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The result of her effort was the knowledge that on the second day they were to

sail for the Pamarung Islands upon a small schooner which her father had

purchased, with a crew of Malays and lascars, and von Horn, who had served in

the American navy, in command. The precise point of destination was still

undecided--the plan being to search out a suitable location upon one of the many

little islets which dot the western shore of the Macassar Strait.

Of the many men Virginia had met during the month at Singapore von Horn had

been by far the most interesting and companionable. Such time as he could find

from the many duties which had devolved upon him in the matter of obtaining

and outfitting the schooner, and signing her two mates and crew of fifteen, had

been spent with his employer's daughter.

The girl was rather glad that he was to be a member of their little company, for

she had found him a much travelled man and an interesting talker with none of

the, to her, disgusting artificialities of the professional ladies' man. He talked to

her as he might have talked to a man, of the things that interest intelligent people

regardless of sex.

There was never any suggestion of familiarity in his manner; nor in his choice of

topics did he ever ignore the fact that she was a young girl. She had felt entirely

at ease in his society from the first evening that she had met him, and their

acquaintance had grown to a very sensible friendship by the time of the departure

of the Ithaca--the rechristened schooner which was to carry them away to an

unguessed fate.

The voyage from Singapore to the Islands was without incident. Virginia took a

keen delight in watching the Malays and lascars at their work, telling von Horn

that she had to draw upon her imagination but little to picture herself a captive

upon a pirate ship--the half naked men, the gaudy headdress, the earrings, and

the fierce countenances of many of the crew furnishing only too realistically the

necessary savage setting.

A week spent among the Pamarung Islands disclosed no suitable site for the

professor's camp, nor was it until they had cruised up the coast several miles

north of the equator and Cape Santang that they found a tiny island a few miles

off the coast opposite the mouth of a small river--an island which fulfilled in every

detail their requirements.

It was uninhabited, fertile and possessed a clear, sweet brook which had its

source in a cold spring in the higher land at the island's center. Here it was that

the Ithaca came to anchor in a little harbor, while her crew under von Horn, and

The Monster Men