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Updated: May 20, 2025
"Ninaka," they said, "has murdered Barunda who was taking the rajah's treasure up to the rajah's stronghold the treasure which Ninaka had stolen after trying to murder the rajah and which Barunda had recaptured.
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 Barunda's men did not catch up with his.
"Some crocodile has feasted well," he said significantly. Barunda smiled. "And the girl?" he continued. "And the treasure?" Ninaka's eyes narrowed. "They are safe," he answered. "The white man wants the girl," remarked Barunda. "He does not suspect that you are one of Muda Saffir's people.
At the last long-house below the gorge, the head of which had witnessed Virginia Maxon's escape from the clutches of Ninaka and Barunda, the searching party was forced to stop owing to a sudden attack of fever which had prostrated the professor. Here they found a woman who had a strange tale to relate of a remarkable sight she had witnessed that very morning.
The backs of the paddlers were all toward her. Stealthily she rose to a stooping position at the boat's side. For a moment she paused, and then, almost noiselessly, dove overboard and disappeared beneath the black waters. It was the slight rocking of the prahu that caused Barunda to look suddenly about to discover the reason for the disturbance.
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.
As the boat disappeared about a bend in the river Rajah Muda Saffir arose, shaking his fist in the direction it had vanished and, cursing anew and volubly, damned each separate hair in the heads of the faithless Barunda and the traitorous Ninaka.
Barunda suggested that in case of some possible emergency causing the quarry to return down the river it would be well to have a force remain at the long-house to intercept them. He volunteered to undertake the command of this party. Ninaka, he said, would furnish guides to escort Bulan and his men through the jungle to the point at which they might expect to find Muda Saffir.
Evidently he would be a good ally in wreaking vengeance upon the white giant who had caused all his discomfiture afterward there was always the kris if the other should become inconvenient. At the long-house at which Barunda and Ninaka had halted, Muda Saffir learned all that had transpired, his informants being the two Dyaks who had led Bulan and his pack into the jungle.
Then he resumed his watch for the friendly prahu, or smaller sampan which he knew time would eventually bring from up or down the river to his rescue, for who of the surrounding natives would dare refuse succor to the powerful Rajah of Sakkan! At the long-house which harbored Ninaka and his crew, Barunda and Bulan stopped with theirs to obtain food and rest.
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