a profound secret, lest
the time and arrangements of the party should again be conveyed to the
rajah by some one or other of his spies.

Preparations were quietly made, then, and fifty men from the island
taken on board the steamer, a few at a time, so as not to attract
notice; and when at last the expeditionary party started, the occupants
of the residency were dining with Major and Mrs Sandars at the
officers' quarters, where they quietly stayed.

Steam had been got up before dark, and every preparation made, for this
time the "Startler" was to go up stream: and at last, when night rapidly
succeeded day, as it does in the tropics, the steamer lay waiting for
the rising of the moon, and then her screw slowly revolved, and she
began to feel her way gently against the swift stream--the people of the
campong only seeing her at nightfall moored as usual, and not awaking to
the fact that she had gone until the morning, of course far too late to
give any warning to the rajah if they were so disposed.

Patiently and almost silently the great steamer forced its way on for
quite a mile, when, there being no fear now of being heard, the
propeller revolved more rapidly, and the waves made by the vessel ran
washing the roots of the trees on either side.

The moon was just at its full, and seemed, as it rose, to silver the
tops of the trees, while it left the river in utter darkness, though it
marked out its course through the dense jungle where it seemed to have
to cut its way, the great trees growing to the water's edge, and
overhanging the stream.

A rapid rate was impossible, on account of the way in which the river
wound about; but it kept so wide and deep that there was but little
difficulty in its navigation, especially as not a single craft of any
kind was encountered.

The master of the prahu pointed out a couple of campongs as they passed
them, on the banks; but they might have been villages of the dead, so
silent and unoccupied did they seem, as the steamer slowly glided by.

The moon rose higher and higher, till the river was like a broad path of
silver, and along this they continued their course with a man constantly
sounding from the chains, but always to show an average depth of about
four fathoms, with a thick, soft, muddy bottom, upon which the steamer
could have met with no harm had she taken the ground.

Silence had been ordered, but as the Jacks and soldiers sat beneath the
shelter of the bulwarks, or l