still indistinct and very distant, but after the first half hour it had ceased to be audible, and nothing was to be heard save the tinkle of running water, the occasional note of a bird, or the faint stir of animal life in the forest around. The fugitives had thrown away most of their loads when the tiger stampeded them, and they now were travelling burdened by little. save their babies and their weapons. When life itself is in jeopardy, property ceases to possess a value. For the time being it ceases to exist.
The same expression-tense, fearful, strained- was to be marked on the faces of all the Sakai, and their eyes were wild, savage, hunted, and filled to the brim with a great fear. Even their movements were eloquent of apprehension, and the light touch of their feet upon the ground betokened that their muscles were braced for instant flight at the first sign of danger.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon the heavens opened and emptied themselves on to the forest in sheets of tropical rain. At the end of a few minutes every branch and leaf overhead had become a separate conduit and was spouting water like a gargoyle; but still the Sâkai continued their march, pressing for- ward with the energy bred of despair into jungle- depths which even to them were untrodden lands. They had no objective in sight now; their one idea was to get away it mattered not whither-away from the Malays, from captivity and death.
As the dusk began to gather the rain ceased, and Ka' cried to his fellows that they must halt for the night. The moon was well past the full, and the
