www.freeclassicebooks.com

advanced until she spent the time in watching furtively for some means of escape

should they but touch the shore momentarily; and though they halted twice her

captors were too watchful to permit her the slightest opportunity for putting her

plan into action.

Barunda and Ninaka urged their men on, with brief rests, all day, nor did they

halt even after night had closed down upon the river. On, on the swift prahu

sped up the winding channel which had now dwindled to a narrow stream, at

intervals rushing strongly between rocky walls with a current that tested the

strength of the strong, brown paddlers.

Long-houses had become more and more infrequent until for some time now no

sign of human habitation had been visible. The jungle undergrowth was scantier

and the spaces between the boles of the forest trees more open. Virginia Maxon

was almost frantic with despair as the utter helplessness of her position grew

upon her. Each stroke of those slender paddles was driving her farther and

farther from friends, or the possibility of rescue. Night had fallen, dark and

impenetrable, and with it had come the haunting fears that creep in when the

sun has deserted his guardian post.

Barunda and Ninaka were whispering together in low gutturals, and to the girl's

distorted and fear excited imagination it seemed possible that she alone must be

the subject of their plotting. The prahu was gliding through a stretch of

comparatively quiet and placid water where the stream spread out into a little

basin just above a narrow gorge through which they had just forced their way by

dint of the most laborious exertions on the part of the crew.

Virginia watched the two men near her furtively. They were deeply engrossed in

their conversation. Neither was looking in her direction. The backs of the

paddlers were all toward her. Stealthily she rose to a stooping position at the

boat's side. For a moment she paused, and then, almost noiselessly, dove

overboard and disappeared beneath the black waters.

It was the slight rocking of the prahu that caused Barunda to look suddenly

about to discover the reason for the disturbance. For a moment neither of the

men apprehended the girl's absence. Ninaka was the first to do so, and it was he

who called loudly to the paddlers to bring the boat to a stop. Then they dropped

down the river with the current, and paddled about above the gorge for half an

hour.

The moment that Virginia Maxon felt the waters close above her head she struck

out beneath the surface for the shore upon the opposite side to that toward which

she had dived into the river. She knew that if any had seen her leave the prahu

The Monster Men