his company and we have news for him, " returned thespeaker in the sampan. "Tell him that we must speak to him at once. "

The native on shore returned to the long-house without replying. VonHorn wondered what the important news for Muda Saffir might be, and sohe remained as he had been, concealed behind the prahu. 

Presently the old Malay came down to the water's edge--very warilythough--and asked the men whom they might be. When they had giventheir names he seemed relieved. 

"Ninaka, " they said, "has murdered Barunda who was taking the rajah'streasure up to the rajah's stronghold--the treasure which Ninaka hadstolen after trying to murder the rajah and which Barunda hadrecaptured. Now Ninaka, after murdering Barunda, set off through thejungle toward the river which leads to Gunung Tebor, and Barunda'suncle followed him with what few men he had with him; but he sent usdown river to try and find you, master, and beg of you to come withmany men and overtake Ninaka and punish him. "

Muda Saffir thought for a moment. 

"Hasten back to the uncle of Barunda and tell him that as soon as I cangather the warriors I shall come and punish Ninaka. I have anothertreasure here which I must not lose, but I can arrange that it willstill be here when I return for it, and then Barunda's uncle can comeback with me to assist me if assistance is needed. Also, be sure totell Barunda's uncle never to lose sight of the treasure, " and MudaSaffir turned and hastened back to the long-house. 

As the men in the sampan headed the boat's bow up stream again, vonHorn ran along the jungle trail beside the river and abreast of thepaddlers. When he thought that they were out of hearing of thelong-house he hailed the two. In startled surprise the men ceasedpaddling. 

"Who are you and what do you want?" asked one. 

"I am the man to whom the chest belongs, " replied von Horn. "If youwill take me to Barunda's uncle before Muda Saffir reaches him youshall each have the finest rifles that the white man makes, withammunition enough to last you a year. All I ask is that you guide mewithin sight of the party that pursues Ninaka; then you may leave meand tell no one what you have done, nor will I tell any. What say you?"

The two natives consulted together in low tones. At last they drewnearer the shore. 

"Will you give us each a bracelet of brass as well as the rifles?"asked the spokesman. 

Von Horn hesitated. He knew the native nature well. To haveacquiesced too readily would have been to have invited still furtherdemands from them. 

"Only the rifles and ammunition, " he said at last, "unless you succeedin keeping the knowledge of my presence from both Barunda's uncle andMuda Saffir. If you do that you shall have the bracelets also. "

The prow of the sampan touched the bank. 

"Come!" said one of the warriors. 

Von Horn stepped aboard. He was armed only with a brace of Colts, andhe was going into the heart of the wild country of the head hunters, topit his wits against those of the wily Muda Saffir. His guides weretwo savage head hunting warriors of a pirate crew from whom he hoped tosteal what they considered a fabulously rich treasure. Whatever sinsmight be laid to the door of the doctor, there could be no question butthat he was a very brave man!

Von Horn's rash adventure had been suggested by the hope that he might, by bribing some of the natives with Barunda's uncle, make way with thetreasure before Muda Saffir arrived to claim it, or, failing that, learn its exact whereabouts that he might return for it with anadequate force later. That he was taking his life in his hands he wellknew, but so great was the man's cupidity that he reckoned no risk toogreat for the acquirement of a fortune. 

The two Dyaks, paddling in silence up the dark river, proceeded fornearly three hours before they drew in to the bank and dragged thesampan up into the bushes. Then they set out upon a narrow trail intothe jungle. It so happened that after travelling for several milesthey inadvertently took another path than that followed by the partyunder Barunda's uncle, so that they passed the latter without beingaware of it, going nearly half a mile to the right of where thetrailers camped a short distance from the bivouac of Ninaka. 

In the dead of night Ninaka and his party had crawled away under thevery noses of the avengers, taking the chest with them, and by chancevon Horn and the two Dyaks cut back into the main trail along the riveralmost at the very point that Ninaka halted to bury the treasure. 

And so it was that Bulan was not the only one who watched the hiding ofthe chest. 

When Ninaka had disappeared down the river trail Bulan lay speculatingupon the strange actions he had witnessed. He wondered why the menshould dig a hole in the midst of the jungle to hide away the box whichhe had so often seen in Professor Maxon's workshop. It occurred to himthat it might be well to remember just where the thing was buried, sothat he could lead the professor to it should he ever see the old managain. As he lay thus, half dozing, his attention was attracted by astealthy rustling in the bushes nearby, and as he watched he wasdumbfounded to see von Horn creep out into the moonlight. A momentlater the man was followed by two Dyaks. The three stood conversing inlow tones, pointing repeatedly at the spot where the chest lay hidden. Bulan could understand but little of their conversation, but it wasevident that von Horn was urging some proposition to which the warriorsdemurred. 

Suddenly, without an instant's warning, von Horn drew his gun, wheeled, and fired point-blank, first at one of his companions, then at theother. Both men fell in their tracks, and scarcely had the pungentodor of the powder smoke reached Bulan's nostrils ere the white man hadplunged into the jungle and disappeared. 

Failing in his attempt to undermine the loyalty of the two Dyaks vonHorn had chosen the only other way to keep the knowledge of thewhereabouts of the chest from Barunda's uncle and Muda Saffir, and nowhis principal interest in life was to escape the vengeance of the headhunters and return to the long-house before his absence should bedetected. 

There he could form a party of natives and set out to regain the chestafter Muda Saffir and Barunda's uncle had given up the quest. Thatsuspicion should fall on him seemed scarcely credible since the onlymen who knew that he had left the long-house that night lay dead uponthe very spot where the treasure reposed. 

14

MAN OR MONSTER?

When Muda Saffir turned from the two Dyaks who had brought him news ofthe treasure he hastened to the long-house and arousing the chief ofthe tribe who domiciled there explained that necessity required thatthe rajah have at once two war prahus fully manned. Now the power ofthe crafty old Malay extended from one end of this great river on whichthe long-house lay to the other, and though not all the tribes admittedallegiance to him, yet there were few who would not furnish him withmen and boats when he required them; for his piratical cruises carriedhim often up and down the stream, and with his savage horde it waspossible for him to wreak summary and terrible vengeance upon those whoopposed him. 

When he had explained his wishes to the chief, the latter, though atheart hating and fearing Muda Saffir, dared not refuse; but to a secondproposition he offered strong opposition until the rajah threatened towipe out his entire tribe should he not accede to his demands. 

The thing which the chief demurred to had occurred to Muda Saffir evenas he walked back from the river after conversing with the two Dyakmessengers. The thought of regaining the treasure, the while headministered punishment to the traitorous Ninaka, filled his soul withsavage happiness. Now if he could but once more possess himself of thegirl! And why not? There was only the sick old man, a Chinaman andvon Horn to prevent it, and the chances were that they all were asleep. 

So he explained to the chief the plan that had so suddenly sprung tohis wicked mind. 

"Three men with parangs may easily quiet the old man, his assistant andthe Chinaman, " he said, "and then we can take the girl along with us. "

The chief refused at first, point-blank, to be a party to any suchproceedings. He knew what had happened to the Sakkaran Dyaks afterthey had murdered a party of Englishmen, and he did not purpose layinghimself and his tribe open to the vengeance of the white men who camein many boats and with countless guns and cannon to take a terribletoll for every drop of white blood spilled. 

