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lives in the service of his daughter, and the remaining six were pushing forward
through the inky blackness of the jungle night into the untracked heart of savage
Borneo to rescue her from her abductors though they sacrificed their own lives in
the endeavor.
Far ahead of them in the bottom of the great prahu crouched the girl they sought.
Her thoughts were of the man she felt intuitively to possess the strength,
endurance and ability to overcome every obstacle and reach her at last. Would
he come in time? Ah, that was the question. The mystery of the stranger
appealed to her. A thousand times she had attempted to solve the question of his
first appearance on the island at the very moment that his mighty muscles were
needed to rescue her from the horrible creature of her father's creation. Then
there was his unaccountable disappearance for weeks; there was von Horn's
strange reticence and seeming ignorance as to the circumstances which brought
the young man to the island, or his equally unaccountable disappearance after
having rescued her from Number One. And now, when she suddenly found
herself in need of protection, here was the same young man turning up in a most
miraculous fashion, and at the head of the terrible creatures of the inner
campong.
The riddle was too deep for her--she could not solve it; and then her thoughts
were interrupted by the thin, brown hand of Rajah Muda Saffir as it encircled her
waist and drew her toward him. Upon the evil lips were hot words of passion.
The girl wrenched herself from the man's embrace, and, with a little scream of
terror, sprang to her feet, and as Muda Saffir arose to grasp her again she struck
him full in the face with one small, clenched fist.
Directly behind the Malay lay the heavy chest of Professor Maxon. As the man
stepped backward to recover his equilibrium both feet struck the obstacle. For
an instant he tottered with wildly waving arms in an endeavor to regain his lost
balance, then, with a curse upon his lips, he lunged across the box and over the
side of the prahu into the dark waters of the river.
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