“It is cleverly planned, I must say!” La Cueille observed. “If you were to get such a tree on the top of your head you would scarcely require a new hat, would you now? But we shall have to keep our eyes open, without doubt.” “That we shall,” Johannes answered, “but I have decided to let a dozen men march along the banks of every river over which we may have to travel, with orders to keep about twenty yards ahead of us and to examine every tree. This will render any accident impossible and at the same time do us good service otherwise.” “And in what manner will it serve you otherwise?” “First of all, our men will disperse or shoot these liers-in-wait. They will then search for the half-cut trees, which are not difficult to discover when you are ashore; then, waiting until all our rangkans have safely passed the spot, they will cut the rattan ropes and let the trees fall over. Thus our rear will be protected, both against the Doessonese, who may get reinforcements along the soengei, and against the Dutch whenever they put themselves upon our track. There will be no serious difficulty in putting this plan into execution, for, as a rule, only a few men are placed to watch the parabah and these will soon be driven away by our rifles.” They now travelled onwards cautiously but rapidly. Two trees on the point of toppling over were all they discovered, and as Johannes had predicted a couple of shots sufficed to drive the watchmen away, and a triple obstruction was thus thrown across the river completely blocking all access from the lower districts. Shortly after noon they sighted kotta Hamiak, where events were taking place not of an encouraging nature. A desperate fight was going on at the time. The inhabitants were in a state of siege. They could be seen peering over the tops of their palisades, here, like everywhere else in Dayak land, surmounted by many human skulls, and throwing anything accessible at the heads of their assailants, who were trying to scale the barrier at various points. At a small distance from the kotta the besiegers had two small guns planted behind an entrenchment formed of twigs, but their balls produced little or no effect against the strong ironwood palisades. The artillery, it seemed, was more intended to frighten the inhabitants and drive them away from the defence than to do any material damage. The Doessonese had also brought together a large heap of dry wood, piled it against the palisades and set fire to it, The fire had already burnt for a considerable time, but the wall had not suffered much, though it would soon begin to be dangerous for the besieged.