alves Korak wound his way.
Now and then another trunk would run out to touch him, and once a
playful calf grasped his legs and upset him.

The afternoon was almost spent when Korak arrived at the village of
Kovudoo. There were many natives lolling in shady spots beside the
conical huts or beneath the branches of the several trees which had
been left standing within the enclosure. Warriors were in evidence
upon hand. It was not a good time for a lone enemy to prosecute a
search through the village. Korak determined to await the coming of
darkness. He was a match for many warriors; but he could not, unaided,
overcome an entire tribe--not even for his beloved Meriem. While he
waited among the branches and foliage of a near-by tree he searched the
village constantly with his keen eyes, and twice he circled it,
sniffing the vagrant breezes which puffed erratically from first one
point of the compass and then another. Among the various stenches
peculiar to a native village the ape-man's sensitive nostrils were
finally rewarded by cognizance of the delicate aroma which marked the
presence of her he sought. Meriem was there--in one of those huts!
But which one he could not know without closer investigation, and so he
waited, with the dogged patience of a beast of prey, until night had
fallen.

The camp fires of the blacks dotted the gloom with little points of
light, casting their feeble rays in tiny circles of luminosity that
brought into glistening relief the naked bodies of those who lay or
squatted about them. It was then that Korak slid silently from the
tree that had hidden him and dropped lightly to the ground within the
enclosure.

Keeping well in the shadows of the huts he commenced a systematic
search of the village--ears, eyes and nose constantly upon the alert
for the first intimation of the near presence of Meriem. His progress
must of necessity be slow since not even the keen-eared curs of the
savages must guess the presence of a stranger within the gates. How
close he came to a detection on several occasions The Killer well knew
from the restless whining of several of them.

It was not until he reached the back of a hut at the head of the wide
village street that Korak caught again, plainly, the scent of Meriem.
With nose close to the thatched wall Korak sniffed eagerly about the
structure--tense and palpitant as a hunting hound. Toward the front
and the door he made his way when once his nose ha