hands of the cruel, crafty and unscrupulous race that
had usurped the administration of their land. So it
was not difficult to secure from them the promise of
assistance in return for their lives.

Number Thirteen noticed that when they addressed him
it was always as Bulan, and upon questioning them he
discovered that they had given him this title of honor
partly in view of his wonderful fighting ability and
partly because the sight of his white face emerging
from out of the darkness of the river into the
firelight of their blazing camp fire had carried to
their impressionable minds a suggestion of the tropic
moon which they admired and reverenced. Both the name
and the idea appealed to Number Thirteen and from that
time he adopted Bulan as his rightful cognomen.

The loss of time resulting from the fight in the prahu
and the ensuing peace parley permitted Muda Saffir
to put considerable distance between himself and
his pursuers. The Malay's boat was now alone, for
of the eight prahus that remained of the original fleet
it was the only one which had taken this branch of the river,
the others having scurried into a smaller southerly arm
after the fight upon the island, that they might the
more easily escape their hideous foemen.

Only Barunda, the headman, knew which channel Rajah
Muda Saffir intended following, and Muda wondered why
it was that the two boats that were to have borne