The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs
9
INTO SAVAGE BORNEO
Von Horn cursed the chance that had snatched the girl from him, but hetried to content himself with the thought that the treasure probablystill rested in the cabin of the Ithaca, where Bududreen was to havedeposited it. He wished that the Dyaks would take themselves off sothat he could board the vessel and carry the chest ashore to bury itagainst the time that fate should provide a means for transporting itto Singapore.
In the water below him floated the Ithaca's masts, their grisly burdensstill lashed to their wave swept sides. Bududreen lay there, hiscontorted features set in a horrible grimace of death which grinned upat the man he would have cheated, as though conscious of the fact thatthe white man would have betrayed him had the opportunity come, thewhile he enjoyed in anticipation the other's disappointment in the lossof both the girl and the treasure.
The tide was rising now, and presently the Ithaca began to float. Nosooner was it apparent that she was free than the Dyaks sprang into thewater and swam to her side. Like monkeys they scrambled aboard,swarming below deck in search, thought von Horn, of pillage. He prayedthat they would not discover the chest.
Presently a half dozen of them leaped overboard and swam to the mass oftangled spars and rigging which littered the beach. Selecting whatthey wished they returned to the vessel, and a few minutes later vonHorn was chagrined to see them stepping a jury mast--he thought thetreasure lay in the Ithaca's cabin.
Before dark the vessel moved slowly out of the harbor, setting a courseacross the strait in the direction that the war prahus had taken. Whenit was apparent that there was no danger that the head hunters wouldreturn, the lascar came from his hiding place, and dancing up and downupon the shore screamed warlike challenges and taunts at the retreatingenemy.
Von Horn also came forth, much to the sailor's surprise, and in silencethe two stood watching the disappearing ship. At length they turnedand made their way up the stream toward camp--there was no longer aughtto fear there. Von Horn wondered if the creatures he had loosed uponProfessor Maxon had done their work before they left, or if they hadall turned to mush as had Number Thirteen.
Once at the encampment his questions were answered, for he saw a lightin the bungalow, and as he mounted the steps there were Sing andProfessor Maxon just coming from the living room.
"Von Horn!" exclaimed the professor. "You, then, are not dead; butwhere is Virginia? Tell me that she is safe."
"She has been carried away," was the startling answer. "Your creatures,under the thing you wished to marry her to, have taken her to Borneowith a band of Malay and Dyak pirates. I was alone and could donothing to prevent them."
"God!" moaned the old man. "Why did I not kill the thing when it stoodwithin my power to do so. Only last night he was here beside me, andnow it is too late."
"I warned you," said von Horn, coldly.
"I was mad," retorted the professor. "Could you not see that I wasmad? Oh, why did you not stop me? You were sane enough. You at leastmight have forced me to abandon the insane obsession which hasoverpowered my reason for all these terrible months. I am sane now,but it is too late--too late."
"Both you and your daughter could only have interpreted any such actionon my part as instigated by self-interest, for you both knew that Iwanted to make her my wife," replied the other. "My hands were tied.I am sorry now that I did not act, but you can readily see the positionin which I was placed."
"Can nothing be done to get her back?" cried the father. "There mustbe some way to save her. Do it von Horn, and not only is my daughteryours but my wealth as well--every thing that I possess shall be yoursif you will but save her from those frightful creatures."
"The Ithaca is gone, too," replied the doctor. "There is only a smallboat that I hid in the jungle for some such emergency. It will carryus to Borneo, but what can we four do against five hundred pirates andthe dozen monsters you have brought into the world? No, ProfessorMaxon, I fear there is little hope, though I am willing to give my lifein an attempt to save Virginia. You will not forget your promiseshould we succeed?"
"No, doctor," replied the old man. "I swear that you shall haveVirginia as your wife, and all my property shall be made over to you ifshe is rescued."
Sing Lee had been a silent listener to this strange conversation. Anodd look came into his slant eyes as he heard von Horn exact aconfirmation from the professor, but what passed in his shrewd mindonly he could say.
It was too late to attempt to make a start that day for Borneo, asdarkness had already fallen. Professor Maxon and von Horn walked overto the workshop and the inner campong to ascertain what damage had beendone there.
