The chief of the guides himself collapsed in one
terrible climb, and his men tied rattan ropes about him and hauled him
up over the steepest places.

During this wearisome ascent the most untiring one was the missionary;
and the sailor often looked at him in amazement. His lithe, wiry frame
never seemed to grow weary. He was often in the advance line, cutting
his way through the tangle, and here on that first afternoon he met with
an unpleasant adventure.

The natives had warned the two strangers to be on the lookout for
poisonous snakes, and Mackay's year in Formosa had taught him to be
wary. But he had forgotten all danger in the toilsome climb. He was soon
reminded of it. They were passing up a slope covered with long dense
grass when a rustling at his side made the young missionary pause. The
next moment a huge cobra sprang out from a clump of grass and struck at
him. Mackay sprang aside just in time to escape its deadly fangs. The
guides rushed up with their spears only to see its horrible scaly length
disappear in the long grass.

That was not the only escape of the young adventurer, for there were
wild animals as well as poisonous snakes along the line of march, and
the man in the front was always in danger. But at the front Mackay must
be in spite of all warning. Nobody moved fast enough for him.

At last they reached the summit of the range. They were now on the
dividing line between Chinese ground and savage territory, and the men
who dared go a step farther went at terrible risk. The head-hunters
would very likely see that they did not return.

But Mackay was all for pushing forward, and Captain Bax was no less
eager. So they spent a night in the forest and the next day marched on
up another and higher range. As they journeyed, the travelers could not
but burst into exclamations of delight at the loveliness about them.
Behind those great trees and in those tangles of vines might lurk the
head-hunters, but for all that the beauty of the place made them forget
the dangers. The great banyan trees whose branches came down and took
root in the earth, making a wonderful round leafy tent, grew on every
side. Camphor trees towered far above them and then spread out great
branches sixty or seventy feet from the ground. Then there was the
rattan creeping out over the tops of the other trees and making a thick
canopy through which the hot tropical sun-rays could not penetrate.

And the flowers! Sometimes Mackay