Creak! creak! Ah! they, too, heard the noise of a wicket thrown open, and started at the sound. Then they stood there on the sloping decks listening for a shout, for a pistol-shot, for the roar of a hundred and more voices to tell them that the young Englishman had been discovered. But no, not another sound disturbed the silence of the awakening day, and the dusky figure was seen to be advancing again. Ah, he was at the hut where the prisoners were kept! Was he entering? Why did he pause at the door, and for what reason did he so hurriedly dart behind the dwelling?
Well might each member of the watching tribe of Dyaks ask the question, for the movements of their leader seemed unaccountable. But Tyler knew well what he was doing, and sounds which failed to spread so far as the men lying on the bank without the stockade, or those others waiting aboard the prahus, reached his ears distinctly.
"There is someone moving," he said to himself, as he reached the hut which harboured the prisoners. "Who can it be? Perhaps some fellow turning in his couch."
Sitting up as high as possible, he listened eagerly, and then crept on a few paces. Then of a sudden he became aware of the fact that a door had been thrown open, and realizing that the sound came from the Dutchman's hut, he scrambled hastily behind the one close to which he was crouching.
"Hanns Schlott!" he exclaimed in tones of vexation. "His guilty mind will not allow him to sleep, and so he has come out to walk about the clearing. Ah, I have had my mind so fully occupied that I did not notice that it is already getting light, and he will be able to see me! Yes, even now I can observe his figure."
Staring through the mist and haze, which had so suddenly risen, Tyler watched the Dutchman emerge from his abode and stalk out into the clearing. Then, realizing with a start that to delay would be more dangerous than to proceed with the rescue, he waited for a few moments to allow a second hut to come between himself and the Dutchman, and then scrambled at his fastest pace to the door which would give access to the dwelling within which were the prisoners. A second later he had thrust it in, and was crawling through the opening.
"Who is that?" he heard someone demand in frightened tones, while there was the sound of a shriek commenced but suddenly arrested. "Oh, what is happening to us?"
"Hush! Do not make a sound for your lives," answered Tyler in low tones, crawling right into the hut and closing the door. "Do not be frightened, for I have come to help you and take you away."
"Then you are English? But I caught sight of a native, and that is what frightened me. Who are you?"
The question was asked in a whisper, while the young woman leant forward till she was close to Tyler, for his voice had reassured her.