So it was that Muda Saffir was forced to compromise, and be satisfiedwith the chief's assistance in abducting the girl, for it was not sodifficult a matter to convince the head hunter that she really hadbelonged to the rajah, and that she had been stolen from him by the oldman and the doctor. 

Virginia slept in a room with three Dyak women. It was to thisapartment that the chief finally consented to dispatch two of hiswarriors. The men crept noiselessly within the pitch dark interioruntil they came to the sleeping form of one of the Dyak women. Cautiously they awoke her. 

"Where is the white girl?" asked one of the men in a low whisper. "Muda Saffir has sent us for her. Tell her that her father is verysick and wants her, but do not mention Muda Saffir's name lest shemight not come. "

The whispering awakened Virginia and she lay wondering what the causeof the midnight conference might be, for she recognized that one of thespeakers was a man, and there had been no man in the apartment when shehad gone to sleep earlier in the night. 

Presently she heard some one approach her, and a moment later a woman'svoice addressed her; but she could not understand enough of the nativetongue to make out precisely the message the speaker wished to convey. The words "father, " "sick, " and "come, " however she finally understoodafter several repetitions, for she had picked up a smattering of theDyak language during her enforced association with the natives. 

The moment that the possibilities suggested by these few words dawnedupon her, she sprang to her feet and followed the woman toward the doorof the apartment. Immediately without the two warriors stood upon theverandah awaiting their victim, and as Virginia passed through thedoorway she was seized roughly from either side, a heavy hand wasclapped over her mouth, and before she could make even an effort torebel she had been dragged to the end of the verandah, down the notchedlog to the ground and a moment later found herself in a war prahu whichwas immediately pushed into the stream. 

Since Virginia had come to the long-house after her rescue from theourang outangs, supposedly by von Horn, Rajah Muda Saffir had kept verymuch out of sight, for he knew that should the girl see him she wouldrecognize him as the man who had stolen her from the Ithaca. So itcame as a mighty shock to the girl when she heard the hated tones ofthe man whom she had knocked overboard from the prahu two nightsbefore, and realized that the bestial Malay sat close beside her, andthat she was again in his power. She looked now for no mercy, norcould she hope to again escape him so easily as she had before, and soshe sat with bowed head in the bottom of the swiftly moving craft, buried in anguished thoughts, hopeless and miserable. 

Along the stretch of black river that the prahu and her consort coveredthat night Virginia Maxon saw no living thing other than a singlefigure in a small sampan which hugged the shadows of the shore as thetwo larger boats met and passed it, nor answered their hail. 

Where von Horn and his two Dyak guides had landed, Muda Saffir's forcedisembarked and plunged into the jungle. Rapidly they hastened alongthe well known trail toward the point designated by the two messengers, to come upon the spot almost simultaneously with the party underBarunda's uncle, who, startled by the two shots several hourspreviously, had been cautiously searching through the jungle for anexplanation of them. 

They had gone warily for fear that they might stumble upon Ninaka'sparty before Muda Saffir arrived with reinforcements, and but just nowhad they discovered the prostrate forms of their two companions. Onewas dead, but the other was still conscious and had just sufficientvitality left after the coming of his fellows to whisper that they hadbeen treacherously shot by the younger white man who had been at thelong-house where they had found Muda Saffir--then the fellow expiredwithout having an opportunity to divulge the secret hiding place of thetreasure, over the top of which his body lay. 

Now Bulan had been an interested witness of all that transpired. Atfirst he had been inclined to come out of his hiding place and followvon Horn, but so much had already occurred beneath the branches of thegreat tree where the chest lay hidden that he decided to wait untilmorning at least, for he was sure that he had by no means seen the lastof the drama which surrounded the heavy box. This belief wasstrengthened by the haste displayed by both Ninaka and von Horn toescape the neighborhood as quickly as possible, as though they fearedthat they might be apprehended should they delay even for a moment. 

Number Three and Number Twelve still slept, not having been arousedeven by the shots fired by von Horn. Bulan himself had dozed after thedeparture of the doctor, but the advent of Barunda's uncle with hisfollowers had awakened him, and now he lay wide eyed and alert as thesecond party, under Muda Saffir, came into view when they left thejungle trail and entered the clearing. 

His interest in either party was but passive until he saw the khakiblouse, short skirt and trim leggins of the captive walking between twoof the Dyaks of Muda Saffir's company. At the same instant herecognized the evil features of the rajah as those of the man who haddirected the abduction of Virginia Maxon from the wrecked Ithaca. 

Like a great cat Bulan drew himself cautiously to all fours--everynerve and muscle taut with the excitement of the moment. Before him hesaw a hundred and fifty ferocious Borneo head hunters, armed withparangs, spears and sumpitans. At his back slept two almost brainlesscreatures--his sole support against the awful odds he must face beforehe could hope to succor the divinity whose image was enshrined in hisbrave and simple heart. 

The muscles stood out upon his giant forearm as he gripped the stock ofhis bull whip. He believed that he was going to his death, for mightyas were his thews he knew that in the face of the horde they wouldavail him little, yet he saw no other way than to sit supinely by whilethe girl went to her doom, and that he could not do. He nudged NumberTwelve. "Silence!" he whispered, and "Come! The girl is here. Wemust save her. Kill the men, " and the same to the hairy and terribleNumber Three. 

Both the creatures awoke and rose to their hands and knees withoutnoise that could be heard above the chattering of the natives, who hadcrowded forward to view the dead bodies of von Horn's victims. Silently Bulan came to his feet, the two monsters at his back risingand pressing close behind him. Along the denser shadows the threecrept to a position in the rear of the natives. The girl's guards hadstepped forward with the others to join in the discussion that followedthe dying statement of the murdered warrior, leaving her upon the outerfringe of the crowd. 

For an instant a sudden hope of escape sprang to Virginia Maxon'smind--there was none between her and the jungle through which they hadjust passed. Though unknown dangers lurked in the black and uncannydepths of the dismal forest, would not death in any form be farpreferable to the hideous fate which awaited her in the person of thebestial Malay pirate?

She had turned to take the first step toward freedom when three figuresemerged from the wall of darkness behind her. She saw the war-caps, shields, and war-coats, and her heart sank. Here were others of therajah's party--stragglers who had come just in time to thwart herplans. How large these men were--she never had seen a native of suchgiant proportions; and now they had come quite close to her, and as theforemost stooped to speak to her she shrank back in fear. Then, to hersurprise, she heard in whispered English; "Come quietly, while they arenot looking. "

She thought the voice familiar, but could not place it, though herheart whispered that it might belong to the young stranger of herdreams. He reached out and took her hand and together they turned andwalked quickly toward the jungle, followed by the two who hadaccompanied him. 

Scarcely had they covered half the distance before one of the Dyakswhose duty it had been to guard the girl discovered that she was gone. With a cry he alarmed his fellows, and in another instant a sharp pairof eyes caught the movement of the four who had now broken into a run. 

