| 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 |
| 1 | 35 | 70 | 104 | 139 |
|
www.freeclassicebooks.com
But she could see the two who ran and fought just behind them, and she
shuddered at her inevitable fate. For should the three be successful in bearing
her away from the Dyaks she must face an unknown doom, while should the
natives recapture her there was the terrible Malay into whose clutches she had
already twice fallen.
Now the head hunters were pressing closer, and suddenly, even as the girl looked
directly at him, a spear passed through the heart of Number Three. Clutching
madly at the shaft protruding from his misshapen body the grotesque thing
stumbled on for a dozen paces, and then sank to the ground as two of the brown
warriors sprang upon him with naked parangs. An instant later Virginia Maxon
saw the hideous and grisly head swinging high in the hand of a dancing,
whooping savage.
The man who carried her was now forced to turn and fight off the enemy that
pressed forward past Number Twelve. The mighty bull whip whirled and cracked
across the heads and faces of the Dyaks. It was a formidable weapon when
backed by the Herculean muscles that rolled and shifted beneath Bulan's sun-
tanned skin, and many were the brown warriors that went down beneath its cruel
lash.
Virginia could see that the creature who bore her was not deformed of body, but
she shrank from the thought of what a sight of his face might reveal. How much
longer the two could fight off the horde at their heels the girl could not guess; and
as a matter of fact she was indifferent to the outcome of the strange, running
battle that was being waged with herself as the victor's spoil.
The country now was becoming rougher and more open. The flight seemed to be
leading into a range of low hills, where the jungle grew less dense, and the way
rocky and rugged. They had entered a narrow canyon when Number Twelve went
down beneath a half dozen parangs. Again the girl saw a bloody head swung on
high and heard the fierce, wild chorus of exulting victory. She wondered how
long it would be ere the creature beneath her would add his share to the grim
trophies of the hunt.
In the interval that the head hunters had paused to sever Number Twelve's head,
Bulan had gained fifty yards upon them, and then, of a sudden, he came to a
sheer wall rising straight across the narrow trail he had been following. Ahead
there was no way--a cat could scarce have scaled that formidable barrier--but to
the right he discerned what appeared to be a steep and winding pathway up the
canyon's side, and with a bound he clambered along it to where it surmounted
the rocky wall.
117
Page
Quick Jump
|