kicking his toes affectionately into the
thick hide and brushing the flies from about the tender ears of his
colossal chum with a leafy branch torn from a nearby tree by Tantor for
the purpose.

And all the while Meriem was scarce a hundred miles away.

Chapter 16

To Meriem, in her new home, the days passed quickly. At first she was
all anxiety to be off into the jungle searching for her Korak. Bwana,
as she insisted upon calling her benefactor, dissuaded her from making
the attempt at once by dispatching a head man with a party of blacks to
Kovudoo's village with instructions to learn from the old savage how he
came into possession of the white girl and as much of her antecedents
as might be culled from the black chieftain. Bwana particularly
charged his head man with the duty of questioning Kovudoo relative to
the strange character whom the girl called Korak, and of searching for
the ape-man if he found the slightest evidence upon which to ground a
belief in the existence of such an individual. Bwana was more than
fully convinced that Korak was a creature of the girl's disordered
imagination. He believed that the terrors and hardships she had
undergone during captivity among the blacks and her frightful
experience with the two Swedes had unbalanced her mind but as the days
passed and he became better acquainted with her and able to observe her
under the ordinary conditions of the quiet of his African home he was
forced to admit that her strange tale puzzled him not a little, for
there was no other evidence whatever that Meriem was not in full
possession of her normal faculties.

The white man's wife, whom Meriem had christened "My Dear" from having
first heard her thus addressed by Bwana, took not only a deep interest
in the little jungle waif because of her forlorn and friendless state,
but grew to love her as well for her sunny disposition and natural
charm of temperament. And Meriem, similarly impressed by little
attributes in the gentle, cultured woman, reciprocated the other's
regard and affection.

And so the days flew by while Meriem waited the return of the head man
and his party from the country of Kovudoo. They were short days, for
into them were crowded many hours of insidious instruction of the
unlettered child by the lonely woman. She commenced at once to teach
the girl English without forcing it upon her as a task. She varied the
instruction with lessons in sewing and deportment,