the active mind, a party of men moved
out of the forest at the edge of the plain and advanced toward the
ruins of the burned bungalow.

Abdul Mourak, always watchful, was the first to see them, but already
they were halfway across the open. He called to his men to mount and
hold themselves in readiness, for in the heart of Africa who may know
whether a strange host be friend or foe?

Werper, swinging into his saddle, fastened his eyes upon the newcomers,
then, white and trembling he turned toward Abdul Mourak.

"It is Achmet Zek and his raiders," he whispered. "They are come for
the gold."

It must have been at about the same instant that Achmet Zek discovered
the pile of yellow ingots and realized the actuality of what he had
already feared since first his eyes had alighted upon the party beside
the ruins of the Englishman's bungalow. Someone had forestalled
him--another had come for the treasure ahead of him.

The Arab was crazed by rage. Recently everything had gone against him.
He had lost the jewels, the Belgian, and for the second time he had
lost the Englishwoman. Now some one had come to rob him of this
treasure which he had thought as safe from disturbance here as though
it never had been mined.

He cared not whom the thieves might be. They would not give up the
gold without a battle, of that he was certain, and with a wild whoop
and a command to his followers, Achmet Zek put spurs to his horse and
dashed down upon the Abyssinians, and after him, waving their long guns
above their heads, yelling and cursing, came his motley horde of
cut-throat followers.

The men of Abdul Mourak met them with a volley which emptied a few
saddles, and then the raiders were among them, and sword, pistol and
musket, each was doing its most hideous and bloody work.

Achmet Zek, spying Werper at the first charge, bore down upon the
Belgian, and the latter, terrified by contemplation of the fate he
deserved, turned his horse's head and dashed madly away in an effort to
escape. Shouting to a lieutenant to take command, and urging him upon
pain of death to dispatch the Abyssinians and bring the gold back to
his camp, Achmet Zek set off across the plain in pursuit of the
Belgian, his wicked nature unable to forego the pleasures of revenge,
even at the risk of sacrificing the treasure.

As the pursued and the pursuer raced madly toward the distant forest
the battle behind them raged with bloody savageness. No quarter