With savage shouts the entire force of head hunters sprang in pursuit. Bulan lifted Virginia in his arms and dashed on ahead of Number Twelveand Number Three. A shower of poisoned darts blown from half a hundredsumpitans fell about them, and then Muda Saffir called to his warriorsto cease using their deadly blow-pipes lest they kill the girl. 

Into the jungle dashed the four while close behind them came thehowling pack of enraged savages. Now one closed upon Number Three onlyto fall back dead with a broken neck as the giant fingers releasedtheir hold upon him. A parang swung close to Number Twelve, but hisown, which he had now learned to wield with fearful effect, clovethrough the pursuing warrior's skull splitting him wide to the breastbone. 

Thus they fought the while they forced their way deeper and deeper intothe dark mazes of the entangled vegetation. The brunt of the runningbattle was borne by the two monsters, for Bulan was carrying Virginia, and keeping a little ahead of his companions to insure the girl'sgreater safety. 

Now and then patches of moonlight filtering through occasional openingsin the leafy roofing revealed to Virginia the battle that was beingwaged for possession of her, and once, when Number Three turned towardher after disposing of a new assailant, she was horrified to see thegrotesque and terrible face of the creature. A moment later she caughtsight of Number Twelve's hideous face. She was appalled. 

Could it be that she had been rescued from the Malay to fall into thehands of creatures equally heartless and entirely without souls? Sheglanced up at the face of him who carried her. In the darkness of thenight she had not yet had an opportunity to see the features of theman, but after a glimpse at those of his two companions she trembled tothink of the hideous thing that might be revealed to her. 

Could it be that she had at last fallen into the hands of the dreadedand terrible Number Thirteen! Instinctively she shrank from contactwith the man in whose arms she had been carried without a trace ofrepugnance until the thought obtruded itself that he might be thecreature of her father's mad experimentation, to whose arms she hadbeen doomed by the insane obsession of her parent. 

The man shifted her now to give himself freer use of his right arm, forthe savages were pressing more closely upon Twelve and Three, and thechange made it impossible for the girl to see his face even in the morefrequent moonlit places. 

But she could see the two who ran and fought just behind them, and sheshuddered at her inevitable fate. For should the three be successfulin bearing her away from the Dyaks she must face an unknown doom, whileshould the natives recapture her there was the terrible Malay intowhose clutches she had already twice fallen. 

Now the head hunters were pressing closer, and suddenly, even as thegirl looked directly at him, a spear passed through the heart of NumberThree. Clutching madly at the shaft protruding from his misshapen bodythe grotesque thing stumbled on for a dozen paces, and then sank to theground as two of the brown warriors sprang upon him with naked parangs. An instant later Virginia Maxon saw the hideous and grisly headswinging high in the hand of a dancing, whooping savage. 

The man who carried her was now forced to turn and fight off the enemythat pressed forward past Number Twelve. The mighty bull whip whirledand cracked across the heads and faces of the Dyaks. It was aformidable weapon when backed by the Herculean muscles that rolled andshifted beneath Bulan's sun-tanned skin, and many were the brownwarriors that went down beneath its cruel lash. 

Virginia could see that the creature who bore her was not deformed ofbody, but she shrank from the thought of what a sight of his face mightreveal. How much longer the two could fight off the horde at theirheels the girl could not guess; and as a matter of fact she wasindifferent to the outcome of the strange, running battle that wasbeing waged with herself as the victor's spoil. 

The country now was becoming rougher and more open. The flight seemedto be leading into a range of low hills, where the jungle grew lessdense, and the way rocky and rugged. They had entered a narrow canyonwhen Number Twelve went down beneath a half dozen parangs. Again thegirl saw a bloody head swung on high and heard the fierce, wild chorusof exulting victory. She wondered how long it would be ere thecreature beneath her would add his share to the grim trophies of thehunt. 

In the interval that the head hunters had paused to sever NumberTwelve's head, Bulan had gained fifty yards upon them, and then, of asudden, he came to a sheer wall rising straight across the narrow trailhe had been following. Ahead there was no way--a cat could scarce havescaled that formidable barrier--but to the right he discerned whatappeared to be a steep and winding pathway up the canyon's side, andwith a bound he clambered along it to where it surmounted the rockywall. 

There he turned, winded, to await the oncoming foe. Here was a spotwhere a single man might defy an army, and Bulan had been quick to seethe natural advantages of it. He placed the girl upon her feet behinda protruding shoulder of the canyon's wall which rose to a considerabledistance still above them. Then he turned to face the mob that wassurging up the narrow pathway toward him. 

At his feet lay an accumulation of broken rock from the hillside above, and as a spear sped, singing, close above his shoulder, the occurrencesuggested a use for the rough and jagged missiles which lay about himin such profusion. Many of the pieces were large, weighing twenty andthirty pounds, and some even as much as fifty. Picking up one of thelarger Bulan raised it high above his head, and then hurled it downamongst the upclimbing warriors. In an instant pandemonium reigned, for the heavy boulder had mowed down a score of the pursuers, breakingarms and legs in its meteoric descent. 

Missile after missile Bulan rained down upon the struggling, howlingDyaks, until, seized by panic, they turned and fled incontinently downinto the depths of the canyon and back along the narrow trail they hadcome, and then superstitious fear completed the rout that the flyingrocks had started, for one whispered to another that this was theterrible Bulan and that he had but lured them on into the hills that hemight call forth all his demons and destroy them. 

For a moment Bulan stood watching the retreating savages, a smile uponhis lips, and then as the sudden equatorial dawn burst forth he turnedto face the girl. 

As Virginia Maxon saw the fine features of the giant where she hadexpected to find the grotesque and hideous lineaments of a monster, shegave a quick little cry of pleasure and relief. 

"Thank God!" she cried fervently. "Thank God that you are a man--Ithought that I was in the clutches of the hideous and soulless monster, Number Thirteen. "

The smile upon the young man's face died. An expression of pain, andhopelessness, and sorrow swept across his features. The girl saw thechange, and wondered, but how could she guess the grievous wound herwords had inflicted?

15

TOO LATE

For a moment the two stood in silence; Bulan tortured by thoughts ofthe bitter humiliation that he must suffer when the girl should learnhis identity; Virginia wondering at the sad lines that had come intothe young man's face, and at his silence. 

It was the girl who first spoke. "Who are you, " she asked, "to whom Iowe my safety?"

The man hesitated. To speak aught than the truth had never occurred tohim during his brief existence. He scarcely knew how to lie. To him aquestion demanded but one manner of reply--the facts. But never beforehad he had to face a question where so much depended upon his answer. He tried to form the bitter, galling words; but a vision of that lovelyface suddenly transformed with horror and disgust throttled the name inhis throat. 

"I am Bulan, " he said, at last, quietly. 

"Bulan, " repeated the girl. "Bulan. Why that is a native name. Youare either an Englishman or an American. What is your true name?"

"My name is Bulan, " he insisted doggedly. 

Virginia Maxon thought that he must have some good reason of his ownfor wishing to conceal his identity. At first she wondered if he couldbe a fugitive from justice--the perpetrator of some horrid crime, whodared not divulge his true name even in the remote fastness of aBornean wilderness; but a glance at his frank and noble countenancedrove every vestige of the traitorous thought from her mind. Herwoman's intuition was sufficient guarantee of the nobility of hischaracter. 

