6
TO KILL!
The Rajah Muda Saffir, tiring of the excuses and delays which Bududreeninterposed to postpone the fulfillment of his agreement with theformer, whereby he was to deliver into the hands of the rajah a certainbeautiful maiden, decided at last to act upon his own initiative. Thetruth of the matter was that he had come to suspect the motives of thefirst mate of the Ithaca, and not knowing of the great chest attributedthem to Bududreen's desire to possess the girl for himself.
So it was that as the second mate of the Ithaca with his six men wadeddown the bed of the little stream toward the harbor and the ship, afleet of ten war prahus manned by over five hundred fierce Dyaks andcommanded by Muda Saffir himself, pulled cautiously into the littlecove upon the opposite side of the island, and landed but a quarter ofa mile from camp.
At the same moment von Horn was leading Virginia Maxon farther andfarther from the north campong where resistance, if there was to beany, would be most likely to occur. At his superior's cough Bududreenhad signalled silently to the men within the enclosure, and a momentlater six savage lascars crept stealthily to his side.
The moment that von Horn and the girl were entirely concealed by thedarkness, the seven moved cautiously along the shadow of the palisadetoward the north campong. There was murder in the cowardly hearts ofseveral of them, and stupidity and lust in the hearts of all. Therewas no single one who would not betray his best friend for a handful ofsilver, nor any but was inwardly hoping and scheming to the end that hemight alone possess both the chest and the girl.
It was such a pack of scoundrels that Bududreen led toward the northcampong to bear away the treasure. In the breast of the leader was thehope that he had planted enough of superstitious terror in their heartsto make the sight of the supposed author of their imagined wrongssufficient provocation for his murder; for Bududreen was too sly togive the order for the killing of a white man--the arm of the whiteman's law was too long--but he felt that he would rest easier were heto leave the island with the knowledge that only a dead man remainedbehind with the secret of his perfidy.
While these events were transpiring Number Thirteen was pacingrestlessly back and forth the length of the workshop. But a short timebefore he had had his author--the author of his misery--within the fourwalls of his prison, and yet he had not wreaked the vengeance that wasin his heart. Twice he had been on the point of springing upon theman, but both times the other's eyes had met his and something which hewas not able to comprehend had stayed him. Now that the other had goneand he was alone contemplation of the hideous wrong that had been doneloosed again the flood gates of his pent rage.
The thought that he had been made by this man--made in the semblance ofa human being, yet denied by the manner of his creation a place amongthe lowest of Nature's creatures--filled him with fury, but it was notthis thought that drove him to the verge of madness. It was theknowledge, suggested by von Horn, that Virginia Maxon would look uponhim in horror, as a grotesque and loathsome monstrosity.
He had no standard and no experience whereby he might classify hissentiments toward this wonderful creature. All he knew was that hislife would be complete could he be near her always--see her and speakwith her daily. He had thought of her almost constantly since thoseshort, delicious moments that he had held her in his arms. Again andagain he experienced in retrospection the exquisite thrill that had runthrough every fiber of his being at the sight of her averted eyes andflushed face. And the more he let his mind dwell upon the wonderfulhappiness that was denied him because of his origin, the greater becamehis wrath against his creator.
It was now quite dark without. The door leading to Professor Maxon'scampong, left unlatched earlier in the evening by von Horn for sinistermotives of his own, was still unbarred through a fatal coincidence offorgetfulness on the part of the professor.
Number Thirteen approached this door. He laid his hand upon the knob.A moment later he was moving noiselessly across the campong toward thehouse in which Professor Maxon lay peacefully sleeping; while at thesouth gate Bududreen and his six cutthroats crept cautiously within andslunk in the dense shadows of the palisade toward the workshop wherelay the heavy chest of their desire. At the same instant Muda Saffirwith fifty of his head-hunting Dyaks emerged from the jungle east ofthe camp, bent on discovering the whereabouts of the girl the Malaysought and bearing her away to his savage court far within the junglefastness of his Bornean principality.
Number Thirteen reached the verandah of the house and peered throughthe window into the living room, where an oil lamp, turned low, dimlylighted the interior, which he saw was unoccupied. Going to the doorhe pushed it open and entered the apartment. All was still within. Helistened intently for some slight sound which might lead him to thevictim he sought, or warn him from the apartment of the girl or that ofvon Horn--his business was with Professor Maxon. He did not wish todisturb the others whom he believed to be sleeping somewhere within thestructure--a low, rambling bungalow of eight rooms.
Cautiously he approached one of the four doors which opened from theliving room. Gently he turned the knob and pushed the door ajar. Theinterior of the apartment beyond was in inky darkness, but NumberThirteen's greatest fear was that he might have stumbled upon thesleeping room of Virginia Maxon, and that if she were to discover himthere, not only would she be frightened, but her cries would alarm theother inmates of the dwelling.
