ith a heavy thud on the ground.

The professor's rifle was a breech-loader. He therefore lost no time in
re-charging, and hurried forward as if he saw other game, while the rest
of the party--except Van der Kemp, Nigel, and Gurulam--fell behind to
look at and pick up the fallen animal.

"Look out!" whispered Nigel, pointing to a bit of brown hair that he saw
among the leaves high overhead.

"Vere? I cannot see him," whispered the naturalist, whose eyes blazed
enough almost to melt his blue glasses. "Do _you_ fire, Mr Roy?"

"My gun is charged only with small-shot, for birds. It is useless for
such game," said Nigel.

"Ach! I see!"

Up went the rifle and again the echoes were startled and the animal
kingdom astounded, especially that portion at which the professor had
fired, for there was immediately a tremendous commotion among the leaves
overhead, and another orang of the largest size was seen to cross an
open space and disappear among the thick foliage. Evidently the
creature had been hit, but not severely, for it travelled among the
tree-tops at the rate of full five miles an hour, obliging the hunters
to run at a rapid pace over the rough ground in order to keep up with
it. In its passage from tree to tree the animal showed caution and
foresight, selecting only those branches that interlaced with other
boughs, so that it made uninterrupted progress, and also had a knack of
always keeping masses of thick foliage underneath it so that for some
time no opportunity was found of firing another shot. At last, however,
it came to one of those Dyak roads of which we have made mention, so
that it could not easily swing from one tree to another, and the
stoppage of rustling among the leaves told that the creature had halted.
For some time they gazed up among the branches without seeing anything,
but at last, in a place where the leaves seemed to have been thrust
aside near the top of one of the highest trees, a great red hairy body
was seen, and a huge black face gazed fiercely down at the hunters.

Verkimier fired instantly, the branches closed, and the monster moved
off in another direction. In desperate anxiety Nigel fired both barrels
of his shot-gun. He might as well have fired at the moon. Gurulam was
armed only with a spear, and Van der Kemp, who was not much of a
sportsman, carried a similar weapon. The rest of the party were still
out of sight in rear looking after the dead mias.

It was astonish