"Then let me thank you, Mr. Bulan, " she said, "for the service that youhave rendered a strange and helpless woman. "

He smiled. 

"Just Bulan, " he said. "There is no need for Miss or Mister in thesavage jungle, Virginia. "

The girl flushed at the sudden and unexpected use of her given name, and was surprised that she was not offended. 

"How do you know my name?" she asked. 

Bulan saw that he would get into deep water if he attempted to explaintoo much, and, as is ever the way, discovered that one deception hadled him into another; so he determined to forestall future embarrassingqueries by concocting a story immediately to explain his presence andhis knowledge. 

"I lived upon the island near your father's camp, " he said. "I knewyou all--by sight. "

"How long have you lived there?" asked the girl. "We thought theisland uninhabited. "

"All my life, " replied Bulan truthfully. 

"It is strange, " she mused. "I cannot understand it. But themonsters--how is it that they followed you and obeyed your commands?"

Bulan touched the bull whip that hung at his side. 

"Von Horn taught them to obey this, " he said. 

"He used that upon them?" cried the girl in horror. 

"It was the only way, " said Bulan. "They were almost brainless--theycould understand nothing else, for they could not reason. "

Virginia shuddered. 

"Where are they now--the balance of them?" she asked. 

"They are dead, poor things, " he replied, sadly. "Poor, hideous, unloved, unloving monsters--they gave up their lives for the daughterof the man who made them the awful, repulsive creatures that they were. "

"What do you mean?" cried the girl. 

"I mean that all have been killed searching for you, and battling withyour enemies. They were soulless creatures, but they loved the meanlives they gave up so bravely for you whose father was the author oftheir misery--you owe a great deal to them, Virginia. "

"Poor things, " murmured the girl, "but yet they are better off, forwithout brains or souls there could be no happiness in life for them. My father did them a hideous wrong, but it was an unintentional wrong. His mind was crazed with dwelling upon the wonderful discovery he hadmade, and if he wronged them he contemplated a still more terriblewrong to be inflicted upon me, his daughter. "

"I do not understand, " said Bulan. 

"It was his intention to give me in marriage to one of his soullessmonsters--to the one he called Number Thirteen. Oh, it is terribleeven to think of the hideousness of it; but now they are all dead hecannot do it even though his poor mind, which seems well again, shouldsuffer a relapse. "

"Why do you loathe them so?" asked Bulan. "Is it because they arehideous, or because they are soulless?"

"Either fact were enough to make them repulsive, " replied the girl, "but it is the fact that they were without souls that made them totallyimpossible--one easily overlooks physical deformity, but the moraldepravity that must be inherent in a creature without a soul mustforever cut him off from intercourse with human beings. "

"And you think that regardless of their physical appearance the factthat they were without souls would have been apparent?" asked Bulan. 

"I am sure of it, " cried Virginia. "I would know the moment I set myeyes upon a creature without a soul. "

With all the sorrow that was his, Bulan could scarce repress a smile, for it was quite evident either that it was impossible to perceive asoul, or else that he possessed one. 

"Just how do you distinguish the possessor of a soul?" he asked. 

The girl cast a quick glance up at him. 

"You are making fun of me, " she said. 

"Not at all, " he replied. "I am just curious as to how souls makethemselves apparent. I have seen men kill one another as beasts kill. I have seen one who was cruel to those within his power, yet they wereall men with souls. I have seen eleven soulless monsters die to savethe daughter of a man whom they believed had wronged them terribly--aman with a soul. How then am I to know what attributes denote thepossession of the immortal spark? How am I to know whether or not Ipossess a soul?"

Virginia smiled. 

"You are courageous and honorable and chivalrous--those are enough towarrant the belief that you have a soul, were it not apparent from yourcountenance that you are of the higher type of mankind, " she said. 

"I hope that you will never change your opinion of me, Virginia, " saidthe man; but he knew that there lay before her a severe shock, andbefore him a great sorrow when they should come to where her father wasand the girl should learn the truth concerning him. 

That he did not himself tell her may be forgiven him, for he had only alife of misery to look forward to after she should know that he, too, was equally a soulless monster with the twelve that had preceded him toa merciful death. He would have envied them but for the anticipationof the time that he might be alone with her before she learned thetruth. 

As he pondered the future there came to him the thought that shouldthey never find Professor Maxon or von Horn the girl need never knowbut that he was a human being. He need not lose her then, but alwaysbe near her. The idea grew and with it the mighty temptation to leadVirginia Maxon far into the jungle, and keep her forever from the sightof men. And why not? Had he not saved her where others had failed?Was she not, by all that was just and fair, his?

Did he owe any loyalty to either her father or von Horn? Already hehad saved Professor Maxon's life, so the obligation, if there was any, lay all against the older man; and three times he had saved Virginia. He would be very kind and good to her. She should be much happier anda thousand times safer than with those others who were so poorlyequipped to protect her. 

As he stood silently gazing out across the jungle beneath them towardthe new sun the girl watched him in a spell of admiration of his strongand noble face, and his perfect physique. What would have been heremotions had she guessed what thoughts were his! It was she who brokethe silence. 

"Can you find the way to the long-house where my father is?" she asked. 

Bulan, startled at the question, looked up from his reverie. The thingmust be faced, then, sooner than he thought. How was he to tell her ofhis intention? It occurred to him to sound her first--possibly shewould make no objection to the plan. 

"You are anxious to return?" he asked. 

"Why, yes, of course, I am, " she replied. "My father will be half madwith apprehension, until he knows that I am safe. What a strangequestion, indeed. " Still, however, she did not doubt the motives ofher companion. 

"Suppose we should be unable to find our way to the long-house?" hecontinued. 

"Oh, don't say such a thing, " cried the girl. "It would be terrible. I should die of misery and fright and loneliness in this awful jungle. Surely you can find your way to the river--it was but a short marchthrough the jungle from where we landed to the spot at which you tookme away from that fearful Malay. "

The girl's words cast a cloud over Bulan's hopes. The future lookedless roseate with the knowledge that she would be unhappy in the lifethat he had been mapping for them. He was silent--thinking. In hisbreast a riot of conflicting emotions were waging the first greatbattle which was to point the trend of the man's character--would theselfish and the base prevail, or would the noble?

With the thought of losing her his desire for her companionship becamealmost a mania. To return her to her father and von Horn would be tolose her--of that there could be no doubt, for they would not leave herlong in ignorance of his origin. Then, in addition to being deprivedof her forever, he must suffer the galling mortification of her scorn. 

It was a great deal to ask of a fledgling morality that was yetscarcely cognizant of its untried wings; but even as the man waveredbetween right and wrong there crept into his mind the one great andburning question of his life--had he a soul? And he knew that upon hisdecision of the fate of Virginia Maxon rested to some extent the trueanswer to that question, for, unconsciously, he had worked out his owncrude soul hypothesis which imparted to this invisible entity the powerto direct his actions only for good. Therefore he reasoned thatwickedness presupposed a small and worthless soul, or the entire lackof one. 

