as a shapeless heap of useless flesh,
lying in the shallow water, with the eddies playing around and in and
out of the brilliant silk garments, which had made him so brave a sight
when alive. Those who had slain him, buried him; where, no man knoweth;
the report that he had strayed and been lost, was diligently spread,
and, though generally disbelieved, was found to be impossible of
disproof. But Bedah, his wife who had loved him, had learnt these
things, and now told all to the White Man, hoping that thus her
husband's murder might be avenged, and thereby she risked the life which
his death had temporarily made desolate.

Compared with that of Awang Itam, however, Tuan Bangau's fate was a
happy one. When the former disappeared from the sight of men, he was the
victim of nameless tortures. As he told the tale of what he had suffered
on the night that followed his arrest; of the ghastly tortures and
mutilations which had wrecked his manhood, and left him the pitiable
ruin he then was, the White Man writhed in sympathy, and was filled with
a horror that made him sick.

'Better it were to die,' said he, 'than to live the life which is no
life, and to suffer these nameless torments.'

'It is true,' said Awang Itam, 'it is true. But readily would I bear it
over again, _Tuan_, if thereby for a little space I might be what I
have been, and my Heart's Desire could once more be satisfied!'

These were the last words spoken while the dawn was breaking, as the
White Man clambered over the side and wended his way homeward; and,
therefore, I have called this tale the story of 'His Heart's Desire.'

A NIGHT OF TERROR

The glaring eyes through the brushwood shine,
And the striped hide shows between
The trees and bushes, 'mid trailing vine
And masses of ever-green.
A snarling moan comes long and low,
We may neither flee nor fight,
For well our leaping pulses know
The Terror that stalks by Night.

If you put your finger on the map of the Malay Peninsula an inch or two
from its exact centre, you will find a river in Pahang territory which
has its rise in the watershed that divides that State from Kelantan and
Trengganu. This river is called the Tembeling, and it is chiefly
remarkable for the number of its rapids and the richness of its
gutta-bearing forests. Its inhabitants are a ruffianly lot of Malays,
who are preyed upon by a family of _Wans_, a semi-royal set of nobles
who do