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When the truth dawned upon him that he was being killed the instinct of self-
preservation was born in him. The ferocity with which he had fought before paled
into insignificance beside the mad fury with which he now attacked the three
terrible creatures upon him. Shaking himself like a great lion he freed his arms
for a moment from the clinging embrace of his foemen, and seizing the neck of
the nearest in his mighty clutch wrenched the head completely around.
There was one awful shriek from the tortured brute--the vertebrae parted with a
snap, and Bulan's antagonists were reduced to two. Lunging and struggling the
three combatants stumbled farther and farther into the jungle beyond the
clearing. With mighty blows the man buffeted the beasts to right and left, but
ever they returned in bestial rage to renew the encounter. Bulan was weakening
rapidly under the terrific strain to which he had been subjected, and from loss of
the blood which flowed from his wounds; yet he was slowly mastering the foaming
brutes, who themselves were torn and bleeding and exhausted. Weaker and
weaker became the struggles of them all, when a sudden misstep sent Bulan
stumbling headforemost against the stem of a tree, where, stunned, he sank
unconscious, at the mercy of the relentless bulls.
They had already sprung upon the prostrate form of their victim to finish what
the accident had commenced, when the loud report of Sing's revolver smote upon
their startled ears as the Chinaman's bullet buried itself in the heart of Number
Ten. Never had the ourang outangs heard the sound of a firearm, and the noise,
seemingly in such close proximity, filled them with such terror that on the instant
they forgot all else than this new and startling fear, and with headlong haste
leaped away into the jungle, leaving Bulan lying where he had fallen.
So it was that though Sing passed within a few paces of the unconscious man he
neither saw nor heard aught of him or his antagonists.
When Bulan returned to consciousness the day was drawing to a close. He was
stiff and sore and weak. His head ached horribly. He thought that he must
indeed be dying, for how could one who suffered so revive? But at last he
managed to stagger to his feet, and finally to reach the stream along which he
had been travelling earlier in the day. Here he quenched his thirst and bathed
his wounds, and as darkness came he lay down to sleep upon a bed of matted
grasses.
The next morning found him refreshed and in considerably less pain, for the
powers of recuperation which belonged to his perfect health and mighty physique
had already worked an almost miraculous transformation in him. While he was
hunting in the jungle for his breakfast he came suddenly upon Number Three
and Number Twelve similarly employed.
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