That she would hate a soulless creature he accepted as a foregoneconclusion. He desired her respect, and that fact helped him to hisfinal decision, but the thing that decided him was born of the trulychivalrous nature he possessed--he wanted Virginia Maxon to be happy;it mattered not at what cost to him. 

The girl had been watching him closely as he stood silently thinkingafter her last words. She did not know the struggle that the calm facehid; yet she felt that the dragging moments were big with the questionof her fate. 

"Well?" she said at length. 

"We must eat first, " he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, and not atall as though he was about to renounce his life's happiness, "and thenwe shall set out in search of your father. I shall take you to him, Virginia, if man can find him. "

"I knew that you could, " she said, simply, "but how my father and Iever can repay you I do not know--do you?"

"Yes, " said Bulan, and there was a sudden rush of fire to his eyes thatkept Virginia Maxon from urging a detailed explanation of just how shemight repay him. 

In truth she did not know whether to be angry, or frightened, or gladof the truth that she read there; or mortified that it had awakened inher a realization that possibly an analysis of her own interest in thisyoung stranger might reveal more than she had imagined. 

The constraint that suddenly fell upon them was relieved when Bulanmotioned her to follow him back down the trail into the gorge in searchof food. There they sat together upon a fallen tree beside a tinyrivulet, eating the fruit that the man gathered. Often their eyes metas they talked, but always the girl's fell before the open worship ofthe man's. 

Many were the men who had looked in admiration at Virginia Maxon in thepast, but never, she felt, with eyes so clean and brave and honest. There was no guile or evil in them, and because of it she wondered allthe more that she could not face them. 

"What a wonderful soul those eyes portray, " she thought, "and howperfectly they assure the safety of my life and honor while their owneris near me. "

And the man thought: "Would that I owned a soul that I might aspire tolive always near her--always to protect her. "

When they had eaten the two set out once more in search of the river, and the confidence that is born of ignorance was theirs, so that beyondeach succeeding tangled barrier of vines and creepers they looked tosee the swirling stream that would lead them to the girl's father. 

On and on they trudged, the man often carrying the girl across therougher obstacles and through the little streams that crossed theirpath, until at last came noon, and yet no sign of the river theysought. The combined jungle craft of the two had been insufficienteither to trace the way that they had come, or point the generaldirection of the river. 

As the afternoon drew to a close Virginia Maxon commenced to loseheart--she was confident that they were lost. Bulan made no pretenceof knowing the way, the most that he would say being that eventuallythey must come to the river. As a matter-of-fact had it not been forthe girl's evident concern he would have been glad to know that theywere irretrievably lost; but for her sake his efforts to find the riverwere conscientious. 

When at last night closed down upon them the girl was, at heart, terrorstricken, but she hid her true state from the man, because she knewthat their plight was no fault of his. The strange and uncanny noisesof the jungle night filled her with the most dreadful forebodings, andwhen a cold, drizzling rain set in upon them her cup of misery was full. 

Bulan rigged a rude shelter for her, making her lie down beneath it, and then he removed his Dyak war-coat and threw it over her, but it washours before her exhausted body overpowered her nervous fright and wona fitful and restless slumber. Several times Virginia became obsessedwith the idea that Bulan had left her alone there in the jungle, butwhen she called his name he answered from close beside her shelter. 

She thought that he had reared another for himself nearby, but even thethought that he might sleep filled her with dread, yet she would notcall to him again, since she knew that he needed his rest even morethan she. And all the night Bulan stood close beside the woman he hadlearned to love--stood almost naked in the chill night air and the coldrain, lest some savage man or beast creep out of the darkness after herwhile he slept. 

The next day with its night, and the next, and the next were butrepetitions of the first. It had become an agony of suffering for theman to fight off sleep longer. The girl read part of the truth in hisheavy eyes and worn face, and tried to force him to take needed rest, but she did not guess that he had not slept for four days and nights. 

At last abused Nature succumbed to the terrific strain that had beenput upon her, and the giant constitution of the man went down beforethe cold and the wet, weakened and impoverished by loss of sleep andinsufficient food; for through the last two days he had been able tofind but little, and that little he had given to the girl, telling herthat he had eaten his fill while he gathered hers. 

It was on the fifth morning, when Virginia awoke, that she found Bulanrolling and tossing upon the wet ground before her shelter, deliriouswith fever. At the sight of the mighty figure reduced to pitiableinefficiency and weakness, despite the knowledge that her protectorcould no longer protect, the fear of the jungle faded from the heart ofthe young girl--she was no more a weak and trembling daughter of aneffete civilization. Instead she was a lioness, watching over andprotecting her sick mate. The analogy did not occur to her, butsomething else did as she saw the flushed face and fever wracked bodyof the man whose appeal to her she would have thought purely physicalhad she given the subject any analytic consideration; and as arealization of his utter helplessness came to her she bent over him andkissed first his forehead and then his lips. 

"What a noble and unselfish love yours has been, " she murmured. "Youhave even tried to hide it that my position might be the easier tobear, and now that it may be too late I learn that I love you--that Ihave always loved you. Oh, Bulan, my Bulan, what a cruel fate thatpermitted us to find one another only to die together!"

16

SING SPEAKS

For a week Professor Maxon with von Horn and Sing sought for Virginia. They could get no help from the natives of the long-house, who fearedthe vengeance of Muda Saffir should he learn that they had aided thewhite men upon his trail. 

And always as the three hunted through the jungle and up and down theriver there lurked ever near a handful of the men of the tribe of thetwo whom von Horn had murdered, waiting for the chance that would givethem revenge and the heads of the three they followed. They feared theguns of the white men too much to venture an open attack, and at nightthe quarry never abated their watchfulness, so that days dragged on, and still the three continued their hopeless quest unconscious of therelentless foe that dogged their footsteps. 

Von Horn was always searching for an opportunity to enlist the aid ofthe friendly natives in an effort to regain the chest, but so far hehad found none who would agree to accompany him even in considerationof a large share of the booty. It was the treasure alone which kepthim to the search for Virginia Maxon, and he made it a point to directthe hunt always in the vicinity of the spot where it was buried, for agreat fear consumed him that Ninaka might return and claim it before hehad a chance to make away with it. 

Three times during the week they returned and slept at the long-house, hoping each time to learn that the natives had received some news ofher they sought, through the wonderful channels of communication thatseemed always open across the trackless jungle and up and down thesavage, lonely rivers. 

For two days Bulan lay raving in the delirium of fever, while thedelicate girl, unused to hardship and exposure, watched over him andnursed him with the loving tenderness and care of a young mother withher first born. 

For the most part the young giant's ravings were inarticulate, but nowand then Virginia heard her name linked with words of reverence andworship. The man fought again the recent battles he had passedthrough, and again suffered the long night watches beside the sleepinggirl who filled his heart. Then it was that she learned the truth ofhis self-sacrificing devotion. The thing that puzzled her most was therepetition of a number and a name which ran through all hisdelirium--"Nine ninety nine Priscilla. "

She could make neither head nor tail of it, nor was there another wordto give a clue to its meaning, so at last from constant repetition itbecame a commonplace and she gave it no further thought. 