On their return Sing was setting the table on the verandah for theevening meal. The two men were talking, and without making hispresence noticeable the Chinaman hovered about ever within ear shot.
"I cannot make it out, von Horn," Professor Maxon was saying. "Not aboard broken, and the doors both apparently opened intentionally bysomeone familiar with locks and bolts. Who could have done it?"
"You forget Number Thirteen," suggested the doctor.
"But the chest!" expostulated the other. "What in the world would hewant of that enormous and heavy chest?"
"He might have thought that it contained treasure," hazarded von Horn,in an innocent tone of voice.
"Bosh, my dear man," replied Professor Maxon. "He knew nothing oftreasures, or money, or the need or value of either. I tell you theworkshop was opened, and the inner campong as well by some one who knewthe value of money and wanted that chest, but why they should havereleased the creatures from the inner enclosure is beyond me."
"And I tell you Professor Maxon that it could have been none other thanNumber Thirteen," insisted von Horn. "Did I not myself see him leadinghis eleven monsters as easily as a captain commands his company? Thefellow is brighter than we have imagined. He has learned much from usboth, he has reasoned, and he has shrewdly guessed many things that hecould not have known through experience."
"But his object?" asked the professor.
"That is simple," returned von Horn. "You have held out hopes to himthat soon he should come to live under your roof with Virginia. Thecreature has been madly infatuated with her ever since the day he tookher from Number One, and you have encouraged his infatuation untilyesterday. Then you regained your sanity and put him in his rightfulplace. What is the result? Denied the easy prey he expected heimmediately decided to take it by force, and with that end in view, andtaking advantage of the series of remarkable circumstances which playedinto his hands, he liberated his fellows, and with them hastened to thebeach in search of Virginia and in hopes of being able to fly with herupon the Ithaca. There he met the Malay pirates, and together theyformed an alliance under terms of which Number Thirteen is to have thegirl, and the pirates the chest in return for transporting him and hiscrew to Borneo. Why it is all perfectly simple and logical, ProfessorMaxon; do you not see it now?"
"You may be right, doctor," answered the old man. "But it is idle toconjecture. Tomorrow we can be up and doing, so let us get what sleepwe can tonight. We shall need all our energies if we are to save mypoor, dear girl, from the clutches of that horrid, soulless thing."
At the very moment that he spoke the object of his contumely wasentering the dark mouth of a broad river that flowed from out of theheart of savage Borneo. In the prahu with him his eleven hideouscompanions now bent to their paddles with slightly increasedefficiency. Before them the leader saw a fire blazing upon a tinyisland in the center of the stream. Toward this they turned theirsilent way. Grimly the war prahu with its frightful freight nosedcloser to the bank.
At last Number Thirteen made out the figures of men about the fire, andas they came still closer he was sure that they were members of thevery party he had been pursuing across the broad waters for hours. Theprahus were drawn up upon the bank and the warriors were preparing toeat.
Just as the young giants' prahu cam
At sight of the occupants the head hunters scattered for their ownprahus. The frightful aspect of the enemy turned their savage heartsto water, leaving no fight in their ordinarily warlike souls.
So quickly they moved that as the pursuing prahu touched the bank allthe nearer boats had been launched, and the remaining pirates werescurrying across the little island for those which lay upon theopposite side. Among these was the Malay who guarded the girl, but hehad not been quick enough to prevent Virginia Maxon recognizing thestalwart figure standing in the bow of the oncoming craft.
As he dragged her away toward the prahu of Muda Saffir she cried out tothe strange white man who seemed her self-appointed protector.
"Help! Help!" she called. "This way! Across the island!" And thenthe brown hand of her jailer closed over her mouth. Like a tigress shefought to free herself, or to detain her captor until the rescue partyshould catch up with them, but the scoundrel was muscled like a bull,and when the girl held back he lifted her across his shoulder and brokeinto a run.
Rajah Muda Saffir had no stomach for a fight himself, but he was loatheto lose the prize he had but just won, and seeing that his men werepanic-stricken he saw no alternative but to rally them for a briefstand that would give the little moment required to slip away in hisown prahu with the girl.
