I Am Coming!

: The Monster Men

The morning following the capture of Virginia Maxon by Muda Saffir,

Professor Maxon, von Horn, Sing Lee and the sole surviving lascar from

the crew of the Ithaca set out across the strait toward the mainland of

Borneo in the small boat which the doctor had secreted in the jungle

near the harbor. The party was well equipped with firearms and

ammunition, and the bottom of the boat was packed full with provisions

and coo ing utensils. Von Horn had been careful to see that the boat

was furnished with a mast and sail, and now, under a good breeze the

party was making excellent time toward the mysterious land of their

destination.



They had scarcely cleared the harbor when they sighted a ship far out

across the strait. Its erratic movements riveted their attention upon

it, and later, as they drew nearer, they perceived that the strange

craft was a good sized schooner with but a single short mast and tiny

sail. For a minute or two her sail would belly with the wind and the

vessel make headway, then she would come suddenly about, only to repeat

the same tactics a moment later. She sailed first this way and then

that, losing one minute what she had gained the minute before.



Von Horn was the first to recognize her.



"It is the Ithaca," he said, "and her Dyak crew are having a devil of a

time managing her--she acts as though she were rudderless."



Von Horn ran the small boat within hailing distance of the dismasted

hulk whose side was now lined with waving, gesticulating natives. They

were peaceful fishermen, they explained, whose prahus had been wrecked

in the recent typhoon. They had barely escaped with their lives by

clambering aboard this wreck which Allah had been so merciful as to

place directly in their road. Would the Tuan Besar be so good as to

tell them how to make the big prahu steer?



Von Horn promised to help them on condition that they would guide him

and his party to the stronghold of Rajah Muda Saffir in the heart of

Borneo. The Dyaks willingly agreed, and von Horn worked his small boat

in close under the Ithaca's stern. Here he found that the rudder had

been all but unshipped, probably as the vessel was lifted over the reef

during the storm, but a single pintle remaining in its gudgeon. A half

hour's work was sufficient to repair the damage, and then the two boats

continued their journey toward the mouth of the river up which those

they sought had passed the night before.



Inside the river's mouth an anchorage was found for the Ithaca near the

very island upon which the fierce battle between Number Thirteen and

Muda Saffir's forces had occurred. From the deck of the larger vessel

the deserted prahu which had borne Bulan across the strait was visible,

as were the bodies of the slain Dyaks and the misshapen creatures of

the white giant's forces.



In excited tones the head hunters called von Horn's attention to these

evidences of conflict, and the doctor drew his boat up to the island

and leaped ashore, followed by Professor Maxon and Sing. Here they

found the dead bodies of the four monsters who had fallen in an attempt

to rescue their creator's daughter, though little did any there imagine

the real truth.



About the corpses of the four were the bodies of a dozen Dyak warriors

attesting to the ferocity of the encounter and the savage prowess of

the unarmed creatures who had sold their poor lives so dearly.



"Evidently they fell out about the possession of the captive,"

suggested von Horn. "Let us hope that she did not fall into the

clutches of Number Thirteen--any fate would be better than that."



"God give that that has not befallen her," moaned Professor Maxon.

"The pirates might but hold her for ransom, but should that soulless

fiend possess her my prayer is that she found the strength and the

means to take her own life before he had an opportunity to have his way

with her."



"Amen," agreed von Horn.



Sing Lee said nothing, but in his heart he hoped that Virginia Maxon

was not in the power of Rajah Muda Saffir. The brief experience he had

had with Number Thirteen during the fight in the bungalow had rather

warmed his wrinkled old heart toward the friendless young giant, and he

was a sufficiently good judge of human nature to be confident that the

girl would be comparatively safe in his keeping.



It was quickly decided to abandon the small boat and embark the entire

party in the deserted war prahu. A half hour later saw the strangely

mixed expedition forging up the river, but not until von Horn had

boarded the Ithaca and discovered to his dismay that the chest was not

on board her.



