t
reeds, found only in the most distant fastnesses of the forest, which
are used by the tamer tribes to form the inner casing of their
blow-pipes.

Chep had the traditions of her people, and her great love for Kria had
alone served to nerve her to leave her tribe, and the forest country
that she knew. A great fear fell upon her when, the familiar jungles
being left far behind, she found herself floating down stream through
cluster after cluster of straggling Malay villages. The knowledge that
Kria was at hand to protect her tended to reassure her, but the instinct
of her race was strong upon her, and her heart beat violently, like that
of some wild bird held in a human hand. All her life the Malays, who
preyed upon her people, had been spoken of with fear and terror by the
simple Sakai at night time round the fires in their squalid camps. Now
she found herself alone in the very heart--so it seemed to her--of the
Malay country. Kria, while he lived among her people as one of
themselves, had seemed to her merely a superior kind of Sakai. Now she
realised that he was in truth a Malay, one of the dominant foreign race,
and her spirit sank within her. None the less, it never occurred to her
to fear pursuit. She knew how much her tribesmen dreaded the Malays, and
how strongly averse they were to quitting the forest lands with which
they were familiar, and Kria, who had recently acquired a considerable
knowledge of the Sakai ways and customs, felt as confident as she.

So Chep and her lover halted at the latter's village, and took up their
abode in his house. The girl was delighted with her new home, which, in
her eyes, seemed a veritable palace, when compared with the miserable
dwelling places of her own people; and the number and variety of the
cooking pots, and the large stock of household stores filled her woman's
soul with delight. Also, Kria was kind to her, and she eat good boiled
rice daily, which was a new and a pleasant experience. Sooner or later
the importunate longing for the jungle, which is born in the hearts of
all forest dwellers, would rise up and drive her back to her own people,
but of this she knew nothing, and for the time she was happy.

In the Sakai camp it was not until day had dawned that the
demon-worshippers, looking at one another through heavy sleepless eyes,
set in pallid faces, among the draggled greenery in the house, noted
that two of their number were missing. The quick sight of the jungle