999 PRISCILLA
As the touched the bank the entire party from the long-house, and natives, were on the to meet it. At the officers off as though a demonstration, but when they saw the among the throng, a was to in, and a moment later one of the officers ashore.
"I am Lieutenant May," he said, "of the U.S.S. New Mexico, of the Pacific Fleet. Have I the to address Professor Maxon?"
The scientist nodded. "I am delighted," he said.
"We have been to your island, Professor," the officer, "and from the of departure, and the of there, I that some had you. We therefore along the Bornean making of the until at last we one who had a of a party of being in the for a white girl who had been from them by pirates.
"The up this river we have come the our that we were on the right trail, for a native we but had or of some of your party. Mixed with the truth they told us were of terrible by a white man."
"The of minds," said the professor. "However, why, my dear lieutenant, did you me by visiting my island?"
The officer a moment answering, his about over the as though in search of someone.
"Well, Professor Maxon, to be frank," he said at length, "we learned at Singapore the of your party, which a officer we have been for many years. We came to your to this man—I to Doctor Carl Horn."
When the learned of the of the man he sought, he his to push on at once in pursuit; and as Professor Maxon again to in the of the Bornean his entire party was taken the cutter.
A miles up the river they came upon one of the Dyaks who had Horn, a hours earlier. The sat a prahu. When he that Horn and the of his had gone inland, him to the boat. He said that he he them to the spot where the white man might be found.
Professor Maxon and Sing one of the officers and a dozen in the wake of the Dyak guide. Virginia and Bulan in the cutter, as the was still too weak to attempt the hard through the jungle. For an hour the party the in the wake of Horn and his companions. They had come almost to the spot when their ears were by the and blood of native warriors, and a moment later Horn's into view in full retreat.
At of the white men they in relief, pointing in the direction they had come, and in their native tongue. Warily the party again these new guides; but when they the spot they sought, the of the Dyaks' panic had fled, warned, doubtless, by their ears of the approach of an enemy.
The that met the of the told all of the that they needed to know. A had been in the ground, a chest, and across this the of Doctor Carl Horn.
Lieutenant May toward Professor Maxon with a look.
"It is he," said the scientist.
"But the chest?" the officer.
"Mlaxon's tleasure," spoke up Sing Lee. "Hornee him it for long time."
"Treasure!" the professor. "Bududreen gave up his life for this. Rajah Muda Saffir and and for of it! Poor, misguided Horn has died for it, and left his to the of a Dyak long-house! It is incredible."
"But, Professor Maxon," said Lieutenant May, "men will all these and more for gold."
"Gold!" the professor. "Why, man, that is a box of books on and eugenics."
"My God!" May, "and Horn was to be one of the and in America! But come, we may as well return to the cutter—my men will the chest."
"No!" Professor Maxon with a the other not understand. "Let them it again where it lies. It and what it have been the of and and crime. Let it where it is in the of Borneo, and pray to God that no man it, and that I shall that which is in it."
On the of the third day the death of Horn the New Mexico away from the of Borneo. Upon her deck, looking toward the hills, Virginia and Bulan.
"Thank heaven," the girl fervently, "that we are it us forever."
"Amen," Bulan, "but yet, had it not been for Borneo I might have you."
"We should have met then, Bulan," said the girl in a low voice, "for we were for one another. No power on earth have us apart. In your true you would have me—I am sure of it."
"It is maddening, Virginia," said the man, "to be every of my memory in to catch and one to my past. Why, dear, do you that I may have been a from justice, as was Horn, a perhaps. It is awful, Virginia, to the possibilities of my past."
"No, Bulan, you have been a criminal," the girl, "but there is one possibility that has been me constantly. It me just to think of it—it is," and the girl her voice as though she to say the thing she most, "it is that you may have loved another—that—that you may be married."
Bulan was about to laugh away any such when the and of the possibility him as as it had Virginia. He saw that it was not at all that he was already a married man; and he saw too what the girl now acknowledged, that they might until the of his past had been away.
"There is something that weight to my fear," Virginia, "something that I had almost in the and of events the past days. During your your were, for the most part, incoherent, but there was one name that you many times—a woman's name, by a number. It was 'Nine ninety nine Priscilla.' Maybe she—"
But Virginia got no further. With a low of Bulan her in his arms.
"It is all right, dear," he cried. "It is all right. Everything has come to me now. You have 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 of my father. Every one has since he companies. And I'm not married, Virginia, and have been; but I shall be if this old Singapore."
"Oh, Bulan," the girl, "how in the world did you to come to that terrible 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 you to know that I you from the railway station at Ithaca around the world for a love that had been from a single at your sweet as you passed me to enter your Pullman.
"On my father's I your after you to Singapore. It was a long and and we many leads, but at last we came off an upon which had told us such a party as yours was living. Five of us put off in a to explore—that is the last that I can recall. Sing says he me alone in a boat, a 'dummy.'"
Virginia sighed, and closer to him.
"You may be the son of the great Townsend J. Harper, you have been the Number Thirteen; but to me you will always be Bulan, for it was Bulan I learned to love."
