pierce the darkness
and catch a glimpse of the features of the strange being into whose
hands he had fallen, "You are the same whom I saw kissing the girl at
the edge of the great plain to the East, that time that the lion
charged you?"

"Yes," replied Baynes.

"What are you doing here?"

"The girl was stolen--I am trying to rescue her."

"Stolen!" The word was shot out like a bullet from a gun. "Who stole
her?"

"The Swede trader, Hanson," replied Baynes.

"Where is he?"

Baynes related to Korak all that had transpired since he had come upon
Hanson's camp. Before he was done the first gray dawn had relieved the
darkness. Korak made the Englishman comfortable in the tree. He
filled his canteen from the river and fetched him fruits to eat. Then
he bid him good-bye.

"I am going to the Swede's camp," he announced. "I will bring the girl
back to you here."

"I shall go, too, then," insisted Baynes. "It is my right and my duty,
for she was to have become my wife."

Korak winced. "You are wounded. You could not make the trip," he
said. "I can go much faster alone."

"Go, then," replied Baynes; "but I shall follow. It is my right and
duty."

"As you will," replied Korak, with a shrug. If the man wanted to be
killed it was none of his affair. He wanted to kill him himself, but
for Meriem's sake he would not. If she loved him then he must do what
he could to preserve him, but he could not prevent his following him,
more than to advise him against it, and this he did, earnestly.

And so Korak set out rapidly toward the North, and limping slowly and
painfully along, soon far to the rear, came the tired and wounded
Baynes. Korak had reached the river bank opposite Malbihn's camp
before Baynes had covered two miles. Late in the afternoon the
Englishman was still plodding wearily along, forced to stop often for
rest when he heard the sound of the galloping feet of a horse behind
him. Instinctively he drew into the concealing foliage of the
underbrush and a moment later a white-robed Arab dashed by. Baynes did
not hail the rider. He had heard of the nature of the Arabs who
penetrate thus far to the South, and what he had heard had convinced
him that a snake or a panther would as quickly befriend him as one of
these villainous renegades from the Northland.

When Abdul Kamak had passed out of sight toward the North Baynes
resumed his weary march. A half hour later he was again surprised by
the