f the stream;
stopping breathlessly, many times, as they heard voices in the
wood, not far off. Presently Will pointed to a tree, rising from a
clump of bushes, close to the bank.

"Let us get through those bushes," he said. "Be careful, Hans, not
to break a twig, as you go. We can climb that tree. There are
plants, with stems like cords, winding round it. The top is so
thick and bushy that I don't think they can see us, there."

Very carefully they parted the bushes that overhung the stream, and
entered the thicket. Then they made their way, with great
difficulty, to the foot of the tree. It was a very large one, with
a trunk fully 15 feet in diameter, rising some forty feet without a
branch. Then a number of great arms grew out, at right angles.
These were covered thickly with parasitic vegetation. Round the
trunk, like a snake embracing its victim, a great climber had wound
itself. Its main stem was as thick as a man's arm, and there were
dozens of smaller, cord-like climbers. Thus, the lads had no
difficulty in climbing to the point where the branches grew out.
Above these was a mass of foliage, completely covered by the
climbers; whose drooping sprays, and clusters, gave the tree the
appearance of a solid mass of verdure. The boys continued to climb
until they were nearly at the top of the tree.

"There!" Will said, wiping away the perspiration which streamed
from his face, "if they do not track us through the bushes to the
very foot of this tree, I defy them to find us."

For some hours, the wood was alive with noises. The Malays were
evidently beating every foot of it, and were determined that none
of their victims should escape. Several times parties of men came
up the stream, searching the banks on both sides but, happily, even
their sharp eyes did not detect the spot where the boys had entered
the bushes and, gradually, the noises ceased and, at night, a great
glare by the seashore told the lads that their enemies had gathered
again there; and were continuing, by fire light, the work of
breaking open and examining the treasures which the sea had cast up
for them.

"What do you zay, Will? Zhall we get down and go furder into wood,
or zhall we wait here?"

"I think, anyhow, we had better wait till tomorrow night," Will
answered. "They may search again, tomorrow, and might come upon our
tracks. If they don't find us, they may suppose that they have
caught us all, or that we have escaped right into the in