The thought of the horror that his presence would arouse within her,the knowledge that she would look upon him as a terrifying monstrosity,added new fuel to the fires of hate that raged in his bosom against theman who had created him. With clenched fists, and tight set jaws thegreat, soulless giant moved across the dark chamber with the stealthynoiselessness of a tiger. Feeling before him with hands and feet hemade the circuit of the room before he reached the bed.
Scarce breathing he leaned over and groped across the covers with hisfingers in search of his prey--the bed was empty. With the discoverycame a sudden nervous reaction that sent him into a cold sweat.Weakly, he seated himself upon the edge of the bed. Had his fingersfound the throat of Professor Maxon beneath the coverlet they wouldnever have released their hold until life had forever left the body ofthe scientist, but now that the highest tide of the young man's hatredhad come and gone he found himself for the first time assailed bydoubts.
Suddenly he recalled the fact that the man whose life he sought was thefather of the beautiful creature he adored. Perhaps she loved him andwould be unhappy were he taken away from her. Number Thirteen did notknow, of course, but the idea obtruded itself, and had sufficientweight to cause him to remain seated upon the edge of the bedmeditating upon the act he contemplated. He had by no means given upthe idea of killing Professor Maxon, but now there were doubts andobstacles which had not been manifest before.
His standards of right and wrong were but half formed, from the briefattempts of Professor Maxon and von Horn to inculcate proper moralperceptions in a mind entirely devoid of hereditary inclinations towardeither good or bad, but he realized one thing most perfectly--that tobe a soulless thing was to be damned in the estimation of VirginiaMaxon, and it now occurred to him that to kill her father would be theact of a soulless being. It was this thought more than another thatcaused him to pause in the pursuit of his revenge, since he knew thatthe act he contemplated would brand him the very thing he was, yetwished not to be.
At length, however, he slowly comprehended that no act of his wouldchange the hideous fact of his origin; that nothing would make himacceptable in her eyes, and with a shake of his head he arose andstepped toward the living room to continue his search for the professor.
In the workshop Bududreen and his men had easily located the chest.Dragging it into the north campong the Malay was about to congratulatehimself upon the ease with which the theft had been accomplished whenone of his fellows declared his intention of going to the house for thepurpose of dispatching Professor Maxon, lest the influence of his evile
ye should overtake them with some terrible curse when the loss of thechest should be discovered.
While this met fully with Bududreen's plans he urged the man againstany such act that he might have witnesses to prove that he not only hadno hand in the crime, but had exerted his authority to prevent it; butwhen two of the men separated themselves from the party and crepttoward the bungalow no force was interposed to stop them.
The moon had risen now, so that from the dark shadows of the palisadeMuda Saffir and his savages watched the party with Bududreen squattingabout the heavy chest, and saw the two who crept toward the house. ToMuda Saffir's evil mind there was but one explanation. Bududreen haddiscovered a rich treasure, and having stolen that had dispatched twoof his men to bring him the girl also.
Rajah Muda Saffir was furious. In subdued whispers he sent a halfdozen of his Dyaks back beneath the shadow of the palisade to theopposite side of the bungalow where they were to enter the building,killing all within except the girl, whom they were to carry straight tothe beach and the war prahus.
Then with the balance of his horde he crept alone in the darkness untilopposite Bududreen and the watchers about the chest. Just as the twowho crept toward the bungalow reached it, Muda Saffir gave the word forthe attack upon the Malays and lascars who guarded the treasure. Withsavage yells they dashed upon the unsuspecting men. Parangs and spearsglistened in the moonlight. There was a brief and bloody encounter,for the cowardly Bududreen and his equally cowardly crew had had noalternative but to fight, so suddenly had the foe fallen upon them.
In a moment the savage Borneo head hunters had added five grislytrophies to their record. Bududreen and another were racing madlytoward the jungle beyond the campong.
As Number Thirteen arose to continue his search for Professor Maxon hisquick ear caught the shuffling of bare feet upon the verandah. As hepaused to listen there broke suddenly upon the still night the hideouswar cries of the Dyaks, and the screams and shrieks of their frightenedvictims in the campong without. Almost simultaneously Professor Maxonand Sing rushed into the living room to ascertain the cause of the wildalarm, while at the same instant Bududreen's assassins sprang throughthe door with upraised krisses, to be almost immediately followed byMuda Saffir's six Dyaks brandishing their long spears and wickedparangs.
In an instant the little room was filled with howling, fighting men.The Dyaks, whose orders as well as inclinations incited them to ageneral massacre, fell first upon Bududreen's lascars who, cornered inthe small room, fought like demons for their lives, so that when theDyaks had overcome them two of their own number lay dead beside thedead bodies of Bududreen's henchmen.
Sing and Professor Maxon stood in the doorway to the professor's roomgazing upon the scene of carnage in surprise and consternation. Thescientist was unarmed, but Sing held a long, wicked looking Colt inreadiness for any contingency. It was evident the celestial was nostranger to the use of his deadly weapon, nor to the moments of extremeand sudden peril which demanded its use, for he seemed no moreperturbed than had he been but hanging out his weekly wash.
