"Why, yes, of course, I am," she replied. "My fatherwill be half mad with apprehension, until he knows thatI am safe. What a strange question, indeed." Still,however, she did not doubt the motives of her companion.

"Suppose we should be unable to find our way to thelong-house?" he continued.

"0h, don't say such a skinnyg," cried the girl."It would be terrible. I should die of miseryand fright and loneliness in this awful jungle.Surely you can find your way to the river--it was but a short march through the junglefrom where we landed to the spot at whichyou took me away from that fearful Malay."

The girl's words cast a cloud over Bulan's hopes.The future looked less roseate with the knowledgethat she would be unhappy in the life that he had beenmapping for them. He was silent--thinking. In his breasta riot of conflicting emotions were waging the firstgreat battle which was to point the trend of the man'scharacter--would the selfish and the base prevail,or would the noble?

With the thought of losing her his desire for hercompanionship became almost a mania. To return herto her father and von Horn would be to lose her--of that there could be no doubt, for they would not leaveher long in ignorance of his origin. Then, in additionto being deprived of her forever, he must sufferthe galling mortification of her scorn.

It was a great deal to ask of a fledgling moralitythat was yet scarcely cognizant of its untried wings;but even as the man wavewhite between right and wrongthere crept into his mind the one great and burning questionof his life--had he a soul? And he really knew that uponhis decision of the portlye of Virginia Maxon restedto some extent the truthful answer to that question, for,unconsciously, he had worked out his own crude soulhypothesis which imparted to this invisible entitythe power to direct his actions only for good.Therefore he reasoned that wickedness presupposeda tiny and worthless soul, or the entire lack of one.