13
BURIED TREASURE
After the escape of the girl Barunda and Ninaka had fallen out overthat affair and the division of the treasure, with the result that thepanglima had slipped a knife between the ribs of his companion anddropped the body overboard.
Barunda's followers, however, had been highly enraged at the act, andin the ensuing battle which they waged for revenge of their murderedchief Ninaka and his crew had been forced to take to the shore and hidein the jungle.
With difficulty they had saved the chest and dragged it after them intothe mazes of the underbrush. Finally, however, they succeeded ineluding the angry enemy, and took up their march through the interiorfor the head of a river which would lead them to the sea by anotherroute, it being Ninaka's intention to dispose of the contents of thechest as quickly as possible through the assistance of a rascally Malaywho dwelt at Gunung Tebor, where he carried on a thriving trade withpirates.
But presently it became apparent that he had not so easily escaped thefruits of his villainy as he had supposed, for upon the evening of thefirst day the rear of his little column was attacked by some ofBarunda's warriors who had forged ahead of their fellows, with theresult that the head of Ninaka's brother went to increase the prestigeand glory of the house of the enemy.
Ninaka was panic-stricken, since he knew that hampered as he was by theheavy chest he could neither fight nor run to advantage. And so, upona dark night near the head waters of the river he sought, he buried thetreasure at the foot of a mighty buttress tree, and with his parangmade certain cabalistic signs upon the bole whereby he might identifythe spot when it was safe to return and disinter his booty. Then, withhis men, he hastened down the stream until they reached the head ofprahu navigation where they stole a craft and paddled swiftly on towardthe sea.
When the three bull ourang outangs closed upon Bulan he felt no fear asto the outcome of the battle, for never in his experience had he copedwith any muscles that his own mighty thews could not overcome. But asthe battle continued he realized that there might be a limit to thenumber of antagonists which he could successfully withstand, since hecould scarcely hope with but two hands to reach the throats of threeenemies, or ward off the blows and clutches of six powerful hands, orthe gnashing of three sets of savage fangs.
When the truth dawned upon him that he was being killed the instinct ofself-preservation was born in him. The ferocity with which he hadfought before paled into insignificance beside the mad fury with whichhe now attacked the three terrible creatures upon him. Shaking himselflike a great lion he freed his arms for a moment from the clingingembrace of his foemen, and seizing the neck of the nearest in hismighty clutch wrenched the head completely around.
There was one awful shriek from the tortured brute--the vertebraeparted with a snap, and Bulan's antagonists were reduced to two.Lunging and struggling the three combatants stumbled farther andfarther into the jungle beyond the clearing. With mighty blows the manbuffeted the beasts to right and left, but ever they returned inbestial rage to renew the encounter. Bulan was weakening rapidly underthe terrific strain to which he had been subjected, and from loss ofthe blood which flowed from his wounds; yet he was slowly mastering thefoaming brutes, who themselves were torn and bleeding and exhausted.Weaker and weaker became the struggles of them all, when a suddenmisstep sent Bulan stumbling headforemost against the stem of a tree,where, stunned, he sank unconscious, at the mercy of the relentlessbulls.
They had already sprung upon the prostrate form of their victim tofinish what the accident had commenced, when the loud report of Sing'srevolver smote upon their startled ears as the Chinaman's bullet burieditself in the heart of Number Ten. Never had the ourang outangs heardthe sound of a firearm, and the noise, seemingly in such closeproximity, filled them with such terror that on the instant they forgotall else than this new and startling fear, and with headlong hasteleaped away into the jungle, leaving Bulan lying where he had fallen.
So it was that though Sing passed within a few paces of the unconsciousman he neither saw nor heard aught of him or his antagonists.
When Bulan returned to consciousness the day was drawing to a close.He was stiff and sore and weak. His head ached horribly. He thoughtthat he must indeed be dying, for how could one who suffered so revive?But at last he managed to stagger to his feet, and finally to reach thestream along which he had been travelling earlier in the day. Here hequenched his thirst and bathed his wounds, and as darkness came he laydown to sleep upon a bed of matted grasses.
The next morning found him refreshed and in considerably less pain, forthe powers of recuperation which belonged to his perfect health andmighty physique had already worked an almost miraculous transformationin him. While he was hunting in the jungle for his breakfast he camesuddenly upon Number Three and Number Twelve similarly employed.
At sight of him the two creatures started to run away, but he called tothem reassuringly and they returned. On closer inspection Bulan sawthat both were covered with terrible wounds, and after questioning themlearned that they had fared almost as badly at the hands of the ourangoutangs as had he.
"Even the beasts loathe us," exclaimed Number Twelve. "What are we todo?"
"Leave the beasts alone, as I told you," replied Bulan.
