Meriem than from the pain of his own wounds. For her he must live.
For her he must regain his strength that he might set out in search of
her. What had the blacks done to her? Did she still live, or had they
sacrificed her to their lust for torture and human flesh? Korak almost
trembled with terror as the most hideous possibilities of the girl's
fate suggested themselves to him out of his knowledge of the customs of
Kovudoo's tribe.

The days dragged their weary lengths along, but at last he had
sufficiently regained his strength to crawl from the shelter and make
his way unaided to the ground. Now he lived more upon raw meat, for
which he was entirely dependent on Akut's skill and generosity. With
the meat diet his strength returned more rapidly, and at last he felt
that he was fit to undertake the journey to the village of the blacks.

Chapter 12

Two tall, bearded white men moved cautiously through the jungle from
their camp beside a wide river. They were Carl Jenssen and Sven
Malbihn, but little altered in appearance since the day, years before,
that they and their safari had been so badly frightened by Korak and
Akut as the former sought haven with them.

Every year had they come into the jungle to trade with the natives, or
to rob them; to hunt and trap; or to guide other white men in the land
they knew so well. Always since their experience with The Sheik had
they operated at a safe distance from his territory.

Now they were closer to his village than they had been for years, yet
safe enough from discovery owing to the uninhabited nature of the
intervening jungle and the fear and enmity of Kovudoo's people for The
Sheik, who, in time past, had raided and all but exterminated the tribe.

This year they had come to trap live specimens for a European
zoological garden, and today they were approaching a trap which they
had set in the hope of capturing a specimen of the large baboons that
frequented the neighborhood. As they approached the trap they became
aware from the noises emanating from its vicinity that their efforts
had been crowned with success. The barking and screaming of hundreds
of baboons could mean naught else than that one or more of their number
had fallen a victim to the allurements of the bait.

The extreme caution of the two men was prompted by former experiences
with the intelligent and doglike creatures with which they had to deal.
More than one trapper has lost his lif