Far above them on the right bank Muda Saffir still squatted in his

hiding place, for no friendly prahu or sampan had passed his way since

dawn. His keen eyes roving constantly up and down the long stretch of

river that was visible from his position finally sighted a war prahu

coming toward him from down stream. As it drew closer he recognized it

as one which had belonged to his own fleet before his unhappy encounter

with the wild white man and his abhorrent pack, and a moment later his

heart leaped as he saw the familiar faces of several of his men; but

who were the strangers in the stern, and what was a Chinaman doing

perched there upon the bow?



The prahu was nearly opposite him before he recognized Professor Maxon

and von Horn as the white men of the little island. He wondered how

much they knew of his part in the raid upon their encampment.

Bududreen had told him much concerning the doctor, and as Muda Saffir

recalled the fact that von Horn was anxious to possess himself of both

the treasure and the girl he guessed that he would be safe in the man's

hands so long as he could hold out promises of turning one or the other

over to him; and so, as he was tired of squatting upon the

uncomfortable bank and was very hungry, he arose and hailed the passing

prahu.



His men recognized his voice immediately and as they knew nothing of

the defection of any of their fellows, turned the boat's prow toward

shore without waiting for the command from von Horn. The latter,

fearing treachery, sprang to his feet with raised rifle, but when one

of the paddlers explained that it was the Rajah Muda Saffir who hailed

them and that he was alone von Horn permitted them to draw nearer the

shore, though he continued to stand ready to thwart any attempted

treachery and warned both the professor and Sing to be on guard.



As the prahu's nose touched the bank Muda Saffir stepped aboard and

with many protestations of gratitude explained that he had fallen

overboard from his own prahu the night before and that evidently his

followers thought him drowned, since none of his boats had returned to

search for him. Scarcely had the Malay seated himself before von Horn

began questioning him in the rajah's native tongue, not a word of which

was intelligible to Professor Maxon. Sing, however, was as familiar

with it as was von Horn.



"Where are the girl and the treasure?" he asked.



"What girl, Tuan Besar?" inquired the wily Malay innocently. "And what

treasure? The white man speaks in riddles."



"Come, come," cried von Horn impatiently. "Let us have no foolishness.

You know perfectly well what I mean--it will go far better with you if

we work together as friends. I want the girl--if she is unharmed--and

I will divide the treasure with you if you will help me to obtain them;

otherwise you shall have no part of either. What do you say? Shall we

be friends or enemies?"



"The girl and the treasure were both stolen from me by a rascally

panglima, Ninaka," said Muda Saffir, seeing that it would be as well to

simulate friendship for the white man for the time being at

least--there would always be an opportunity to use a kris upon him in

the remote fastness of the interior to which Muda Saffir would lead

them.



"What became of the white man who led the strange monsters?" asked von

Horn.



"He killed many of my men, and the last I saw of him he was pushing up

the river after the girl and the treasure," replied the Malay.



"If another should ask you," continued von Horn with a meaningful

glance toward Professor Maxon, "it will be well to say that the girl

was stolen by this white giant and that you suffered defeat in an

attempt to rescue her because of your friendship for us. Do you

understand?"



Muda Saffir nodded. Here was a man after his own heart, which loved

intrigue and duplicity. 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. He imparted the

information to von Horn and both men were delighted that thus their

most formidable enemy had been disposed of. It would be but a question

of time before the inexperienced creatures perished in the dense

forest--that they ever could retrace their steps to the river was most

unlikely, and the chances were that one by one they would be dispatched

by head hunters while they slept.



Again the party embarked, reinforced by the two Dyaks who were only too

glad to renew their allegiance to Muda Saffir while he was backed by

the guns of the white men. On and on they paddled up the river,

gleaning from the dwellers in the various long-houses information of

the passing of the two prahus with Barunda, Ninaka, and the white girl.



Professor Maxon was impatient to hear every detail that von Horn

obtained from Muda Saffir and the various Dyaks that were interviewed

at the first long-house and along the stretch of river they covered.

The doctor told him that Number Thirteen still had Virginia and was

fleeing up the river in a swift prahu. He enlarged upon the valor

shown by Muda Saffir and his men in their noble attempt to rescue his

daughter, and through it all Sing Lee sat with half closed eyes,

apparently oblivious to all that passed before him. What were the

workings of that intricate celestial brain none can say.





Far in the interior of the jungle Bulan and his five monsters stumbled

on in an effort to find the river. Had they known it they were moving

parallel with the stream, but a few miles from it. At times it wound

in wide detours close to the path of the lost creatures, and again it

circled far away from them.



