uctions in our track, and on the
fourth day after leaving camp we had almost decided to retrace our
steps.

"I have given up hope of seeing the natives of this peculiar country,"
said Phil, as we tied up our hammocks after breakfast, "and if we go
much farther we will cross down the Malacca slope, where there is
nothing but Chinamen."

"If we do not reach a break in the forest before the day is finished," I
said, when we had again got on the move, "we'll turn and get down the
river to our old camp."

"What on earth is that?" suddenly cried the Captain, seizing his rifle
and gazing into the gently swaying branches overhead. We looked, and
saw an ungainly creature huddled among the spreading fronds, glaring at
us with eyes that were half-human, half-catlike in expression.

"A chimpanzee, most likely," I said. "Don't shoot, Captain; it is but a
sample of what man looked like once."

"I think it is an orang-outang," remarked Phil, "and he would make short
work of us if he came down."

Mac gazed dubiously at the animal. "A'll slauchter him," said he,
raising his deadly blunderbuss; but the huge ape seemed to understand
the action, and with half a dozen bounds he had vanished, swinging from
tree to tree like a living pendulum.

Again we went on, but we had not proceeded fifty yards when a harsh
howling all around caused us to halt and examine our firearms nervously.
Then a shower of needle-like darts whizzed close to our ears, and a
renewed commotion among the branches arrested our attention. Looking up,
we saw fully a score of wild shaggy heads thrust out from the clustering
foliage; but before we had time to collect ourselves, another fusilade
of feather-like missiles descended upon us, penetrating our thin
clothing, and pricking us most painfully.

"Monkeys!" roared Mac.

"No. Sakis!" corrected Phil, as we hurriedly sought safety in retreat.

"If these arrows are poisoned, we're dead 'uns, sure," groaned the
Captain, squirming on the ground, and endeavouring to sight his rifle on
the impish creatures.

"They're not poisoned; they are merely pointed reeds blown through
bamboo tubes," said Skelton, after a hasty examination. "They won't hurt
much; but if they get near us with their clubs----"

Another hail of the pigmy arrows rustled through the branches to rear of
us. "Give them the small shot of your gun, Mac, just to scare them," I
cried.

"Sma' shot indeed!" retorted that fiery individual, and the boom o