Calling aloud for those around him to come to his support he haltedfifty yards from his boat just as Number Thirteen with his fierce,brainless horde swept up from the opposite side of the island in thewake of him who bore Virginia Maxon. The old rajah succeeded ingathering some fifty warriors about him from the crews of the two boatswhich lay near his. His own men he hastened to their posts in hisprahu that they might be ready to pull swiftly away the moment that heand the captive were aboard.
The Dyak warriors presented an awe inspiring spectacle in the fitfullight of the nearby camp fire. The ferocity of their fierce faces wasaccentuated by the upturned, bristling tiger cat's teeth whichprotruded from every ear; while the long feathers of the Argus pheasantwaving from their war-caps, the brilliant colors of their war-coatstrimmed with the black and white feathers of the hornbill, and thestrange devices upon their gaudy shields but added to the savagery oftheir appearance as they danced and howled, menacing and intimidating,in the path of the charging foe.
A single backward glance was all that Virginia Maxon found it possibleto throw in the direction of the rescue party, and in that she saw asight that lived forever in her memory. At the head of his hideous,misshapen pack sprang the stalwart young giant straight into the heartof the flashing parangs of the howling savages. To right and left fellthe mighty bull whip cutting down men with all the force and dispatchof a steel saber. The Dyaks, encouraged by the presence of Muda Saffirin their rear, held their ground; and the infuriated, brainless thingsthat followed the wielder of the bull whip threw themselves upon thehead hunters with beating hands and rending fangs.
Number Ten wrested a parang from an adversary, and acting upon hisexample the other creatures were not long in arming themselves in asimilar manner. Cutting and jabbing they hewed their way through thesolid ranks of the enemy, until Muda Saffir, seeing that defeat wasinevitable turned and fled toward his prahu.
Four of his creatures lay dead as the last of the Dyaks turned toescape from the mad white man who faced naked steel with only a rawhidewhip. In panic the head hunters made a wild dash for the two remainingprahus, for Muda Saffir had succeeded in getting away from the islandin safety.
Number Thirteen reached the water's edge but a moment after the prow ofthe rajah's craft had cleared the shore and was swinging up streamunder the vigorous strokes of its fifty oarsmen. For an instant hestood poised upon the bank as though to spring after the retreatingprahu, but the knowledge that he could not swim held him back--it wasuseless to throw away his life when the need of it was so great ifVirginia Maxon was to be saved.
Turning to the other prahus he saw that one was already launched, butthat the crew of the other was engaged in a desperate battle with theseven remaining members of his crew for possession of the boat.Leaping among the combatants he urged his fellows aboard the prahuwhich was already half filled with Dyaks. Then he shoved the boat outinto the river, jumping aboard himself as its prow cleared the gravellybeach.
For several minutes that long, hollowed log was a veritable floatinghell of savage, screaming men locked in deadly battle. The sharpparangs of the head hunters were no match for the superhuman muscles ofthe creatures that battered them about; now lifting one high above hisfellows and using the body as a club to beat down those nearby; againsnapping an arm or leg as one might break a pipe stem; or hurling aliving antagonist headlong above the heads of his fellows to the darkwaters of the river. And above them all in the thickest of the fight,towering even above his own giants, rose the mighty figure of theterrible white man, whose very presence wrought havoc with the valor ofthe brown warriors.
Two more of Number Thirteen's creatures had been cut down in the prahu,but the loss among the Dyaks had been infinitely greater, and to it wasnow added the desertions of the terror stricken savages who seemed tofear the frightful countenances of their adversaries even as much asthey did their prowess.
There remained but a handful of brown warriors in one end of the boatwhen the advantage of utilizing their knowledge of the river and ofnavigation occurred to Number Thirteen. Calling to his men hecommanded them to cease killing, making prisoners of those who remainedinstead. So accustomed had his pack now become to receiving and actingupon his orders that they changed their tactics immediately, and one byone the remaining Dyaks were overpowered, disarmed and held.
