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Number Thirteen reached the water's edge but a moment after the prow of the

rajah's craft had cleared the shore and was swinging up stream under the

vigorous strokes of its fifty oarsmen. For an instant he stood poised upon the

bank as though to spring after the retreating prahu, but the knowledge that he

could not swim held him back--it was useless to throw away his life when the

need of it was so great if Virginia Maxon was to be saved.

Turning to the other prahus he saw that one was already launched, but that the

crew of the other was engaged in a desperate battle with the seven remaining

members of his crew for possession of the boat. Leaping among the combatants

he urged his fellows aboard the prahu which was already half filled with Dyaks.

Then he shoved the boat out into the river, jumping aboard himself as its prow

cleared the gravelly beach.

For several minutes that long, hollowed log was a veritable floating hell of savage,

screaming men locked in deadly battle. The sharp parangs of the head hunters

were no match for the superhuman muscles of the creatures that battered them

about; now lifting one high above his fellows and using the body as a club to beat

down those nearby; again snapping an arm or leg as one might break a pipe

stem; or hurling a living antagonist headlong above the heads of his fellows to the

dark waters of the river. And above them all in the thickest of the fight, towering

even above his own giants, rose the mighty figure of the terrible white man,

whose very presence wrought havoc with the valor of the brown warriors.

Two more of Number Thirteen's creatures had been cut down in the prahu, but

the loss among the Dyaks had been infinitely greater, and to it was now added

the desertions of the terror stricken savages who seemed to fear the frightful

countenances of their adversaries even as much as they did their prowess.

There remained but a handful of brown warriors in one end of the boat when the

advantage of utilizing their knowledge of the river and of navigation occurred to

Number Thirteen. Calling to his men he commanded them to cease killing,

making prisoners of those who remained instead. So accustomed had his pack

now become to receiving and acting upon his orders that they changed their

tactics immediately, and one by one the remaining Dyaks were overpowered,

disarmed and held.

With difficulty Number Thirteen communicated with them, for among them there

was but a single warrior who had ever had intercourse with an Englishman, but

at last by means of signs and the few words that were common to them both he

made the native understand that he would spare the lives of himself and his

companions if they would help him in pursuit of Muda Saffir and the girl.

The Monster Men