Just then the man of science was seen to put his rifle quickly to the shoulder; the arches of the forest rang with a loud report; various horrified creatures were seen and heard to scamper away, and next moment a middle-sized orang-utan came crashing through the branches of a tall tree and fell dead with a heavy thud on the ground.

The professor’s rifle was a breechloader.  He therefore lost no time in re-charging, and hurried forward as if he saw other game, while the rest of the party—­except Van der Kemp, Nigel, and Gurulam—­fell behind to look at and pick up the fallen animal.

“Look out!” whispered Nigel, pointing to a bit of brown hair that he saw among the leaves high overhead.

“Vere?  I cannot see him,” whispered the naturalist, whose eyes blazed enough almost to melt his blue glasses.  “Do you fire, Mr. Roy?”

“My gun is charged only with small-shot, for birds.  It is useless for such game,” said Nigel.

“Ach!  I see!”

Up went the rifle and again the echoes were startled and the animal kingdom astounded, especially that portion at which the professor had fired, for there was immediately a tremendous commotion among the leaves overhead, and another orang of the largest size was seen to cross an open space and disappear among the thick foliage.  Evidently the creature had been hit, but not severely, for it travelled among the tree-tops at the rate of full five miles an hour, obliging the hunters to run at a rapid pace over the rough ground in order to keep up with it.  In its passage from tree to tree the animal showed caution and foresight, selecting only those branches that interlaced with other boughs, so that it made uninterrupted progress, and also had a knack of always keeping masses of thick foliage underneath it so that for some time no opportunity was found of firing another shot.  At last, however, it came to one of those Dyak roads of which we have made mention, so that it could not easily swing from one tree to another, and the stoppage of rustling among the leaves told that the creature had halted.  For some time they gazed up among the branches without seeing anything, but at last, in a place where the leaves seemed to have been thrust aside near the top of one of the highest trees, a great red hairy body was seen, and a huge black face gazed fiercely down at the hunters.

Verkimier fired instantly, the branches closed, and the monster moved off in another direction.  In desperate anxiety Nigel fired both barrels of his shot-gun.  He might as well have fired at the moon.  Gurulam was armed only with a spear, and Van der Kemp, who was not much of a sportsman, carried a similar weapon.  The rest of the party were still out of sight in rear looking after the dead mias.

It was astonishing how little noise was made by so large an animal as it moved along.  More than once the hunters had to halt and listen intently for the rustling of the leaves before they could make sure of being on the right track.