l to have a force remain
at the long-house to intercept them. He volunteered to undertake the
command of this party. Ninaka, he said, would furnish guides to escort
Bulan and his men through the jungle to the point at which they might
expect to find Muda Saffir.

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

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

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

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

It was fully an hour thereafter that doubts began to enter Bulan's
head, and as the day dragged on he came to realize that he and his
weird pack were alone and lost in the heart of a strange and tangled
web of tropical jungle.

No sooner had Bulan and his party disappeared in the jungle than
Barunda and Ninaka made haste to embark with the chest and the girl and
push rapidly on up the river toward the wild and inaccessible regions
of the interior. Virginia Maxon's strong hope of succor had been
gradually waning as no sign of the rescue party appeared as the day
wore on. Somewhere behind her upon the broad river she was sure a
long, narrow native prahu was being urged forward in pursuit, and that
in command of it was the young giant who was now never for a moment
absent from her thoughts.

For hours she strained her eyes over the stern of the craft that was
bearing