with a last bewildering glance from her dark eyes she
flitted homeward.

He watched the white figure out of sight in the woods, vaguely aware
that some new emotion had come to him. He stood among the trees some
minutes after she had disappeared, then turned toward the village.

"Sus-marie-hosep!" he exploded.

* * * * *

At supper time the clearing was again crowded with the entire
population of the village, the men having returned from their pursuits
of hunting, gardening and patrolling the great slope. Terry and
Bronner talked little, each taking his usual seat at window and door
to idly watch the crowd outside.

Most of the Hillmen ignored their presence, but one, a squat, powerful
fellow, swaggered by the door where Terry sat. Twice he passed, and
each time he leered derisively at the white man.

"Who's your friend, Terry?" queried the Major.

"Oh, that's Pud-Pud. He's the town bully--and never has liked me. He
led the crowd that opposed my--staying. He has bothered Ahma a good
deal, too: wants to marry her. She laughs at him, of course. What have
you been doing all day, Major?"

The Major told him of everything but the meeting with Ahma, spoke
enthusiastically of the tribe.

"They're straight Malay, Terry," he wound up. "A pure strain,
something you seldom see in the lowlands where the Spanish and Chinese
have addled the blood. They ought to develop rapidly under proper
guidance--they are a single-minded, sincere, fearless people."

Terry nodded agreement: "Nor are they the terrible people that the
Bogobos think them. Their fear of them must have been based on dread
of that sinister belt of forest. A good road will end all that."

They waited till Pud-Pud made a third mocking trip past their hut, gay
in a G-string contrived of a length of the cloth the Major had brought
up: it flamed against the naked brownness of back and legs.

"He's a lady-killer all right!" Terry said. "Ahma told me that he had
coaxed the calico away from one of the girls."

The Major stirred. "You saw Ahma to-day?"

But he had hesitated so long over the question that Terry, sunk in
deep thought, did not hear him, and somehow he did not feel like
repeating. He turned in on the hard bed with new things on his mind.
Measles is not the only affection that "takes harder" near maturity.

Several days passed without incident. Each morning the clearing
emptied after breakfast as all but the cooks left f