I am a man, and within me is as fine and pure a soul as any man may own," and to his mind's eye came the vision of a fair face surmounted by a mass of loosely waving, golden hair; but the brainless ones could not understand and only shook their heads as they resumed their feeding and forgot the subject.
When the three had satisfied the cravings of their appetites two of them were for lying down to sleep until it should be time to feed again, but Bulan, once more master, would not permit it, and forced them to accompany him in his seemingly futile search for the girl who had disappeared so mysteriously after he had rescued her from the ourang outangs.
Both Number Twelve and Number Three had assured him that the beasts had not recaptured her, for they had seen the entire band flee madly through the jungle after hearing the report of the single shot which had so terrorized Bulan's antagonists.Bulan did not know what to make of this occurrence which he had not himself heard, the shot having come after he had lost consciousness at the foot of the tree; but from the description of the noise given him by Number Twelve he felt sure that it must have been the report of a gun, and hoped that it betokened the presence of Virginia Maxon's friends, and that she was now safe in their keeping.
Nevertheless he did not relinquish his determination to continue his search for her, since it was quite possible that the gun had been fired by a native, many of whom possessed firearms.His first concern was for the girl's welfare, which spoke eloquently for the chivalry of his character, and though he wished to see her for the pleasure that it would give him, the hope of serving her was ever the first consideration in his mind.
He was now confident that he was following the wrong direction, and with the intention in view of discovering the tracks of the party which had rescued or captured Virginia after he had been forced to relinquish her, he set out in a totally new direction away from the river.
His small woodcraft and little experience in travelling resulted in his becoming completely confused, so that instead of returning to the spot where he had last seen the girl, as he wished to do, he bore far to the northeast of the place, and missed entirely the path which von Horn and his Dyaks had taken from the long-house into the jungle and back.
All that day he urged his reluctant companions on through the fearful heat of the tropics until, almost exhausted, they halted at dusk upon the bank of a river, where they filled their stomachs with cooling draughts, and after eating lay down to sleep.It was quite dark when Bulan was aroused by the sound of something approaching from up the river, and as he lay listening he presently heard the subdued voices of men conversing in whispers.
He recognized the language as that of the Dyaks, though he could interpret nothing which they said.
Presently he saw a dozen warriors emerge into a little patch of moonlight.They bore a huge chest among them which they deposited within a few paces of where Bulan lay.
Then they commenced to dig in the soft earth with their spears and parangs until they had excavated a shallow pit.Into this they lowered the chest, covering it over with earth and sprinkling dead grass, twigs and leaves above it, that it might present to a searcher no sign that the ground had recently been disturbed.The balance of the loose earth which would not go back into the pit was thrown into the river.
When all had been made to appear as it was before, one of the warriors made several cuts and scratches upon the stem of a tree which grew above the spot where the chest was buried; then they hastened on in silence past Bulan and down the river.
As von Horn stood by the river's bank after his conversation with Virginia, he saw a small sampan approaching from up stream.In it he made out two natives, and the stealthiness of their approach caused him to withdraw into the shadow of a large prahu which was beached close to where he had been standing.
When the men had come close to the landing one of them gave a low signal, 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 of the 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 Muda Saffir?""We are men of his company and we have news for him,"returned the speaker in the sampan."Tell him that we must speak to him at once."The native on shore returned to the long-house without replying.Von Horn wondered what the important news for Muda Saffir might be, and so he remained as he had been, concealed behind the prahu.
Presently the old Malay came down to the water's edge--very warily though--and asked the men whom they might be.
When they had given their names he seemed relieved.