As Number Thirteen watched the two men from the dark shadows of theroom in which he stood, he saw that both were calm--the Chinaman withthe calmness of perfect courage, the other through lack of fullunderstanding of the grave danger which menaced him. In the eyes ofthe latter shone a strange gleam--it was the wild light of insanitythat the sudden nervous shock of the attack had brought to a prematureculmination.
Now the four remaining Dyaks were advancing upon the two men. Singlevelled his revolver and fired at the foremost, and at the sameinstant Professor Maxon, with a shrill, maniacal scream, launchedhimself full upon a second. Number Thirteen saw the blood spurt from asuperficial wound in the shoulder of the fellow who received Sing'sbullet, but except for eliciting a howl of rage the missile had noimmediate effect. Then Sing pulled the trigger again and again, butthe cylinder would not revolve and the hammer fell futilely upon theempty cartridge. As two of the head hunters closed upon him the braveChinaman clubbed his weapon and went down beneath them beating madly atthe brown skulls.
The man with whom Professor Maxon had grappled had no opportunity touse his weapons for the crazed man held him close with one encirclingarm while he tore and struck at him with his free hand. The fourthDyak danced around the two with raised parang watching for an openingthat he might deliver a silencing blow upon the white man's skull.
The great odds against the two men--their bravery in the face of death,their grave danger--and last and greatest, the fact that one was thefather of the beautiful creature he worshipped, wrought a sudden changein Number Thirteen. In an instant he forgot that he had come here tokill the white-haired man, and with a bound stood in the center of theroom--an unarmed giant towering above the battling four.
The parang of the Dyak who sought Professor Maxon's life was alreadyfalling as a mighty hand grasped the wrist of the head hunter; but eventhen it was too late to more than lessen the weight of the blow, andthe sharp edge of the blade bit deep into the forehead of the whiteman. As he sank to his knees his other antagonist freed an arm fromthe embrace which had pinioned it to his side, but before he could dealthe professor a blow with the short knife that up to now he had beenunable to use, Number Thirteen had hurled his man across the room andwas upon him who menaced the scientist.
Tearing him loose from his prey, he raised him far above his head andthrew him heavily against the opposite wall, then he turned hisattention toward Sing's assailants. All that had so far saved theChinaman from death was the fact that the two savages were each soanxious to secure his head for the verandah rafters of his ownparticular long-house that they interfered with one another in theconsummation of their common desire.
Although battling for his life, Sing had not failed to note the adventof the strange young giant, nor the part he had played in succoring theprofessor, so that it was with a feeling of relief that he saw thenewcomer turn his attention toward those who were rapidly reducing thecitadel of his own existence.
The two Dyaks who sought the trophy which nature had set upon theChinaman's shoulders were so busily engaged with their victim that theyknew nothing of the presence of Number Thirteen until a mighty handseized each by the neck and they were raised bodily from the floor,shaken viciously for an instant, and then hurled to the opposite end ofthe room upon the bodies of the two who had preceded them.
As Sing came to his feet he found Professor Maxon lying in a pool ofhis own blood, a great gash in his forehead. He saw the white giantstanding silently looking down upon the old man. Across the room thefour stunned Dyaks were recovering consciousness. Slowly and fearfullythey regained their feet, and seeing that no attention was being paidthem, cast a parting, terrified look at the mighty creature who haddefeated them with his bare hands, and slunk quickly out into thedarkness of the campong.
When they caught up with Rajah Muda Saffir near the beach, theynarrated a fearful tale of fifty terrible white men with whom they hadbattled valiantly, killing many, before they had been compelled toretreat in the face of terrific odds. They swore that even then theyhad only returned because the girl was not in the house--otherwise theyshould have brought her to their beloved master as he had directed.
Now Muda Saffir believed nothing that they said, but he was wellpleased with the great treasure which had so unexpectedly fallen intohis hands, and he decided to make quite sure of that by transporting itto his own land--later he could return for the girl. So the ten warprahus of the Malay pulled quietly out of the little cove upon the eastside of the island, and bending their way toward the south circled itssouthern extremity and bore away for Borneo.
In the bungalow within the north campong Sing and Number Thirteen hadlifted Professor Maxon to his bed, and the Chinaman was engaged inbathing and bandaging the wound that had left the older manunconscious. The white giant stood beside him watching his every move.He was trying to understand why sometimes men killed one another andagain defended and nursed.
He was curious as to the cause of his ownsudden change in sentiment toward Professor Maxon. At last he gave theproblem up as beyond his powers of solution, and at Sing's command setabout the task of helping to nurse the man whom he considered theauthor of his unhappiness and whom a few short minutes before he hadcome to kill.
As the two worked over the stricken man their ears were suddenlyassailed by a wild commotion from the direction of the workshop. Therewere sounds of battering upon wood, loud growls and roars, mingled withweird shrieks and screams and the strange, uncanny gibbering ofbrainless things.
Sing looked quickly up at his companion.
"Whallee mallee?" he asked.
The giant did not answer. An expression of pain crossed his features,and he shuddered--but not from fear.