With difficulty Number Thirteen communicated with them, for among themthere was but a single warrior who had ever had intercourse with anEnglishman, but at last by means of signs and the few words that werecommon to them both he made the native understand that he would sparethe lives of himself and his companions if they would help him inpursuit of Muda Saffir and the girl.
The Dyaks felt but little loyalty for the rascally Malay they served,since in common with all their kind they and theirs had suffered forgenerations at the hands of the cruel, crafty and unscrupulous racethat had usurped the administration of their land. So it was notdifficult to secure from them the promise of assistance in return fortheir lives.
Number Thirteen noticed that when they addressed him it was always asBulan, and upon questioning them he discovered that they had given himthis title of honor partly in view of his wonderful fighting abilityand partly because the sight of his white face emerging from out of thedarkness of the river into the firelight of their blazing camp fire hadcarried to their impressionable minds a suggestion of the tropic moonwhich they admired and reverenced. Both the name and the idea appealedto Number Thirteen and from that time he adopted Bulan as his rightfulcognomen.
The loss of time resulting from the fight in the prahu and the ensuingpeace parley permitted Muda Saffir to put considerable distance betweenhimself and his pursuers. The Malay's boat was now alone, for of theeight prahus that remained of the original fleet it was the only onewhich had taken this branch of the river, the others having scurriedinto a smaller southerly arm after the fight upon the island, that theymight the more easily escape their hideous foemen.
Only Barunda, the headman, knew which channel Rajah Muda Saffirintended following, and Muda wondered why it was that the two boatsthat were to have borne Barunda's men did not catch up with his. Whilehe had left Barunda and his warriors engaged in battle with thestrangers he did not for an instant imagine that they would suffer anysevere loss, and that one of their boats should be captured was beyondbelief.
So it was that while Rajah Muda Saffir moved leisurely up the rivertoward his distant stronghold waiting for the other boats of his fleetto overtake him, Barunda, the headman, guided the white enemy swiftlyafter him. Barunda had discovered that it was the girl alone thiswhite man wanted. Evidently he either knew nothing of the treasurechest lying in the bottom of Muda Saffir's boat, or, knowing, wasindifferent. In either event Barunda thought that he saw a chance topossess himself of the rich contents of the heavy box, and so servedhis new master with much greater enthusiasm than he had the old.
Beneath the paddles of the natives and the five remaining members ofhis pack Bulan sped up the dark river after the single prahu with itspriceless freight. Already six of the creatures of Professor Maxon'sexperiments had given up their lives in the service of his daughter,and the remaining six were pushing forward through the inky blacknessof the jungle night into the untracked heart of savage Borneo to rescueher from her abductors though they sacrificed their own lives in theendeavor.
Far ahead of them in the bottom of the great prahu crouched the girlthey sought. Her thoughts were of the man she felt intuitively topossess the strength, endurance and ability to overcome every obstacleand reach her at last. Would he come in time? Ah, that was thequestion. The mystery of the stranger appealed to her. A thousandtimes she had attempted to solve the question of his first appearanceon the island at the very moment that his mighty muscles were needed torescue her from the horrible creature of her father's creation. Thenthere was his unaccountable disappearance for weeks; there was vonHorn's strange reticence and seeming ignorance as to the circumstanceswhich brought the young man to the island, or his equally unaccountabledisappearance after having rescued her from Number One. And now, whenshe suddenly found herself in need of protection, here was the sameyoung man turning up in a most miraculous fashion, and at the head ofthe terrible creatures of the inner campong.
The riddle was too deep for her--she could not solve it; and then herthoughts were interrupted by the thin, brown hand of Rajah Muda Saffiras it encircled her waist and drew her toward him. Upon the evil lipswere hot words of passion. The girl wrenched herself from the man'sembrace, and, with a little scream of terror, sprang to her feet, andas Muda Saffir arose to grasp her again she struck him full in the facewith one small, clenched fist.
Directly behind the Malay lay the heavy chest of Professor Maxon. Asthe man stepped backward to recover his equilibrium both feet struckthe obstacle. For an instant he tottered with wildly waving arms in anendeavor to regain his lost balance, then, with a curse upon his lips,he lunged across the box and over the side of the prahu into the darkwaters of the river.