t
to meet theirs for several miles yet?

She kept her own counsel however, planning to escape at the first
opportunity when she might have a sufficient start of her captor, as
she now considered him, to give her some assurance of outdistancing
him. She watched his face continually when she could without being
observed. Tantalizingly the placing of his familiar features persisted
in eluding her. Where had she known him? Under what conditions had
they met before she had seen him about the farm of Bwana? She ran over
in her mind all the few white men she ever had known. There were some
who had come to her father's douar in the jungle. Few it is true, but
there had been some. Ah, now she had it! She had seen him there! She
almost seized upon his identity and then in an instant, it had slipped
from her again.

It was mid afternoon when they suddenly broke out of the jungle upon
the banks of a broad and placid river. Beyond, upon the opposite
shore, Meriem described a camp surrounded by a high, thorn boma.

"Here we are at last," said Hanson. He drew his revolver and fired in
the air. Instantly the camp across the river was astir. Black men ran
down the river's bank. Hanson hailed them. But there was no sign of
the Hon. Morison Baynes.

In accordance with their master's instructions the blacks manned a
canoe and rowed across. Hanson placed Meriem in the little craft and
entered it himself, leaving two boys to watch the horses, which the
canoe was to return for and swim across to the camp side of the river.

Once in the camp Meriem asked for Baynes. For the moment her fears had
been allayed by the sight of the camp, which she had come to look upon
as more or less a myth. Hanson pointed toward the single tent that
stood in the center of the enclosure.

"There," he said, and preceded her toward it. At the entrance he held
the flap aside and motioned her within. Meriem entered and looked
about. The tent was empty. She turned toward Hanson. There was a
broad grin on his face.

"Where is Mr. Baynes?" she demanded.

"He ain't here," replied Hanson. "Leastwise I don't see him, do you?
But I'm here, and I'm a damned sight better man than that thing ever
was. You don't need him no more--you got me," and he laughed
uproariously and reached for her.

Meriem struggled to free herself. Hanson encircled her arms and body
in his powerful grip and bore her slowly backward toward the pile of
blankets at t