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Chapter 12 - PERFIDY

On the morning that Bulan set out with his three monsters from the deserted

long-house in which they had spent the night, Professor Maxon's party was

speeding up the river, constantly buoyed with hope by the repeated reports of

natives that the white girl had been seen passing in a war prahu.

In translating this information to Professor Maxon, von Horn habitually made it

appear that the girl was in the hands of Number Thirteen, or Bulan, as they had

now come to call him owing to the natives' constant use of that name in speaking

of the strange, and formidable white giant who had invaded their land.

At the last long-house below the gorge, the head of which had witnessed Virginia

Maxon's escape from the clutches of Ninaka and Barunda, the searching party

was forced to stop owing to a sudden attack of fever which had prostrated the

professor. Here they found a woman who had a strange tale to relate of a

remarkable sight she had witnessed that very morning.

It seemed that she had been straining tapioca in a little stream which flowed out

of the jungle at the rear of the long-house when her attention was attracted by

the crashing of an animal through the bushes a few yards above her. As she

looked she saw a huge MIAS PAPPAN cross the stream, bearing in his arms the

dead, or unconscious form of a white-skinned girl with golden hair.

Her description of the MIAS PAPPAN was such as to half convince von Horn that

she might have seen Number Three carrying Virginia Maxon, although he could

not reconcile the idea with the story that the two Dyaks had told him of losing all

of Bulan's monsters in the jungle.

Of course it was possible that they might have made their way over land to this

point, but it seemed scarcely credible--and then, how could they have come into

possession of Virginia Maxon, whom every report except this last agreed was still

in the hands of Ninaka and Barunda. There was always the possibility that the

natives had lied to him, and the more he questioned the Dyak woman the more

firmly convinced he became that this was the fact.

The outcome of it was that von Horn finally decided to make an attempt to follow

the trail of the creature that the woman had seen, and with this plan in view

persuaded Muda Saffir to arrange with the chief of the long-house at which they

then were to furnish him with trackers and an escort of warriors, promising them

some splendid heads should they be successful in overhauling Bulan and his

pack.

The Monster Men