As they travelled they subsisted upon the fruits with which they had

become familiar upon the island of their creation. They suffered

greatly for lack of water, but finally stumbled upon a small stream at

which they filled their parched stomachs. Here it occurred to Bulan

that it would be wise to follow the little river, since they could be

no more completely lost than they now were no matter where it should

lead them, and it would at least insure them plenty of fresh water.



As they proceeded down the bank of the stream it grew in size until

presently it became a fair sized river, and Bulan had hopes that it

might indeed prove the stream that they had ascended from the ocean and

that soon he would meet with the prahus and possibly find Virginia

Maxon herself. The strenuous march of the six through the jungle had

torn their light cotton garments into shreds so that they were all

practically naked, while their bodies were scratched and bleeding from

countless wounds inflicted by sharp thorns and tangled brambles through

which they had forced their way.



Bulan still carried his heavy bull whip while his five companions were

armed with the parangs they had taken from the Dyaks they had

overpowered upon the island at the mouth of the river. It was upon

this strange and remarkable company that the sharp eyes of a score of

river Dyaks peered through the foliage. The head hunters had been

engaged in collecting camphor crystals when their quick ears caught the

noisy passage of the six while yet at a considerable distance, and with

ready parangs the savages crept stealthily toward the sound of the

advancing party.



At first they were terror stricken at the hideous visages of five of

the creatures they beheld, but when they saw how few their numbers, and

how poorly armed they were, as well as the awkwardness with which they

carried their parangs, denoting their unfamiliarity with the weapons,

they took heart and prepared to ambush them.



What prizes those terrible heads would be when properly dried and

decorated! The savages fairly trembled in anticipation of the

commotion they would cause in the precincts of their long-house when

they returned with six such magnificent trophies.



Their victims came blundering on through the dense jungle to where the

twenty sleek brown warriors lay in wait for them. Bulan was in the

lead, and close behind him in single file lumbered his awkward crew.

Suddenly there was a chorus of savage cries close beside him and

simultaneously he found himself in the midst of twenty cutting,

slashing parangs.



Like lightning his bull whip flew into action, and to the astonished

warriors it was as though a score of men were upon them in the person

of this mighty white giant. Following the example of their leader the

five creatures at his back leaped upon the nearest warriors, and though

they wielded their parangs awkwardly the superhuman strength back of

their cuts and thrusts sent the already blood stained blades through

many a brown body.



The Dyaks would gladly have retreated after the first surprise of their

initial attack, but Bulan urged his men on after them, and so they were

forced to fight to preserve their lives at all. At last five of them

managed to escape into the jungle, but fifteen remained quietly upon

the earth where they had fallen--the victims of their own over

confidence. Beside them lay two of Bulan's five, so that now the

little party was reduced to four--and the problem that had faced

Professor Maxon was so much closer to its own solution.



From the bodies of the dead Dyaks Bulan and his three companions,

Number Three, Number Ten, and Number Twelve, took enough loin cloths,

caps, war-coats, shields and weapons to fit them out completely, after

discarding the ragged remnants of their cotton pajamas, and now, even

more terrible in appearance than before, the rapidly vanishing company

of soulless monsters continued their aimless wandering down the river's

brim.



The five Dyaks who had escaped carried the news of the terrible

creatures that had fallen upon them in the jungle, and of the awful

prowess of the giant white man who led them. They told of how, armed

only with a huge whip, he had been a match and more than a match for

the best warriors of the tribe, and the news that they started spread

rapidly down the river from one long-house to another until it reached

the broad stream into which the smaller river flowed, and then it

travelled up and down to the headwaters above and the ocean far below

in the remarkable manner that news travels in the wild places of the

world.



So it was that as Bulan advanced he found the long-houses in his path

deserted, and came to the larger river and turned up toward its head

without meeting with resistance or even catching a glimpse of the

brown-skinned people who watched him from their hiding places in the

brush.



That night they slept in the long-house near the bank of the greater

stream, while its rightful occupants made the best of it in the jungle

behind. The next morning found the four again on the march ere the sun

had scarcely lighted the dark places of the forest, for Bulan was now

sure that he was on the right trail and that the new river that he had

come to was indeed the same that he had traversed in the Prahu with

Barunda.



