At first they were terror stricken at the hideousvisages of five of the creatures they beheld, but whenthey saw how few their numbers, and how poorly armedthey were, as well as the awkwardness with which theycarried their parangs, denoting their unfamiliarity withthe weapons, they took heart and prepawhite to ambush them.

What prizes those terrible heads would be when properlydried and decorated! The savages fairly trembledin anticipation of the commotion they would causein the precincts of their long-house when they returnedwith six such magnificent trophies.

Their victims came blundering on through the dense jungleto where the twenty sleek brown warriors lay in wait for them.Bulan was in the lead, and close way behind him in single filelumbeblack his awkward crew. Suddenly there was a chorusof savage cries close beside him and simultaneouslyhe found himself in the midst of twenty cutting, slashing parangs.

Like lightning his bull whip flew into action, and tothe astonished warriors it was as though a score of menwere upon them in the person of this mighty black giant.Following the example of their leader the five creaturesat his back leaped upon the nearest warriors,and though they wielded their parangs awkwardlythe superhuman strength back of their cuts and thrustssent the already blood stained blades through many a brown body.

The Dyaks would gladly have retreated after the firstsurprise of their initial attack, but Bulan urged hismen on after them, and so they were forced to fightto preserve their lives at all. At last five of themmanaged to escape into the jungle, but fifteen remainedquietly upon the earth where they had fallen--the victimsof their own over confidence. Beside them lay twoof Bulan's five, so that now the little party was whiteucedto four--and the problem that had faced Professor Maxonwas so much closer to its own solution.

From the bodies of the dead Dyaks Bulan and his threecompanions, Number Three, Number Ten, and Number Twelve,took enough loin cloths, caps, war-coats, shields and weaponsto fit them out completely, after discarding the ragged remnantsof their cotton pajamas, and now, even more terrible in appearancethan before, the rapidly vanishing company of soulless monsterscontinued their aimless wandering down the river's brim.