you kept me back with your gun."

"Take your kris, my lad," said the doctor, quietly. "I trust you. Now
lead me back to the camp."

"No, no," cried the Malay. "I dare not. I cannot take you back to
death."

"I--must--go," said the doctor, sternly; and the Malay made a
deprecating gesture, indicative of his obedience.

"My people may have proved too strong for Sultan Hamet and his
treacherous gang."

"Yes--yes--they may," cried the Malay, eagerly.

"They may have given him such a lesson as he will never forget."

"I hope they will make him forget for ever," said the Malay in a sombre
tone. "He is not fit to live. My kris is thirsty to drink his blood."

"Forward, then!" cried the doctor, "and tell me when you feel sick.
Find water if you can, first thing. Does your wound pain you?"

"It feels as if the tiger kept biting me," was the reply; "but I do not
mind. Shall we go back?"

"Yes; and at once," cried the doctor, and, following his companion, they
rapidly retraced their steps through the dark jungle, the guide, as if
by instinct, making his way onward without a moment's hesitation,
seeming to take short cuts whenever the forest was sufficiently open to
let them pass.

As he stumbled on over the creeper-covered ground, the doctor had many a
narrow escape from falling, and he could not help envying the ease with
which his guide passed the various obstacles around them. The chief
thought that occupied the doctor's mind, though, was that which related
to the drugging of the party's food that evening.

The Malay had mentioned what drug was to be used, namely _toobah_, a
vegetable production--in fact the root of a plant which the doctor knew
that the Malays used to throw in the pools of the rivers and streams,
with the effect that the fish were helplessly intoxicated, and swam or
floated on the surface of the water. This plant he had several times
tried to obtain and examine, while he made experiments upon its power;
but so far he had been unsuccessful. Would it have the same effect upon
the human organisation that it had upon a fish? That was the question
he had to solve in his mind; but no matter how he turned the subject
over, he could extract not the smallest grain of comfort.

The only hope he could derive from his thoughts was that the English
discipline, with its regular setting of sentries and watchfulness, might
be sufficient to defeat the enemy's machinations, and a sufficiency of
the