The girl had given up hope that Bulan ever could recover, so weak andemaciated had he become, and when the fever finally left him quitesuddenly she was positive that it was the beginning of the end. It wason the morning of the seventh day since they had commenced theirwandering in search of the long-house that, as she sat watching him, she saw his eyes resting upon her face with a look of recognition. 

Gently she took his hand, and at the act he smiled at her very weakly. 

"You are better, Bulan, " she said. "You have been very sick, but nowyou shall soon be well again. "

She did not believe her own words, yet the mere saying of them gave herrenewed hope. 

"Yes, " replied the man. "I shall soon be well again. How long have Ibeen like this?"

"For two days, " she replied. 

"And you have watched over me alone in the jungle for two days?" heasked incredulously. 

"Had it been for life, " she said in a low voice, "it would scarce haverepaid the debt I owe you. "

For a long time he lay looking up into her eyes--longingly, wistfully. 

"I wish that it had been for life, " he said. 

At first she did not quite realize what he meant, but presently thetired and hopeless expression of his eyes brought to her a suddenknowledge of his meaning. 

"Oh, Bulan, " she cried, "you must not say that. Why should you wish todie?"

"Because I love you, Virginia, " he replied. "And because, when youknow what I am, you will hate and loathe me. "

On the girl's lips was an avowal of her own love, but as she bentcloser to whisper the words in his ear there came the sound of mencrashing through the jungle, and as she turned to face the peril thatshe thought approaching, von Horn sprang into view, while directlybehind him came her father and Sing Lee. 

Bulan saw them at the same instant, and as Virginia ran forward togreet her father he staggered weakly to his feet. Von Horn was thefirst to see the young giant, and with an oath sprang toward him, drawing his revolver as he came. 

"You beast, " he cried. "We have caught you at last. "

At the words Virginia turned back toward Bulan with a little scream ofwarning and of horror. Professor Maxon was behind her. 

"Shoot the monster, von Horn, " he ordered. "Do not let him escape. "

Bulan drew himself to his full height, and though he wavered fromweakness, yet he towered mighty and magnificent above the evil facedman who menaced him. 

"Shoot!" he said calmly. "Death cannot come too soon now. "

At the same instant von Horn pulled the trigger. The giant's head fellback, he staggered, whirled about, and crumpled to the earth just asVirginia Maxon's arms closed about him. 

Von Horn rushed close and pushing the girl aside pressed the muzzle ofhis gun to Bulan's temple, but an avalanche of wrinkled, yellow skinwas upon him before he could pull the trigger a second time, and Singhad hurled him back a dozen feet and snatched his weapon. 

Moaning and sobbing Virginia threw herself upon the body of the man sheloved, while Professor Maxon hurried to her side to drag her away fromthe soulless thing for whom he had once intended her. 

Like a tigress the girl turned upon the two white men. 

"You are murderers, " she cried. "Cowardly murderers. Weak andexhausted by fever he could not combat you, and so you have robbed theworld of one of the noblest men that God ever created. "

"Hush!" cried Professor Maxon. "Hush, child, you do not know what yousay. The thing was a monster--a soulless monster. "

At the words the girl looked up quickly at her father, a faintrealization of his meaning striking her like a blow in the face. 

"What do you mean?" she whispered. "Who was he?"

It was von Horn who answered. 

"No god created that, " he said, with a contemptuous glance at the stillbody of the man at their feet. "He was one of the creatures of yourfather's mad experiments--the soulless thing for whose arms his insaneobsession doomed you. The thing at your feet, Virginia, was NumberThirteen. "

With a piteous little moan the girl turned back toward the body of theyoung giant. A faltering step she took toward it, and then to thehorror of her father she sank upon her knees beside it and lifting theman's head in her arms covered the face with kisses. 

"Virginia!" cried the professor. "Are you mad, child?"

"I am not mad, " she moaned, "not yet. I love him. Man or monster, itwould have been all the same to me, for I loved him. "

Her father turned away, burying his face in his hands. 

"God!" he muttered. "What an awful punishment you have visited upon mefor the sin of the thing I did. "

The silence which followed was broken by Sing who had kneeled oppositeVirginia upon the other side of Bulan, where he was feeling the giant'swrists and pressing his ear close above his heart. 

"Do'n cly, Linee, " said the kindly old Chinaman. "Him no dlead. "Then, as he poured a pinch of brownish powder into the man's mouth froma tiny sack he had brought forth from the depths of one of his sleeves:"Him no mlonster either, Linee. Him white man, alsame Mlaxon. Singknow. "

The girl looked up at him in gratitude. 

"He is not dead, Sing? He will live?" she cried. "I don't care aboutanything else, Sing, if you will only make him live. "

"Him live. Gettem lilee flesh wounds. Las all. "

"What do you mean by saying that he is not a monster?" demanded vonHorn. 

"You waitee, you dam flool, " cried Sing. "I tellee lot more I know. You waitee I flixee him, and then, by God, I flixee you. "

Von Horn took a menacing step toward the Chinaman, his face black withwrath, but Professor Maxon interposed. 

"This has gone quite far enough, Doctor von Horn, " he said. "It may bethat we acted hastily. I do not know, of course, what Sing means, butI intend to find out. He has been very faithful to us, and deservesevery consideration. "

Von Horn stepped back, still scowling. Sing poured a little waterbetween Bulan's lips, and then asked Professor Maxon for his brandyflask. With the first few drops of the fiery liquid the giant'seyelids moved, and a moment later he raised them and looked about him. 

The first face he saw was Virginia's. It was full of love andcompassion. 

"They have not told you yet?" he asked. 

"Yes, " she replied. "They have told me, but it makes no difference. You have given me the right to say it, Bulan, and I do say it nowagain, before them all--I love you, and that is all there is that makesany difference. "

A look of happiness lighted his face momentarily, only to fade asquickly as it had come. 

"No, Virginia, " he said, sadly, "it would not be right. It would bewicked. I am not a human being. I am only a soulless monster. Youcannot mate with such as I. You must go away with your father. Soonyou will forget me. "

"Never, Bulan!" cried the girl, determinedly. 

The man was about to attempt to dissuade her, when Sing interrupted. 

"You keepee still, Bulan, " he said. "You wait till Sing tellee. Youno mlonster. Mlaxon he no makee you. Sing he find you in low bloatjus' outsidee cove. You dummy. No know nothing. No know namee. Noknow where comee from. No talkee. 

"Sing he jes' hearee Mlaxon tellee Hornee 'bout Nlumber Thlirteen. Howhe makee him for Linee. Makee Linee mally him. Sing he know whatkindee fleaks Mlaxon makee. Linee always good to old Sing. Sing hebeen peeking thlu clack in wallee. See blig vlat where Thlirteengrowing. 

"Sing he takee you to Sing's shackee that night. Hide you tillevlybody sleep. Then he sneak you in workee shop. Kickee over vlat. Leaves you. Nex' mlorning Mlaxon makee blig hulabaloo. Dance up anddownee. Whoop! Thlirteen clome too soonee, but allight; him finee, perfec' man. Whoop!

"Anyway, you heap better for Linee than one Mlaxon's fleaks, " heconcluded, turning toward Bulan. 

"You are lying, you yellow devil, " cried von Horn. 

