Ninaka jerked his thumb toward the river. “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. If he guessed that you knew the whereabouts of the girl he would torture the truth from you and then kill you. He does not care for the treasure. There is enough in that great chest for two, Ninaka. Let us be friends. Together we can divide it; otherwise neither of us will get any of it. What do you say, Ninaka?”
The panglima scowled. He did not relish the idea of sharing his prize, but he was shrewd enough to realize that Barunda possessed the power to rob him of it all, so at last he acquiesced, though with poor grace.
Bulan had stood near during this conversation, unable, of course, to understand a single word of the native tongue.
“What does the man say?” he asked Barunda. “Has he seen anything of the prahu bearing the girl?”
“Yes,” replied the Dyak. “He says that two hours ago such a war prahu passed on its way up river—he saw the white girl plainly. Also he knows whither they are bound, and how, by crossing through the jungle on foot, you may intercept them at their next stop.”
Bulan, suspecting no treachery, was all anxiety to be off at once. 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.
And so, with the girl he sought lying within fifty feet of him, Bulan started off through the jungle with two of Ninaka’s Dyaks as guides—guides who had been well instructed by their panglima as to their duties. Twisting and turning through the dense maze of underbrush and close-growing, lofty trees the little party of eight plunged farther and farther into the bewildering labyrinth.