The result was as his higher intelligence had foreseen--the creatures scattered to escape the fury of the lash and a moment later he had them at his mercy.About the campong lay four who had felt the full force of his heavy fist, while not one but bore some mark of the battle.
Not a moment did he give them to recuperate after he had scattered them before he rounded them up once more near the outer gate--but now they were docile and submissive.
In pairs he ordered them to lift their unconscious comrades to their shoulders and bear them into the jungle, for Number Thirteen was setting out into the world with his grim tribe in search of his lady love.
Once well within the jungle they halted to eat of the more familiar fruit which had always formed the greater bulk of their sustenance.Thus refreshed, they set out once more after the leader who wandered aimlessly beneath the shade of the tall jungle trees amidst the gorgeous tropic blooms and gay, songless birds--and of the twelve only the leader saw the beauties that surrounded them or felt the strange, mysterious influence of the untracked world they trod.Chance took them toward the west until presently they emerged upon the harbor's edge, where from the matted jungle they overlooked for the first time the waters of the little bay and the broader expanse of strait beyond, until their eyes rested at last upon the blurred lines of distant Borneo.
From other vantage points at the jungle's border two other watchers looked out upon the scene.One was the lascar whom von Horn had sent down to the Ithaca the night before but who had reached the harbor after she sailed.The other was von Horn himself.And both were looking out upon the dismantled wreck of the Ithaca where it lay in the sand near the harbor's southern edge.
Neither ventured forth from his place of concealment, for beyond the Ithaca ten prahus were pulling gracefully into the quiet waters of the basin.
Rajah Muda Saffir, caught by the hurricane the preceding night as he had been about to beat across to Borneo, had scurried for shelter within one of the many tiny coves which indent the island's entire coast.
It happened that his haven of refuge was but a short distance south of the harbor in which he knew the Ithaca to be moored, and in the morning he decided to pay that vessel a visit in the hope that he might learn something of advantage about the girl from one of her lascar crew.
The wily Malay had long refrained from pillaging the Ithaca for fear such an act might militate against the larger villainy he purposed perpetrating against her white owner, but when he rounded the point and came in sight of the stranded wreck he put all such thoughts from him and made straight for the helpless hulk to glean whatever of salvage might yet remain within her battered hull.
The old rascal had little thought of the priceless treasure hidden beneath the Ithaca's clean swept deck as he ordered his savage henchmen up her sides while he lay back upon his sleeping mat beneath the canopy which protected his vice-regal head from the blistering tropic sun.
Number Thirteen watched the wild head hunters with keenest interest as they clambered aboard the vessel.
With von Horn he saw the evident amazement which followed the opening of the hatch, though neither guessed its cause.He saw the haste with which a half dozen of the warriors leaped down the companionway and heard their savage shouts as they pursued their quarry within the bowels of the ship.
A few minutes later they emerged dragging a woman with them.Von Horn and Number Thirteen recognized the girl simultaneously, but the doctor, though he ground his teeth in futile rage, knew that he was helpless to avert the tragedy.Number Thirteen neither knew nor cared.
"Come!" he called to his grotesque horde."Kill the men and save the girl--the one with the golden hair,"he added as the sudden realization came to him that none of these creatures ever had seen a woman before.
Then he dashed from the shelter of the jungle, across the beach and into the water, his fearful pack at his heels.
The Ithaca lay now in about five feet of water, and the war prahus of Muda Saffir rode upon her seaward side, so that those who manned them did not see the twelve who splashed through the water from land.Never before had any of the rescuers seen a larger body of water than the little stream which wound through their campong, but accidents and experiments in that had taught them the danger of submerging their heads.
They could not swim, but all were large and strong, so that they were able to push their way rapidly through the water to the very side of the ship.
Here they found difficulty in reaching the deck, but in a moment Number Thirteen had solved the problem by requiring one of the taller of his crew to stand close in by the ship while the others clambered upon his shoulders and from there to the Ithaca's deck.
Number Thirteen was the first to pull himself over the vessel's side, and as he did so he saw some half dozen Dyaks preparing to quit her upon the opposite side.
They were the last of the boarding party--the girl was nowhere in sight.Without waiting for his men the young giant sprang across the deck.His one thought was to find Virginia Maxon.
At the sound of his approach the Dyak turned, and at the sight of a pajama clad white man armed only with a long whip they emitted savage cries of anticipation, counting the handsome trophy upon the white one's shoulders as already theirs.Number Thirteen would have paid no attention whatever to them had they not molested him, for he wished only to reach the girl's side as quickly as possible; but in another moment he found himself confronted by a half dozen dancing wild men, brandishing wicked looking parangs, and crying tauntingly.
