Suddenly Sadok began to run. The boys attempted to restrain him, but
the curator held them off.
“Let him alone, boys. His mentality’s coming back--it’s a good sign.
Wait.”
They watched the Dyak, who was now running in a crouching position, his
long sumpitan trailing over the grass in his left hand. As he neared a
clump of trees out in the swales he dropped from sight in the grass,
his progress only marked by the waving of the blades. They searched the
tree carefully, but only what appeared to be a large black mass, well
hidden in the dense foliage, offered any possible mark.
Then the sumpitan rose slowly out of the field, and presently a large
black bird tumbled down through the trees. The Dyak was on his feet in
an instant, dashed through the thicket, and seized his trophy. Then he
came back, holding it up triumphantly.
“Me catch’m new spec’men, _Orang-kaya_!” he announced, exuberantly.
Gone was the dull, expressionless look in his eyes, replaced now by the
sparkling zest of the primitive hunter.
“Boys, he’s got a long-tailed bird of paradise, by Jove!” cried the
curator, excitedly. “Rarer than the superba! Great work, Sadok!”
They all ran to him and examined the prize. It was of glossy black,
with bronze and purple glories of peacock-coal hues, making the
feathers iridescent with changeable colors. A superb tail of feathers
two feet long, and the side plumage brushed back, as it were, to form
tufts of plumage along both sides of the back, completed the bird’s
extraordinary ornaments.
“Almost makes you forget the pygmies, eh, Sadok?” grinned the curator,
suggestively.
The Dyak’s face looked blank. Then his memory began slowly, painfully
to work, and he put up his hand slowly and felt the bandage on his
shoulder. Gradually his expression changed to comprehension, anger,
disgust.
“Ugh!” he shuddered. “Me kill’m two--t’ree! Then me know nothing. Me
come hit--arrow?” he asked.
“Yep. We found you. Carried you through the jungle for miles. Me cure’m
upas [poison]. All well now!”
A kind of wonder grew in the Dyak’s eyes. It was the first time in his
experience that any man had survived a poisoned arrow.
“_Orang-kaya!_ him know everyt’ing!” he cried. “Him God--big-fellah!”
He stooped down and embraced the curator’s knees adoringly.
“Here! Cut it!” said the curator, embarrassed, as he disengaged
himself, and there were tears in his eyes. “God Him _great_ big-fellah,
Sadok! Him live in sky. Him hold the world in his hand, so, Sadok,”
holding out his cupped hand. “Him make you-fellah save my life, plenty
much; make me-fellah save your life! Me tell you ’bout Him, some
day, Sadok,” he said, affectionately, laying his hand on the Dyak’s
shoulder. “Gad! and I don’t know any greater pleasure than _that_ will
be, either!” he exclaimed, under his breath. “A man’s God is what I
will show him! Come on, fellows!” he broke off, hastily. “We got to
shove along; it would be death to be caught in these open swales.”