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Come!" he called to his grotesque horde. "Kill the men and save the girl--the one

with the golden hair," he added as the sudden realization came to him that none

of these creatures ever had seen a woman before. Then he dashed from the

shelter of the jungle, across the beach and into the water, his fearful pack at his

heels.

The Ithaca lay now in about five feet of water, and the war prahus of Muda Saffir

rode upon her seaward side, so that those who manned them did not see the

twelve who splashed through the water from land. Never before had any of the

rescuers seen a larger body of water than the little stream which wound through

their campong, but accidents and experiments in that had taught them the

danger of submerging their heads. They could not swim, but all were large and

strong, so that they were able to push their way rapidly through the water to the

very side of the ship.

Here they found difficulty in reaching the deck, but in a moment Number

Thirteen had solved the problem by requiring one of the taller of his crew to stand

close in by the ship while the others clambered upon his shoulders and from

there to the Ithaca's deck.

Number Thirteen was the first to pull himself over the vessel's side, and as he did

so he saw some half dozen Dyaks preparing to quit her upon the opposite side.

They were the last of the boarding party--the girl was nowhere in sight. Without

waiting for his men the young giant sprang across the deck. His one thought was

to find Virginia Maxon.

At the sound of his approach the Dyak turned, and at the sight of a pajama clad

white man armed only with a long whip they emitted savage cries of anticipation,

counting the handsome trophy upon the white one's shoulders as already theirs.

Number Thirteen would have paid no attention whatever to them had they not

molested him, for he wished only to reach the girl's side as quickly as possible;

but in another moment he found himself confronted by a half dozen dancing wild

men, brandishing wicked looking parangs, and crying tauntingly.

Up went the great bull whip, and without abating his speed a particle the man

leaped into the midst of the wicked blades that menaced him. Right and left with

the quickness of thought the heavy lash fell upon heads, shoulders and sword

arms. There was no chance to wield a blade in the face of that terrific onslaught,

for the whip fell, not with the ordinary force of a man-held lash, but with all the

stupendous power of those giant shoulders and arms behind it.

A single blow felled the foremost head hunter, breaking his shoulder and biting

into the flesh and bone as a heavy sword bites. Again and again the merciless

The Monster Men