Barunda's men did not catch up with his. While he had
left Barunda and his warriors engaged in battle with
the strangers he did not for an instant imagine that
they would suffer any severe loss, and that one of
their boats should be captured was beyond belief.
But this was precisely what had happened, and the
second boat, seeing the direction taken by the enemy,
had turned down stream the more surely to escape them.

So it was that while Rajah Muda Saffir moved leisurely
up the river toward his distant stronghold waiting for
the other boats of his fleet to overtake him, Barunda,
the headman, guided the white enemy swiftly after him.
Barunda had discovered that it was the girl alone this
white man wanted. Evidently he either knew nothing of
the treasure chest lying in the bottom of Muda Saffir's
boat, or, knowing, was indifferent. In either event
Barunda thought that he saw a chance to possess himself
of the rich contents of the heavy box, and so served his
new master with much greater enthusiasm than he had the old.

Beneath the paddles of the natives and the five
remaining members of his pack Bulan sped up the dark
river after the single prahu with its priceless
freight. Already six of the creatures of Professor
Maxon's experiments had given up their lives in the
service of his daughter, and the remaining six were
pushing forward through the inky blackness of the
jungle night into the untracked heart of savage Borneo
to rescue her from her abductors though they sacrificed