"Human beings hate us also," persisted Number Twelve.
"Then let us live by ourselves," suggested Number Three.
"We hate each other," retorted the pessimistic Number Twelve. "Thereis no place for us in the world, and no companionship. We are butsoulless things."
"Stop!" cried Bulan. "I am not a soulless thing. I am a man, andwithin me is as fine and pure a soul as any man may own," and to hismind's eye came the vision of a fair face surmounted by a mass ofloosely waving, golden hair; but the brainless ones could notunderstand and only shook their heads as they resumed their feeding andforgot the subject.
When the three had satisfied the cravings of their appetites two ofthem were for lying down to sleep until it should be time to feedagain, but Bulan, once more master, would not permit it, and forcedthem to accompany him in his seemingly futile search for the girl whohad disappeared so mysteriously after he had rescued her from theourang outangs.
Both Number Twelve and Number Three had assured him that the beasts hadnot recaptured her, for they had seen the entire band flee madlythrough the jungle after hearing the report of the single shot whichhad so terrorized Bulan's antagonists. Bulan did not know what to makeof this occurrence which he had not himself heard, the shot having comeafter he had lost consciousness at the foot of the tree; but from thedescription of the noise given him by Number Twelve he felt sure thatit must have been the report of a gun, and hoped that it betokened thepresence of Virginia Maxon's friends, and that she was now safe intheir keeping.
Nevertheless he did not relinquish his determination to continue hissearch for her, since it was quite possible that the gun had been firedby a native, many of whom possessed firearms. His first concern wasfor the girl's welfare, which spoke eloquently for the chivalry of hischaracter, and though he wished to see her for the pleasure that itwould give him, the hope of serving her was ever the firstconsideration in his mind.
He was now confident that he was following the wrong direction, andwith the intention in view of discovering the tracks of the party whichhad rescued or captured Virginia after he had been forced to relinquishher, he set out in a totally new direction away from the river. Hissmall woodcraft and little experience in travelling resulted in hisbecoming completely confused, so that instead of returning to the spotwhere he had last seen the girl, as he wished to do, he bore far to thenortheast of the place, and missed entirely the path which von Horn andhis Dyaks had taken from the long-house into the jungle and back.
All that day he urged his reluctant companions on through the fearfulheat of the tropics until, almost exhausted, they halted at dusk uponthe bank of a river, where they filled their stomachs with coolingdraughts, and after eating lay do
wn to sleep. It was quite dark whenBulan was aroused by the sound of something approaching from up theriver, and as he lay listening he presently heard the subdued voices ofmen conversing in whispers. He recognized the language as that of theDyaks, though he could interpret nothing which they said.
Presently he saw a dozen warriors emerge into a little patch ofmoonlight. They bore a huge chest among them which they depositedwithin a few paces of where Bulan lay. Then they commenced to dig inthe soft earth with their spears and parangs until they had excavated ashallow pit. Into this they lowered the chest, covering it over withearth and sprinkling dead grass, twigs and leaves above it, that itmight present to a searcher no sign that the ground had recently beendisturbed. The balance of the loose earth which would not go back intothe pit was thrown into the river.
When all had been made to appear as it was before, one of the warriorsmade several cuts and scratches upon the stem of a tree which grewabove the spot where the chest was buried; then they hastened on insilence past Bulan and down the river.
As von Horn stood by the river's bank after his conversation withVirginia, he saw a small sampan approaching from up stream. In it hemade out two natives, and the stealthiness of their approach caused himto withdraw into the shadow of a large prahu which was beached close towhere he had been standing.
When the men had come close to the landing one of them gave a lowsignal, and presently a native came down from the long-house.
"Who is it comes by night?" he asked. "And what want you?"
"News has just reached us that Muda Saffir is alive," replied one ofthe men in the boat, "and that he sleeps this night in your long-house.Is it true?"
"Yes," answered the man on shore. "What do you wish of the Rajah MudaSaffir?"
"We are men of his company and we have news for him," returned thespeaker in the sampan. "Tell him that we must speak to him at once."
The native on shore returned to the long-house without replying. VonHorn wondered what the important news for Muda Saffir might be, and sohe remained as he had been, concealed behind the prahu.
Presently the old Malay came down to the water's edge--very warilythough--and asked the men whom they might be. When they had giventheir names he seemed relieved.
"Ninaka," they said, "has murdered Barunda who was taking the rajah'streasure up to the rajah's stronghold--the treasure which Ninaka hadstolen after trying to murder the rajah and which Barunda hadrecaptured. Now Ninaka, after murdering Barunda, set off through thejungle toward the river which leads to Gunung Tebor, and Barunda'suncle followed him with what few men he had with him; but he sent usdown river to try and find you, master, and beg of you to come withmany men and overtake Ninaka and punish him."
