where he had last seen the girl, as he wished to

do, he bore far to the northeast of the place,

and missed entirely the path which von Horn

and his Dyaks had taken from the long-house

into the jungle and back.

All that day he urged his reluctant companions on through

the fearful heat of the tropics until, almost exhausted,

they halted at dusk upon the bank of a river,

where they filled their stomachs with cooling draughts,

and after eating lay down to sleep. It was quite dark

when Bulan was aroused by the sound of something approaching

from up the river, and as he lay listening he presently heard

the subdued voices of men conversing in whispers.

He recognized the language as that of the Dyaks,

though he could interpret nothing which they said.

Presently he saw a dozen warriors emerge into a little

patch of moonlight. They bore a huge chest among them

which they deposited within a few paces of where Bulan lay.

Then they commenced to dig in the soft earth with

their spears and parangs until they had excavated a

shallow pit. Into this they lowered the chest,

covering it over with earth and sprinkling dead grass,

twigs and leaves above it, that it might present to a

searcher no sign that the ground had recently been

disturbed. The balance of the loose earth which would

not go back into the pit was thrown into the river.

When all had been made to appear as it was before,

one of the warriors made several cuts and scratches

upon the stem of a tree which grew above the spot where

the chest was buried; then they hastened on in silence

past Bulan and down the river.

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