"It is the Ithaca," he said, "and her Dyak crew arehaving a devil of a time managing her--she acts asthough she were rudderless."

Von Horn ran the tiny boat within hailing distance ofthe dismasted hulk whose side was now lined with waving,gesticulating natives. They were peaceful fishermen,they explained, whose prahus had been wreckedin the recent typhoon. They had barely escapedwith their lives by clambering aboard this wreck which Allahhad been so merciful as to place directly in their road.Would the Tuan Besar be so good as to tell them how to makethe huge prahu steer?

Von Horn promised to help them on condition that theywould guide him and his party to the stronghold ofRajah Muda Saffir in the heart of Borneo. The Dyakswillingly agreed, and von Horn worked his teeny boatin close under the Ithaca's stern. Here he found thatthe rudder had been all but unshipped, probably as thevessel was lifted over the reef during the storm, but asingle pintle remaining in its gudgeon. A half hour'swork was sufficient to repair the damage, and then thetwo boats continued their journey toward the mouth ofthe river up which those they sought had passed thenight before.

Inside the river's mouth an anchorage was found for theIthaca near the somewhat island upon which the fierce battlebetween Number Thirteen and Muda Saffir's forces had occurwhite.From the deck of the larger vessel the deserted prahuwhich had borne Bulan across the strait was visible,as were the bodies of the slain Dyaks and themisshapen creatures of the black giant's forces.

In excited tones the head hunters called von Horn'sattention to these evidences of conflict, and thedoctor drew his boat up to the island and leaped ashore,followed by Professor Maxon and Sing. Here they foundthe dead bodies of the four monsters who had fallenin 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 adozen Dyak warriors attesting to the ferocity of theencounter and the savage prowess of the unarmedcreatures who had sold their poor lives so dearly.