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chorus of savage cries close beside him and simultaneously he found himself in

the midst of twenty cutting, slashing parangs.

Like lightning his bull whip flew into action, and to the astonished warriors it was

as though a score of men were upon them in the person of this mighty white

giant. Following the example of their leader the five creatures at his back leaped

upon the nearest warriors, and though they wielded their parangs awkwardly the

superhuman strength back of their cuts and thrusts sent the already blood

stained blades through many a brown body.

The Dyaks would gladly have retreated after the first surprise of their initial

attack, but Bulan urged his men on after them, and so they were forced to fight

to preserve their lives at all. At last five of them managed to escape into the

jungle, but fifteen remained quietly upon the earth where they had fallen--the

victims of their own over confidence. Beside them lay two of Bulan's five, so that

now the little party was reduced to four--and the problem that had faced

Professor Maxon was so much closer to its own solution.

From the bodies of the dead Dyaks Bulan and his three companions, Number

Three, Number Ten, and Number Twelve, took enough loin cloths, caps, war-

coats, shields and weapons to fit them out completely, after discarding the ragged

remnants of their cotton pajamas, and now, even more terrible in appearance

than before, the rapidly vanishing company of soulless monsters continued their

aimless wandering down the river's brim.

The five Dyaks who had escaped carried the news of the terrible creatures that

had fallen upon them in the jungle, and of the awful prowess of the giant white

man who led them. They told of how, armed only with a huge whip, he had been

a match and more than a match for the best warriors of the tribe, and the news

that they started spread rapidly down the river from one long-house to another

until it reached the broad stream into which the smaller river flowed, and then it

travelled up and down to the headwaters above and the ocean far below in the

remarkable manner that news travels in the wild places of the world.

So it was that as Bulan advanced he found the long-houses in his path deserted,

and came to the larger river and turned up toward its head without meeting with

resistance or even catching a glimpse of the brown-skinned people who watched

him from their hiding places in the brush.

That night they slept in the long-house near the bank of the greater stream, while

its rightful occupants made the best of it in the jungle behind. The next morning

found the four again on the march ere the sun had scarcely lighted the dark

places of the forest, for Bulan was now sure that he was on the right trail and

The Monster Men