war cries of the Dyaks, and the screams and shrieks of

their frightened victims in the campong without.

Almost simultaneously Professor Maxon and Sing rushed

into the living room to ascertain the cause of the

wild alarm, while at the same instant Bududreen's assassins

sprang through the door with upraised krisses, to be

almost immediately followed by Muda Saffir's six Dyaks

brandishing their long spears and wicked parangs.

In an instant the little room was filled with howling,

fighting men. The Dyaks, whose orders as well as

inclinations incited them to a general massacre,

fell first upon Bududreen's lascars who, cornered

in the small room, fought like demons for their lives,

so that when the Dyaks had overcome them two of their own

number lay dead beside the dead bodies of Bududreen's henchmen.

Sing and Professor Maxon stood in the doorway to the

professor's room gazing upon the scene of carnage in

surprise and consternation. The scientist was unarmed,

but Sing held a long, wicked looking Colt in readiness

for any contingency. It was evident the celestial was

no stranger to the use of his deadly weapon, nor to the

moments of extreme and sudden peril which demanded its use,

for he seemed no more perturbed than had he been but

hanging out his weekly wash.

As Number Thirteen watched the two men from the dark

shadows of the room in which he stood, he saw that both

were calm--the Chinaman with the calmness of perfect

courage, the other through lack of full understanding

of the grave danger which menaced him. In the eyes of

the latter shone a strange gleam--it was the wild light

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