17
999 PRISCILLA
As the cutter touched the bank the entire party from
the long-house, whites and natives, were gathered on
the shore to meet it. At first the officers held off
as though fearing a hostile demonstration, but when
they saw the whites among the throng, a command was
given to pull in, and a moment later one of the
officers stepped ashore.
"I am Lieutenant May," he said, "of the U.S.S. New
Mexico, flagship of the Pacific Fleet. Have I the
honor to address Professor Maxon?"
The scientist nodded. "I am delighted," he said.
"We have been to your island, Professor," continued
the officer, "and judging from the evidences of hasty
departure, and the corpses of several natives there,
I feared that some harm had befallen you. We therefore
cruised along the Bornean coast making inquiries
of the natives until at last we found one who had heard
a rumor of a party of whites being far in the interior
searching for a white girl who had been stolen from them
by pirates.
"The farther up this river we have come the greater our
assurance that we were on the right trail, for scarcely
a native we interrogated but had seen or heard of some
of your party. Mixed with the truth they told us were
strange tales of terrible monsters led by a gigantic
white man."
"The imaginings of childish minds," said the professor.
"However, why, my dear lieutenant, did you honor me by
visiting my island?"
The officer hesitated a moment before answering, his
eyes running about over the assembly as though in
search of someone.
"Well, Professor Maxon, to be quite frank," he said at
length, "we learned at Singapore the personnel of your party,
which included a former naval officer whom we have been seeking
for many years. We came to your island to arrest this man--
I refer to Doctor Carl von Horn."
When the lieutenant learned of the recent disappearance
of the man he sought, he expressed his determination
to push on at once in pursuit; and as Professor Maxon
feared again to remain unprotected in the heart
of the Bornean wilderness his entire party was taken
aboard the cutter.
A few miles up the river they came upon one of the
Dyaks who had accompanied von Horn, a few hours earlier.
The warrior sat smoking beside a beached prahu.
When interrogated he explained that von Horn
and the balance of his crew had gone inland,
leaving him to guard the boat. He said that
he thought he could guide them to the spot
where the white man might be found.
Professor Maxon and Sing accompanied one of the officers
and a dozen sailors in the wake of the Dyak guide.
Virginia and Bulan remained in the cutter, as the latter
was still too weak to attempt the hard march through the jungle.
For an hour the party traversed the trail in the wake of von Horn
and his savage companions. They had come almost to the spot when
their ears were assailed by the weird and blood curdling yells
of native warriors, and a moment later von Horn's escort dashed
into view in full retreat.
At sight of the white men they halted in relief,
pointing back in the direction they had come,
and jabbering excitedly in their native tongue.
Warily the party advanced again behind these new guides;
but when they reached the spot they sought, the cause
of the Dyaks' panic had fled, warned, doubtless,
by their trained ears of the approach of an enemy.
The sight that met the eyes of the searchers told all
of the story that they needed to know. A hole had been
excavated in the ground, partially uncovering a heavy chest,
and across this chest lay the headless body of Doctor Carl von Horn.
Lieutenant May turned toward Professor Maxon with a questioning look.
"It is he," said the scientist.
"But the chest?" inquired the officer.
"Mlaxon's tleasure," spoke up Sing Lee. "Hornee him
tly steal it for long time."
"Treasure!" ejaculated the professor. "Bududreen gave
up his life for this. Rajah Muda Saffir fought and
intrigued and murdered for possession of it! Poor,
misguided von Horn has died for it, and left his head
to wither beneath the rafters of a Dyak long-house!
It is incredible."
"But, Professor Maxon," said Lieutenant May,
"men will suffer all these things and more for gold."
"Gold!" cried the professor. "Why, man, that is a box
of books on biology and eugenics."
"My God!" exclaimed May, "and von Horn was accredited
to be one of the shrewdest swindlers and adventurers
in America! But come, we may as well return to the
cutter--my men will carry the chest."
"No!" exclaimed Professor Maxon with a vehemence the
other could not understand. "Let them bury it again
where it lies. It and what it contains have been the
cause of sufficient misery and suffering and crime.
Let it lie where it is in the heart of savage Borneo,
and pray to God that no man ever finds it, and that
I shall forget forever that which is in it."
On the morning of the third day following the death
of von Horn the New Mexico steamed away from the coast
of Borneo. Upon her deck, looking back toward the
verdure clad hills, stood Virginia and Bulan.
"Thank heaven," exclaimed the girl fervently, "that we
are leaving it behind us forever."
"Amen," replied Bulan, "but yet, had it not been for
Borneo I might never have found you."
"We should have met elsewhere then, Bulan," said the
girl in a low voice, "for we were made for one another.
No power on earth could have kept us apart. In your
true guise you would have found me--I am sure of it."
"It is maddening, Virginia," said the man, "to be
constantly straining every resource of my memory
in futile endeavor to catch and hold one fleeting clue
to my past. Why, dear, do you realize that I may have
been a fugitive from justice, as was von Horn, a vile
criminal perhaps. It is awful, Virginia, to
contemplate the horrible possibilities of my lost past."
"No, Bulan, you could never have been a criminal,"
replied the loyal girl, "but there is one possibility
that has been haunting me constantly. It frightens me
just to think of it--it is," and the girl lowered her
voice as though she feared to say the thing she dreaded
most, "it is that you may have loved another--that--
that you may even be married."
Bulan was about to laugh away any such fears when the
gravity and importance of the possibility impressed him
quite as fully as it had Virginia. He saw that it was
not at all unlikely that he was already a married man;
and he saw too what the girl now acknowledged,
that they might never wed until the mystery
of his past had been cleared away.
"There is something that gives weight to my fear,"
continued Virginia, "something that I had almost
forgotten in the rush and excitement of events during
the past few days. During your delirium your ravings were,
for the most part, quite incoherent, but there was one name
that you repeated many times--a woman's name, preceded by a number.
It was `Nine ninety nine Priscilla.' Maybe she--"
But Virginia got no further. With a low exclamation
of delight Bulan caught her in his arms.
"It is all right, dear," he cried. "It is all right.
Everything has come back to me now. You have given me
the clue. Nine ninety nine Priscilla is my father's
address--Nine ninety nine Priscilla Avenue.
"I am Townsend J. Harper, Jr. You have heard of my father.
Every one has since he commenced consolidating interurban
traction companies. And I'm not married, Virginia,
and never have been; but I shall be if this miserable
old mud scow ever reaches Singapore."
"Oh, Bulan," cried the girl, "how in the world did you
ever happen to come to that terrible island of ours?"
"I came for you, dear," he replied. "It is a long story.
After dinner I will tell you all of it that I can recall.
For the present it must suffice you to know that I followed
you from the railway station at Ithaca half around the world
for a love that had been born from a single glance at your
sweet face as you passed me to enter your Pullman.
"On my father's yacht I reached your island after trailing
you to Singapore. It was a long and tedious hunt and we
followed many blind leads, but at last we came off an island
upon which natives had told us such a party as yours was living.
Five of us put off in a boat to explore--that is the last
that I can recall. Sing says he found me alone in a row boat,
a `dummy.'"
Virginia sighed, and crept closer to him.
"You may be the son of the great Townsend J. Harper,
you have been the soulless Number Thirteen;
but to me you will always be Bulan, for it was
Bulan whom I learned to love."