The Chinaman turned his shrewd, slant eyes malevolently upon the doctor. 

"Sing lies?" he hissed. "Mabbeso Sing lies when he ask what for youglet Bludleen steal tleasure. But Lajah Saffir he come and spoil itall while you tly glet Linee to the ship--Sing knows. 

"Then you tellee Mlaxon Thlirteen steal Linee. You lie then and youknew you lie. You lie again when Thlirteen savee Linee flom OulangOutang--you say you savee Linee. 

"Then you make bad talkee with Lajah Saffir at long-house. Sing hearyou all timee. You tly getee tleasure away from Dlyaks for your self. Then--"

"Stop!" roared von Horn. "Stop! You lying yellow sneak, before I puta bullet in you. "

"Both of you may stop now, " said Professor Maxon authoritatively. "There have been charges made here that cannot go unnoticed. Can youprove these things Sing?" he asked turning to the Chinaman. 

"I plove much by Bludleen's lascar. Bludleen tell him all 'boutHornee. I plove some more by Dyak chief at long-house. He knows lots. Lajah Saffir tell him. It all tlue, Mlaxon. "

"And it is true about this man--the thing that you have told us istrue? He is not one of those created in the laboratory?"

"No, Mlaxon. You no makee fine young man like Blulan--you know lat, Mlaxon. You makee One, Two, Thlee--all up to Twelve. All fleaks. Youought to know, Mlaxon, lat you no can makee a Blulan. "

During these revelations Bulan had sat with his eyes fixed upon theChinaman. There was a puzzled expression upon his wan, blood-streakedface. It was as though he were trying to wrest from the inner templeof his consciousness a vague and tantalizing memory that eluded himeach time that he felt he had it within his grasp--the key to thestrange riddle that hid his origin. 

The girl kneeled close beside him, one small hand in his. Hope andhappiness had supplanted the sorrow in her face. She tore the hem fromher skirt, to bandage the bloody furrow that creased the man's temple. Professor Maxon stood silently by, watching the loving tenderness thatmarked each deft, little movement of her strong, brown hands. 

The revelations of the past few minutes had shocked the old man intostupefied silence. It was difficult, almost impossible, for him tobelieve that Sing had spoken the truth and that this man was not one ofthe creatures of his own creation; yet from the bottom of his heart heprayed that it might prove the truth, for he saw that his daughterloved the man with a love that would be stayed by no obstacle or boundby no man-made law, or social custom. 

The Chinaman's indictment of von Horn had come as an added blow toProfessor Maxon, but it had brought its own supporting evidence in theflood of recollections it had induced in the professor's mind. Now herecalled a hundred chance incidents and conversations with hisassistant that pointed squarely toward the man's disloyalty andvillainy. He wondered that he had been so blind as not to havesuspected his lieutenant long before. 

Virginia had at last succeeded in adjusting her rude bandage andstopping the flow of blood. Bulan had risen weakly to his feet. Thegirl supported him upon one side, and Sing upon the other. ProfessorMaxon approached the little group. 

"I do not know what to make of all that Sing has told us, " he said. "If you are not Number Thirteen who are you? Where did you come from?It seems very strange indeed--impossible, in fact. However, if youwill explain who you are, I shall be gladto--ah--consider--ah--permitting you to pay court to my daughter. "

"I do not know who I am, " replied Bulan. "I had always thought that Iwas only Number Thirteen, until Sing just spoke. Now I have a faintrecollection of drifting for days upon the sea in an open boat--beyondthat all is blank. I shall not force my attentions upon Virginia untilI can prove my identity, and that my past is one which I can lay beforeher without shame--until then I shall not see her. "

"You shall do nothing of the kind, " cried the girl. "You love me, andI you. My father intended to force me to marry you while he stillthought that you were a soulless thing. Now that it is quite apparentthat you are a human being, and a gentleman, he hesitates, but I donot. As I have told you before, it makes no difference to me what youare. You have told me that you love me. You have demonstrated a lovethat is high, and noble, and self-sacrificing. More than that no girlneeds to know. I am satisfied to be the wife of Bulan--if Bulan issatisfied to have the daughter of the man who has so cruelly wrongedhim. "

An arm went around the girl's shoulders and drew her close to the manshe had glorified with her loyalty and her love. The other hand wasstretched out toward Professor Maxon. 

"Professor, " said Bulan, "in the face of what Sing has told us, in theface of a disinterested comparison between myself and the miserablecreatures of your experiments, is it not folly to suppose that I am oneof them? Some day I shall recall my past, until that time shall provemy worthiness I shall not ask for Virginia's hand, and in this decisionshe must concur, for the truth might reveal some insurmountableobstacle to our marriage. In the meantime let us be friends, professor, for we are both actuated by the same desire--the welfare andhappiness of your daughter. "

The old man stepped forward and took Bulan's hand. The expression ofdoubt and worry had left his face. 

"I cannot believe, " he said, "that you are other than a gentleman, andif, in my desire to protect Virginia, I have said aught to wound you Iask your forgiveness. "

Bulan responded only with a tighter pressure of the hand. 

"And now, " said the professor, "let us return to the long-house. Iwish to have a few words in private with you, von Horn, " and he turnedto face his assistant, but the man had disappeared. 

"Where is Doctor von Horn?" exclaimed the scientist, addressing Sing. 

"Hornee, him vamoose long time 'go, " replied the Chinaman. "He hearall he likee. "

Slowly the little party wound along the jungle trail, and in less thana mile, to Virginia's infinite surprise, came out upon the river andthe long-house that she and Bulan had searched for in vain. 

"And to think, " she cried, "that all these awful days we have beenalmost within sound of your voices. What strange freak of fate sentyou to us today?"

"We had about given up hope, " replied her father, "when Sing suggestedto me that we cut across the highlands that separate this valley fromthe one adjoining it upon the northeast, where we should strike othertribes and from them glean some clue to your whereabouts in case yourabductors had attempted to carry you back to the sea by another route. This seemed likely in view of the fact that we were assured by enemiesof Muda Saffir that you were not in his possession, and that the riverwe were bound for would lead your captors most quickly out of thedomains of that rascally Malay. You may imagine our surprise, Virginia, when after proceeding for but a mile we discovered you. "

No sooner had the party entered the verandah of the long-house thanProfessor Maxon made inquiries for von Horn, only to learn that he haddeparted up stream in a prahu with several warriors whom he had engagedto accompany him on a "hunting expedition, " having explained that thewhite girl had been found and was being brought to the long-house. 

The chief further explained that he had done his best to dissuade thewhite man from so rash an act, as he was going directly into thecountry of the tribe of the two men he had killed, and there was littlechance that he ever would come out alive. 

While they were still discussing von Horn's act, and wondering at hisintentions, a native on the verandah cried out in astonishment, pointing down the river. As they looked in the direction he indicatedall saw a graceful, white cutter gliding around a nearby turn. At theoars were white clad American sailors, and in the stern two officers inthe uniform of the United States navy. 

17

999 PRISCILLA

As the cutter touched the bank the entire party from the long-house, whites and natives, were gathered on the shore to meet it. At firstthe officers held off as though fearing a hostile demonstration, butwhen they saw the whites among the throng, a command was given to pullin, and a moment later one of the officers stepped ashore. 

