wer came to him at once. It was evident that the intercourse he
had held with the English was not liked, and now in his own mind he
began to have misgivings about the resident and his party. Sultan Hamet
was, he knew, both cruel and treacherous. Was the position of the
English people safe?

Yes, he felt they were safe. He was the offender; and once more a
shudder of fear ran through him at the thought of his young life being
crushed out so soon; just, too, when he was so full of hopeful prospects
and aspirations.

His manhood asserted itself, though, directly. He was the son of a
chief, he told himself; and these treacherous wretches who had seized
him should see that he was no coward.

Then he began to think of his father, and wondered whether it would be
possible to communicate with him before he was killed.

Then he felt a little more hopeful, for perhaps, after all, the
instructions to his captors might not be to slay him. If it was, and he
could only get his hands free, their task should not be so easy as they
thought for.

For two long hours was he forced through the tangled jungle, and every
minute he became more convinced that his captors were bound for the
place, of whose existence he knew, having once come upon it during a
shooting expedition, and, in spite of his followers' horror, persisted
in examining the ruins nearly choked even then with the rapid jungle
growth.

At last they reached the place, and the young man's searching eye at
once saw that some attempts had been made at cutting down the tangled
trees.

But very little time was afforded him to gratify his curiosity. He was
rudely thrust forward, and then half dragged, half carried up the rough
steps, some of which were broken away, and then pushed into the great
centre room of what had been a large Malay house.

It was very dark, for the holes in the roof had become choked with
creepers, which had formed a new thatch in place of the old attap top.
The bamboos that formed the floor were slippery here and there with damp
moss and fungus, and in several places they were rotted away; but there
was plenty to afford a fair space of flooring, and in a momentary glance
Ali saw that the inner or women's room of the house was dry, and not so
much ruined as the place where he stood.

"Did they kris the poor prisoners here?" he asked himself; and then his
thoughts flew to the bright river upon which his boat had so often
skimmed; to the clean,