h.

This went on for nearly an hour, when the Malays awakened fully to the
fact that their prisoner had not gone in that direction, and they
returned upon their track so suddenly that Ali had barely time to force
his way in amongst the canes and crouch down, silent and breathless,
before they were back, and were passing the place where the young man
was hidden, when the bearer of the torch saw the broken canes and
leaves, and drew attention thereto.

"Tiger!" said the man nearest to him, and he pointed to some footprints
which were sufficiently recent to satisfy the other, and to Ali's great
relief they passed on.

For a few moments he had felt that he was once more a prisoner, and now
he breathed freely again, and waiting till the last rustle of the canes
and undergrowth had died away with the faint gleam of the torch, he
crept painfully out from amidst the thorny undergrowth, and continued
his retreat.

He paused from time to time to listen, but all was silent now, and
almost feeling his way through the dark forest, he pressed on, gladdened
now and then by a glimpse of the starry sky, he continued his course,
till he reached the edge of the river, rolling swift and dark through
the midst of the dense forest.

All had heard the strange sounds on either side of the dark track he had
come along, more than once shuddering slightly as he heard the cry of a
tiger or the curious _coo-ai_ of the argus pheasant, but nothing sounded
so pleasant to him during his exciting retreat as the strange, low,
untiring rush of the great river.

There was no noisy babbling, but a soft, low, hissing rush, as the swift
stream hurried amidst the stones and water-washed roots of the trees
upon the banks.

He had hoped to find a boat somewhere about the end of the track, where
there was a wretched campong; but there did not seem to be a single
sampan, and he tramped wearily down the bank, till he came near the
houses opposite the island.

He dared go no further along the bank, lest he should be seized; and he
stood in the shade of a tree at last, thinking of what he should do.

But one course was open to him, and that was to swim out into the swift
stream, and make for the head of the island, where, to his great
delight, all seemed perfectly still, and free from alarm. How long it
would keep so, he could not say.

There was no other way for him, and being a swift swimmer he hesitated
no longer, but throwing off his baju and sarong