els had necessitated flight, the
Belgian had dreamed, in his planning, of a future in which he might
convince Lady Greystoke that her husband was dead, and by playing upon
her gratitude win her for himself.

At that part of the village farthest from the gates, Werper discovered
that two or three long poles, taken from a nearby pile which had been
collected for the construction of huts, had been leaned against the top
of the palisade, forming a precarious, though not impossible avenue of
escape.

Rightly, he inferred that thus had Lady Greystoke found the means to
scale the wall, nor did he lose even a moment in following her lead.
Once in the jungle he struck out directly eastward.

A few miles south of him, Jane Clayton lay panting among the branches
of a tree in which she had taken refuge from a prowling and hungry
lioness.

Her escape from the village had been much easier than she had
anticipated. The knife which she had used to cut her way through the
brush wall of the hut to freedom she had found sticking in the wall of
her prison, doubtless left there by accident when a former tenant had
vacated the premises.

To cross the rear of the village, keeping always in the densest
shadows, had required but a few moments, and the fortunate circumstance
of the discovery of the hut poles lying so near the palisade had solved
for her the problem of the passage of the high wall.

For an hour she had followed the old game trail toward the south, until
there fell upon her trained hearing the stealthy padding of a stalking
beast behind her. The nearest tree gave her instant sanctuary, for she
was too wise in the ways of the jungle to chance her safety for a
moment after discovering that she was being hunted.

Werper, with better success, traveled slowly onward until dawn, when,
to his chagrin, he discovered a mounted Arab upon his trail. It was
one of Achmet Zek's minions, many of whom were scattered in all
directions through the forest, searching for the fugitive Belgian.

Jane Clayton's escape had not yet been discovered when Achmet Zek and
his searchers set forth to overhaul Werper. The only man who had seen
the Belgian after his departure from his tent was the black sentry
before the doorway of Lady Greystoke's prison hut, and he had been
silenced by the discovery of the dead body of the man who had relieved
him, the sentry that Mugambi had dispatched.

The bribe taker naturally inferred that Werper had slain hi