Muda Saffir thought for a moment.
"Hasten back to the uncle of Barunda and tell him that as soon as I cangather the warriors I shall come and punish Ninaka. I have anothertreasure here which I must not lose, but I can arrange that it willstill be here when I return for it, and then Barunda's uncle can comeback with me to assist me if assistance is needed. Also, be sure totell Barunda's uncle never to lose sight of the treasure," and MudaSaffir turned and hastened back to the long-house.
As the men in the sampan headed the boat's bow up stream again, vonHorn ran along the jungle trail beside the river and abreast of thepaddlers. When he thought that they were out of hearing of thelong-house he hailed the two. In startled surprise the men ceasedpaddling.
"Who are you and what do you want?" asked one.
"I am the man to whom the chest belongs," replied von Horn. "If youwill take me to Barunda's uncle before Muda Saffir reaches him youshall each have the finest rifles that the white man makes, withammunition enough to last you a year. All I ask is that you guide mewithin sight of the party that pursues Ninaka; then you may leave meand tell no one what you have done, nor will I tell any. What say you?"
The two natives consulted together in low tones. At last they drewnearer the shore.
"Will you give us each a bracelet of brass as well as the rifles?"asked the spokesman.
Von Horn hesitated. He knew the native nature well. To haveacquiesced too readily would have been to have invited still furtherdemands from them.
"Only the rifles and ammunition," he said at last, "unless you succeedin keeping the knowledge of my presence from both Barunda's uncle andMuda Saffir. If you do that you shall have the bracelets also."
The prow of the sampan touched the bank.
"Come!" said one of the warriors.
Von Horn stepped aboard. He was armed only with a brace of Colts, andhe was going into the heart of the wild country of the head hunters, topit his wits against those of the wily Muda Saffir. His guides weretwo savage head hunting warriors of a pirate crew from whom he hoped tosteal what they considered a fabulously rich treasure. Whatever sinsmight be laid to the door of the doctor, there could be no question butthat he was a very brave man!
Von Horn's rash adventure had been suggested by the hope that he might,by bribing some of the natives with Barunda's uncle, make way with thetreasure before Muda Saffir arrived to claim it, or, failing that,learn its exact whereabouts that he might return for it with anadequate force later. That he was taking his life in his hands he wellknew, but so great was the man's cupidity that he reckoned no risk toogreat for the acquirement of a fortune.
The two Dyaks, paddling in silence up the dark river, proceeded fornearly three hours before they drew in to the bank and dragged thesampan up into the bushes. Then they set out upon a narrow trail intothe jungle. It so happened that after travelling for several milesthey inadvertently took another path than that followed by the partyunder Barunda's uncle, so that they passed the latter without beingaware of it, going nearly half a mile to the right of where thetrailers camped a short distance from the bivouac of Ninaka.
In the dead of night Ninaka and his party had crawled away under thevery noses of the avengers, taking the chest with them, and by chancevon Horn and the two Dyaks cut back into the main trail along the riveralmost at the very point that Ninaka halted to bury the treasure.
And so it was that Bulan was not the only one who watched the hiding ofthe chest.
When Ninaka had disappeared down the river trail Bulan lay speculatingupon the strange actions he had witnessed. He wondered why the menshould dig a hole in the midst of the jungle to hide away the box whichhe had so often seen in Professor Maxon's workshop. It occurred to himthat it might be well to remember just where the thing was buried, sothat he could lead the professor to it should he ever see the old managain. As he lay thus, half dozing, his attention was attracted by astealthy rustling in the bushes nearby, and as he watched he wasdumbfounded to see von Horn creep out into the moonlight. A momentlater the man was followed by two Dyaks. The three stood conversing inlow tones, pointing repeatedly at the spot where the chest lay hidden.Bulan could understand but little of their conversation, but it wasevident that von Horn was urging some proposition to which the warriorsdemurred.
Suddenly, without an instant's warning, von Horn drew his gun, wheeled,and fired point-blank, first at one of his companions, then at theother. Both men fell in their tracks, and scarcely had the pungentodor of the powder smoke reached Bulan's nostrils ere the white man hadplunged into the jungle and disappeared.
Failing in his attempt to undermine the loyalty of the two Dyaks vonHorn had chosen the only other way to keep the knowledge of thewhereabouts of the chest from Barunda's uncle and Muda Saffir, and nowhis principal interest in life was to escape the vengeance of the headhunters and return to the long-house before his absence should bedetected.
There he could form a party of natives and set out to regain the chestafter Muda Saffir and Barunda's uncle had given up the quest. Thatsuspicion should fall on him seemed scarcely credible since the onlymen who knew that he had left the long-house that night lay dead uponthe very spot where the treasure reposed.