“What does he say?” asked Nigel.

“Dat Massa Verkimier is in full chase, an’ it’s my opinion dat when he comes back he’ll be wet all ober, and hab his shins and elbows barked.”

“Why d’you think so?”

“‘Cause dat’s de way he goed on when we was huntin’ wid him last year.  He nebber larns fro’ ’sperience.”

“That’s a very fine-looking young fellow,” remarked Nigel, referring to the Dyak youth who had just returned, and who, with a number of other natives, was watching the visitors with profound interest while they ate.

As the young man referred to was a good sample of the youth of his tribe, we shall describe him.  Though not tall, he was well and strongly proportioned, and his skin was of a reddish-brown colour.  Like all his comrades, he wore little clothing.  A gay handkerchief with a gold lace border encircled his head, from beneath which flowed a heavy mass of straight, jet-black hair.  Large crescent-shaped ornaments hung from his ears.  His face was handsome and the expression pleasing, though the mouth was large and the lips rather thick.  Numerous brass rings encircled his arms above and below the elbows.  His only other piece of costume was a waist-cloth of blue cotton, which hung down before and behind.  It ended in three bands of red, blue, and white.  There were also rows of brass rings on his legs, and armlets of white shells.  At his side he wore a long slender knife and a little pouch containing the materials for betel-chewing.

“Yes, and he is as good as he looks,” said the hermit.  “His name is Gurulam, and all the people of his tribe have benefited by the presence in Borneo of that celebrated Englishman Sir James Brooke,—­Rajah Brooke as he was called,—­who did so much to civilise the Dyaks of Borneo and to ameliorate their condition.”

The prophecy of Moses about the professor was fulfilled.  Just as it was growing dark that genial scientist returned, drenched to the skin and covered with mud, having tumbled into a ditch.  His knuckles also were skinned, his knees and shins damaged, and his face scratched, but he was perfectly happy in consequence of having secured a really splendid specimen of a “bootterfly” as big as his hand; the scientific name of which, for very sufficient reasons, we will not attempt to inflict on our readers, and the description of which may be shortly stated by the single word—­gorgeous!

Being fond of Verkimier, and knowing his desire to obtain a full-grown orang-utan, Gurulam went off early next morning to search for one.  Half-a-dozen of his comrades accompanied him armed only with native spears, for their object was not to hunt the animal, but to discover one if possible, and let the professor know so that he might go after it with his rifle, for they knew that he was a keen sportsman as well as a man of science.

They did not, indeed, find what they sought for, but they were told by natives with whom they fell in that a number of the animals had been seen among the tree-tops not more than a day’s march into the forest.  They hurried home therefore with this information, and that day—­accompanied by the Dyak youths, Nigel, the hermit, and Moses—­Verkimier started off in search of the mias; intending to camp out or to take advantage of a native hut if they should chance to be near one when night overtook them.