the captain’s daughter, with the natural vigour of youth, soon recovered from the slight injuries she had sustained in her singular journey through the maze of boughs. the previous perils of shipwreck, and the various hairbreadth escapes through which she had more recently passed, made her last danger all the lighter to bear; for by these her child’s spirit had become steeled to endurance, and her courage was equal to that of a full-grown woman. otherwise the fearful situation in which she had been placed, if leaving life, might have deprived her of reason.
as it happened, no serious misfortune had befallen, and with helen’s strength and spirits both fully restored, her companions were able on the third day to resume their overland journey.
and, still more, they started with a fresh supply of provisions—enough to last them for many long days. captain redwood and saloo in their hunting excursion had been very successful. the captain had not been called upon to fire a single shot from his rifle, so that his slender store of ammunition was still good for future eventualities. saloo’s silent sumpits had done all the work of the chase, which resulted in the death of a deer, another wild pig, and several large birds, suitable for the pot or spit. the hunters had been returning from their last expedition heavily loaded with game, when the cries of helen, henry, and murtagh, had caused them to drop their booty and hasten to the rescue.
now that all was over, and they were once more reminded of it, saloo and murtagh went in search of the abandoned game, soon found it, gathered it again, and transported it to their camping-place by the side of the lake.
here, during the time they stayed to await the recovery of helen’s health, the pork and venison were cut up and cured in such a manner as to ensure its keeping for a long time—long enough indeed to suffice them throughout the whole duration of their contemplated journey; that is, should no unexpected obstacle arise to obstruct or detain them.
the fowls that had fallen to saloo’s arrows were sufficient to serve them for a few days, and with the fine supply of lard obtained from the carcass of the pig, they could be cooked in the most sumptuous manner.
in the best of spirits they again set forth; and it seemed now as if fate had at last grown weary of torturing them, and daily, almost hourly, involving one or other of them in danger of death.
from the edge of the lake, where their journey had been so strangely interrupted, they found an easy path across the remaining portion of the great plain.
several times they came upon the traces of red gorillas, and once they caught sight of a member of the horrid tribe speeding along the branches above their heads.
but they were not so much afraid of them after all; for saloo admitted that he did not deem the mias pappan so dangerous; and he had ascertained that it was this species of ourang-outang they had encountered.
he confessed himself puzzled at the behaviour of the one that had caused them so much fear and trouble. it was another species, the mias rombi, of which he stood in dread; and he could only account for the mias pappan having acted as it had done, by supposing the animal to have taken some eccentric notion into its head—perhaps caused, as we have already hinted, by its conflict with the crocodile.
dangerous these gigantic quadrumana are, nevertheless;—their superhuman strength enabling them to make terrible havoc wherever and whenever their fury becomes aroused. but without provocation this rarely occurs, and a man or woman who passes by them without making a noise, is not likely to be molested.
besides the large species, to which belonged the ape that had attacked them, the travellers saw another kind while passing across the plain. this was the mias kassio, much smaller in size, and more gentle in its nature.
but they saw nothing of those, tallest of all, and the most dreaded by saloo—the mias rombis—although the old bee-hunter still maintained his belief that they exist in the forests of borneo as well as in the wilds of sumatra.
the plain over which they were making their way, here and there intersected with lagoons and tracts of tree-covered swamp, was the very locality in which these great apes delight to dwell; their habit being to make their huge platforms, or sleeping-places, upon bushes that grow out of boggy marsh or water—thus rendering them difficult of access to man, the only enemy they have need to dread.
