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There he turned, winded, to await the oncoming foe. Here was a spot where a

single man might defy an army, and Bulan had been quick to see the natural

advantages of it. He placed the girl upon her feet behind a protruding shoulder of

the canyon's wall which rose to a considerable distance still above them. Then he

turned to face the mob that was surging up the narrow pathway toward him.

At his feet lay an accumulation of broken rock from the hillside above, and as a

spear sped, singing, close above his shoulder, the occurrence suggested a use for

the rough and jagged missiles which lay about him in such profusion. Many of

the pieces were large, weighing twenty and thirty pounds, and some even as

much as fifty. Picking up one of the larger Bulan raised it high above his head,

and then hurled it down amongst the upclimbing warriors. In an instant

pandemonium reigned, for the heavy boulder had mowed down a score of the

pursuers, breaking arms and legs in its meteoric descent.

Missile after missile Bulan rained down upon the struggling, howling Dyaks,

until, seized by panic, they turned and fled incontinently down into the depths of

the canyon and back along the narrow trail they had come, and then

superstitious fear completed the rout that the flying rocks had started, for one

whispered to another that this was the terrible Bulan and that he had but lured

them on into the hills that he might call forth all his demons and destroy them.

For a moment Bulan stood watching the retreating savages, a smile upon his lips,

and then as the sudden equatorial dawn burst forth he turned to face the girl.

As Virginia Maxon saw the fine features of the giant where she had expected to

find the grotesque and hideous lineaments of a monster, she gave a quick little

cry of pleasure and relief.

Thank God!" she cried fervently. "Thank God that you are a man--I thought that

I was in the clutches of the hideous and soulless monster, Number Thirteen."

The smile upon the young man's face died. An expression of pain, and

hopelessness, and sorrow swept across his features. The girl saw the change,

and wondered, but how could she guess the grievous wound her words had

inflicted?

118

The Monster Men