"Anozer frond!" exclaimed the professor; "vy, Van der Kemp, zee country seems to be svarming vid your fronds."
"I have travelled much in it and made many friends," returned the hermit. "The horse that I borrowed turned out to be a very poor one, and went lame soon after I set out. Business kept me longer than I expected, and it was getting dark before I started to return. Erelong the darkness became so intense that I could scarcely see beyond the horse's head, and could not distinguish the path. I therefore let the animal find his own way—knowing that he would be sure to do so, for he was going home. As we jogged along, I felt the horse tremble. Then he snorted and came to a dead stop, with his feet planted firmly on the ground. I was quite unarmed, but arms would have been useless in the circumstances. Suddenly, and fortunately, the horse reared, and next moment a huge dark object shot close past my face—so close that its fur brushed my cheek—as it went with a heavy thud into the jungle on the other side. I knew that it was a tiger and felt that my life, humanly speaking, was due to the rearing of the poor horse."
"Are ve near to zee spote?" asked the professor, glancing from side to side in some anxiety.
"Not far from it!" replied the hermit, "but there is not much fear of such an attack in broad daylight and with so large a party."
"Ve are not a very large party," returned the professor. "I do not zink I would fear much to face a tiger vid my goot rifle, but I do not relish his choomping on me unavares. Push on, please."
They pushed on and reached the village a little before nightfall.
Hospitality is a characteristic of the natives of Sumatra. The travellers were received with open arms, so to speak, and escorted to the public building which corresponds in some measure to our western town-halls. It was a huge building composed largely of bamboo wooden-planks and wicker-work, with a high thatched roof, and it stood, like all the other houses, on posts formed of great tree-stems which rose eight or ten feet from the ground.
"You have frunds here too, I zink," said Verkimier to the hermit, as they ascended the ladder leading to the door of the hall.
"Well, yes—I believe I have two or three."
There could be no doubt upon that point, unless the natives were consummate hypocrites, for they welcomed Van der Kemp and his party with effusive voice, look and gesture, and immediately spread before them part of a splendid supper which had just been prepared; for they had chanced to arrive on a festive occasion.