idea of killing Professor Maxon, but now there were doubts and
obstacles which had not been manifest before.

His standards of right and wrong were but half formed, from the brief
attempts of Professor Maxon and von Horn to inculcate proper moral
perceptions in a mind entirely devoid of hereditary inclinations toward
either good or bad, but he realized one thing most perfectly--that to
be a soulless thing was to be damned in the estimation of Virginia
Maxon, and it now occurred to him that to kill her father would be the
act of a soulless being. It was this thought more than another that
caused him to pause in the pursuit of his revenge, since he knew that
the act he contemplated would brand him the very thing he was, yet
wished not to be.

At length, however, he slowly comprehended that no act of his would
change the hideous fact of his origin; that nothing would make him
acceptable in her eyes, and with a shake of his head he arose and
stepped toward the living room to continue his search for the professor.

In the workshop Bududreen and his men had easily located the chest.
Dragging it into the north campong the Malay was about to congratulate
himself upon the ease with which the theft had been accomplished when
one of his fellows declared his intention of going to the house for the
purpose of dispatching Professor Maxon, lest the influence of his evil
eye should overtake them with some terrible curse when the loss of the
chest should be discovered.

While this met fully with Bududreen's plans he urged the man against
any such act that he might have witnesses to prove that he not only had
no hand in the crime, but had exerted his authority to prevent it; but
when two of the men separated themselves from the party and crept
toward the bungalow no force was interposed to stop them.

The moon had risen now, so that from the dark shadows of the palisade
Muda Saffir and his savages watched the party with Bududreen squatting
about the heavy chest, and saw the two who crept toward the house. To
Muda Saffir's evil mind there was but one explanation. Bududreen had
discovered a rich treasure, and having stolen that had dispatched two
of his men to bring him the girl also.

Rajah Muda Saffir was furious. In subdued whispers he sent a half
dozen of his Dyaks back beneath the shadow of the palisade to the
opposite side of the bungalow where they were to enter the building,
killing all within except the girl, whom they