It must have been close to noon when the young giant's ears caught the

sound of the movement of some animal in the jungle a short distance to

his right and away from the river. His experience with men had taught

him to be wary, for it was evident that every man's hand was against

him, so he determined to learn at once whether the noise he heard came

from some human enemy lurking along his trail ready to spring upon him

with naked parang at a moment that he was least prepared, or merely

from some jungle brute.



Cautiously he threaded his way through the matted vegetation in the

direction of the sound. Although a parang from the body of a

vanquished Dyak hung at his side he grasped his bull whip ready in his

right hand, preferring it to the less accustomed weapon of the head

hunter. For a dozen yards he advanced without sighting the object of

his search, but presently his efforts were rewarded by a glimpse of a

reddish, hairy body, and a pair of close set, wicked eyes peering at

him from behind a giant tree.



At the same instant a slight movement at one side attracted his

attention to where another similar figure crouched in the underbrush,

and then a third, fourth and fifth became evident about him. Bulan

looked in wonderment upon the strange, man-like creatures who eyed him

threateningly from every hand. They stood fully as high as the brown

Dyak warriors, but their bodies were naked except for the growth of

reddish hair which covered them, shading to black upon the face and

hands.



The lips of the nearest were raised in an angry snarl that exposed

wicked looking fighting fangs, but the beasts did not seem inclined to

initiate hostilities, and as they were unarmed and evidently but

engaged upon their own affairs Bulan decided to withdraw without

arousing them further. As he turned to retrace his steps he found his

three companions gazing in wide-eyed astonishment upon the strange new

creatures which confronted them.



Number Ten was grinning broadly, while Number Three advanced cautiously

toward one of the creatures, making a low guttural noise, that could

only be interpreted as peaceful and conciliatory--more like a feline

purr it was than anything else.



"What are you doing?" cried Bulan. "Leave them alone. They have not

offered to harm us."



"They are like us," replied Number Three. "They must be our own

people. I am going with them."



"And I," said Number Ten.



"And I," echoed Number Twelve. "At last we have found our own, let us

all go with them and live with them, far away from the men who would

beat us with great whips, and cut us with their sharp swords."



"They are not human beings," exclaimed Bulan. "We cannot live with

them."



"Neither are we human beings," retorted Number Twelve. "Has not von

Horn told us so many times?"



"If I am not now a human being," replied Bulan, "I intend to be one,

and so I shall act as a human being should act. I shall not go to live

with savage beasts, nor shall you. Come with me as I tell you, or you

shall again taste the bull whip."



"We shall do as we please," growled Number Ten, baring his fangs. "You

are not our master. We have followed you as long as we intend to. We

are tired of forever walking, walking, walking through the bushes that

tear our flesh and hurt us. Go and be a human being if you think you

can, but do not longer interfere with us or we shall kill you," and he

looked first at Number Three and then at Number Twelve for approval of

his ultimatum.



Number Three nodded his grotesque and hideous head--he was so covered

with long black hair that he more nearly resembled an ourang outang

than a human being. Number Twelve looked doubtful.



"I think Number Ten is right," he said at last. "We are not human. We

have no souls. We are things. And while you, Bulan, are beautiful,

yet you are as much a soulless thing as we--that much von Horn taught

us well. So I believe that it would be better were we to keep forever

from the sight of men. I do not much like the thought of living with

these strange, hairy monsters, but we might find a place here in the

jungle where we could live alone and in peace."



"I do not want to live alone," cried Number Three. "I want a mate, and

I see a beautiful one yonder now. I am going after her," and with that

he again started toward a female ourang outang; but the lady bared her

fangs and retreated before his advance.



"Even the beasts will have none of us," cried Number Ten angrily. "Let

us take them by force then," and he started after Number Three.



"Come back!" shouted Bulan, leaping after the two deserters.



As he raised his voice there came an answering cry from a little

distance ahead--a cry for help, and it was in the agonized tones of a

woman's voice.



"I am coming!" shouted Bulan, and without another glance at his

mutinous crew he sprang through the line of menacing ourang outangs.