"I am Lieutenant May, " he said, "of the U. S. S. New Mexico, flagship ofthe Pacific Fleet. Have I the honor to address Professor Maxon?"

The scientist nodded. "I am delighted, " he said. 

"We have been to your island, Professor, " continued the officer, "andjudging from the evidences of hasty departure, and the corpses ofseveral natives there, I feared that some harm had befallen you. Wetherefore cruised along the Bornean coast making inquiries of thenatives until at last we found one who had heard a rumor of a party ofwhites being far in the interior searching for a white girl who hadbeen stolen from them by pirates. 

"The farther up this river we have come the greater our assurance thatwe were on the right trail, for scarcely a native we interrogated buthad seen or heard of some of your party. Mixed with the truth theytold us were strange tales of terrible monsters led by a gigantic whiteman. "

"The imaginings of childish minds, " said the professor. "However, why, my dear lieutenant, did you honor me by visiting my island?"

The officer hesitated a moment before answering, his eyes running aboutover the assembly as though in search of someone. 

"Well, Professor Maxon, to be quite frank, " he said at length, "welearned at Singapore the personnel of your party, which included aformer naval officer whom we have been seeking for many years. We cameto your island to arrest this man--I refer to Doctor Carl von Horn. "

When the lieutenant learned of the recent disappearance of the man hesought, he expressed his determination to push on at once in pursuit;and as Professor Maxon feared again to remain unprotected in the heartof the Bornean wilderness his entire party was taken aboard the cutter. 

A few miles up the river they came upon one of the Dyaks who hadaccompanied von Horn, a few hours earlier. The warrior sat smokingbeside a beached prahu. When interrogated he explained that von Hornand the balance of his crew had gone inland, leaving him to guard theboat. He said that he thought he could guide them to the spot wherethe white man might be found. 

Professor Maxon and Sing accompanied one of the officers and a dozensailors in the wake of the Dyak guide. Virginia and Bulan remained inthe cutter, as the latter was still too weak to attempt the hard marchthrough the jungle. For an hour the party traversed the trail in thewake of von Horn and his savage companions. They had come almost tothe spot when their ears were assailed by the weird and blood curdlingyells of native warriors, and a moment later von Horn's escort dashedinto view in full retreat. 

At sight of the white men they halted in relief, pointing back in thedirection they had come, and jabbering excitedly in their nativetongue. Warily the party advanced again behind these new guides; butwhen they reached the spot they sought, the cause of the Dyaks' panichad fled, warned, doubtless, by their trained ears of the approach ofan enemy. 

The sight that met the eyes of the searchers told all of the story thatthey needed to know. A hole had been excavated in the ground, partially uncovering a heavy chest, and across this chest lay theheadless body of Doctor Carl von Horn. 

Lieutenant May turned toward Professor Maxon with a questioning look. 

"It is he, " said the scientist. 

"But the chest?" inquired the officer. 

"Mlaxon's tleasure, " spoke up Sing Lee. "Hornee him tly steal it forlong time. "

"Treasure!" ejaculated the professor. "Bududreen gave up his life forthis. Rajah Muda Saffir fought and intrigued and murdered forpossession of it! Poor, misguided von Horn has died for it, and lefthis head to wither beneath the rafters of a Dyak long-house! It isincredible. "

"But, Professor Maxon, " said Lieutenant May, "men will suffer all thesethings and more for gold. "

"Gold!" cried the professor. "Why, man, that is a box of books onbiology and eugenics. "

"My God!" exclaimed May, "and von Horn was accredited to be one of theshrewdest swindlers and adventurers in America! But come, we may aswell return to the cutter--my men will carry the chest. "

"No!" exclaimed Professor Maxon with a vehemence the other could notunderstand. "Let them bury it again where it lies. It and what itcontains have been the cause of sufficient misery and suffering andcrime. Let it lie where it is in the heart of savage Borneo, and prayto God that no man ever finds it, and that I shall forget forever thatwhich is in it. "

On the morning of the third day following the death of von Horn the NewMexico steamed away from the coast of Borneo. Upon her deck, lookingback toward the verdure clad hills, stood Virginia and Bulan. 

"Thank heaven, " exclaimed the girl fervently, "that we are leaving itbehind us forever. "

"Amen, " replied Bulan, "but yet, had it not been for Borneo I mightnever have found you. "

"We should have met elsewhere then, Bulan, " said the girl in a lowvoice, "for we were made for one another. No power on earth could havekept us apart. In your true guise you would have found me--I am sureof it. "

"It is maddening, Virginia, " said the man, "to be constantly strainingevery resource of my memory in futile endeavor to catch and hold onefleeting clue to my past. Why, dear, do you realize that I may havebeen a fugitive from justice, as was von Horn, a vile criminal perhaps. It is awful, Virginia, to contemplate the horrible possibilities of mylost past. "

"No, Bulan, you could never have been a criminal, " replied the loyalgirl, "but there is one possibility that has been haunting meconstantly. It frightens me just to think of it--it is, " and the girllowered her voice as though she feared to say the thing she dreadedmost, "it is that you may have loved another--that--that you may evenbe married. "

Bulan was about to laugh away any such fears when the gravity andimportance of the possibility impressed him quite as fully as it hadVirginia. He saw that it was not at all unlikely that he was already amarried man; and he saw too what the girl now acknowledged, that theymight never wed until the mystery of his past had been cleared away. 

"There is something that gives weight to my fear, " continued Virginia, "something that I had almost forgotten in the rush and excitement ofevents during the past few days. During your delirium your ravingswere, for the most part, quite incoherent, but there was one name thatyou repeated many times--a woman's name, preceded by a number. It was'Nine ninety nine Priscilla. ' Maybe she--"

But Virginia got no further. With a low exclamation of delight Bulancaught her in his arms. 

"It is all right, dear, " he cried. "It is all right. Everything hascome back to me now. You have given me the clue. Nine ninety ninePriscilla is my father's address--Nine ninety nine Priscilla Avenue. 

"I am Townsend J. Harper, Jr. You have heard of my father. Every onehas since he commenced consolidating interurban traction companies. And I'm not married, Virginia, and never have been; but I shall be ifthis miserable old mud scow ever reaches Singapore. "

"Oh, Bulan, " cried the girl, "how in the world did you ever happen tocome to that terrible island of ours?"

"I came for you, dear, " he replied. "It is a long story. After dinnerI will tell you all of it that I can recall. For the present it mustsuffice you to know that I followed you from the railway station atIthaca half around the world for a love that had been born from asingle glance at your sweet face as you passed me to enter your Pullman. 

"On my father's yacht I reached your island after trailing you toSingapore. It was a long and tedious hunt and we followed many blindleads, but at last we came off an island upon which natives had told ussuch a party as yours was living. Five of us put off in a boat toexplore--that is the last that I can recall. Sing says he found mealone in a row boat, a 'dummy. '"

Virginia sighed, and crept closer to him. 

"You may be the son of the great Townsend J. Harper, you have been thesoulless Number Thirteen; but to me you will always be Bulan, for itwas Bulan whom I learned to love. "