the news of the terrible
creatures that had fallen upon them in the jungle, and of the awful
prowess of the giant white man who led them. They told of how, armed
only with a huge whip, he had been a match and more than a match for
the best warriors of the tribe, and the news that they started spread
rapidly down the river from one long-house to another until it reached
the broad stream into which the smaller river flowed, and then it
travelled up and down to the headwaters above and the ocean far below
in the remarkable manner that news travels in the wild places of the
world.

So it was that as Bulan advanced he found the long-houses in his path
deserted, and came to the larger river and turned up toward its head
without meeting with resistance or even catching a glimpse of the
brown-skinned people who watched him from their hiding places in the
brush.

That night they slept in the long-house near the bank of the greater
stream, while its rightful occupants made the best of it in the jungle
behind. The next morning found the four again on the march ere the sun
had scarcely lighted the dark places of the forest, for Bulan was now
sure that he was on the right trail and that the new river that he had
come to was indeed the same that he had traversed in the Prahu with
Barunda.

It must have been close to noon when the young giant's ears caught the
sound of the movement of some animal in the jungle a short distance to
his right and away from the river. His experience with men had taught
him to be wary, for it was evident that every man's hand was against
him, so he determined to learn at once whether the noise he heard came
from some human enemy lurking along his trail ready to spring upon him
with naked parang at a moment that he was least prepared, or merely
from some jungle brute.

Cautiously he threaded his way through the matted vegetation in the
direction of the sound. Although a parang from the body of a
vanquished Dyak hung at his side he grasped his bull whip ready in his
right hand, preferring it to the less accustomed weapon of the head
hunter. For a dozen yards he advanced without sighting the object of
his search, but presently his efforts were rewarded by a glimpse of a
reddish, hairy body, and a pair of close set, wicked eyes peering at
him from behind a giant tree.

At the same instant a slight movement at one side attracted his
attention to where another similar figure crouched in the underbrus