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The Dyaks felt but little loyalty for the rascally Malay they served, since in

common with all their kind they and theirs had suffered for generations at the

hands of the cruel, crafty and unscrupulous race that had usurped the

administration of their land. So it was not difficult to secure from them the

promise of assistance in return for their lives.

Number Thirteen noticed that when they addressed him it was always as Bulan,

and upon questioning them he discovered that they had given him this title of

honor partly in view of his wonderful fighting ability and partly because the sight

of his white face emerging from out of the darkness of the river into the firelight of

their blazing camp fire had carried to their impressionable minds a suggestion of

the tropic moon which they admired and reverenced. Both the name and the idea

appealed to Number Thirteen and from that time he adopted Bulan as his rightful

cognomen.

The loss of time resulting from the fight in the prahu and the ensuing peace

parley permitted Muda Saffir to put considerable distance between himself and

his pursuers. The Malay's boat was now alone, for of the eight prahus that

remained of the original fleet it was the only one which had taken this branch of

the river, the others having scurried into a smaller southerly arm after the fight

upon the island, that they might the more easily escape their hideous foemen.

Only Barunda, the headman, knew which channel Rajah Muda Saffir intended

following, and Muda wondered why it was that the two boats that were to have

borne Barunda's men did not catch up with his. While he had left Barunda and

his warriors engaged in battle with the strangers he did not for an instant

imagine that they would suffer any severe loss, and that one of their boats should

be captured was beyond belief. But this was precisely what had happened, and

the second boat, seeing the direction taken by the enemy, had turned down

stream the more surely to escape them.

So it was that while Rajah Muda Saffir moved leisurely up the river toward his

distant stronghold waiting for the other boats of his fleet to overtake him,

Barunda, the headman, guided the white enemy swiftly after him. Barunda had

discovered that it was the girl alone this white man wanted. Evidently he either

knew nothing of the treasure chest lying in the bottom of Muda Saffir's boat, or,

knowing, was indifferent. In either event Barunda thought that he saw a chance

to possess himself of the rich contents of the heavy box, and so served his new

master with much greater enthusiasm than he had the old.

Beneath the paddles of the natives and the five remaining members of his pack

Bulan sped up the dark river after the single prahu with its priceless freight.

Already six of the creatures of Professor Maxon's experiments had given up their

The Monster Men