uscled, and exceedingly
tanned."

"His eyes and hair, did you notice them?" Bwana spoke rapidly, almost
excitedly. It was Meriem who answered him.

"Korak's hair is black and his eyes are gray," she said.

Bwana turned to his headman.

"Take Miss Meriem and Mr. Baynes home," he said. "I am going into the
jungle."

"Let me go with you, Bwana," cried Meriem. "You are going to search
for Korak. Let me go, too."

Bwana turned sadly but firmly upon the girl.

"Your place," he said, "is beside the man you love."

Then he motioned to his head-man to take his horse and commence the
return journey to the farm. Meriem slowly mounted the tired Arab that
had brought her from the village of The Sheik. A litter was rigged for
the now feverish Baynes, and the little cavalcade was soon slowly
winding off along the river trail.

Bwana stood watching them until they were out of sight. Not once had
Meriem turned her eyes backward. She rode with bowed head and drooping
shoulders. Bwana sighed. He loved the little Arab girl as he might
have loved an own daughter. He realized that Baynes had redeemed
himself, and so he could interpose no objections now if Meriem really
loved the man; but, somehow, some way, Bwana could not convince himself
that the Hon. Morison was worthy of his little Meriem. Slowly he
turned toward a nearby tree. Leaping upward he caught a lower branch
and drew himself up among the branches. His movements were cat-like
and agile. High into the trees he made his way and there commenced to
divest himself of his clothing. From the game bag slung across one
shoulder he drew a long strip of doe-skin, a neatly coiled rope, and a
wicked looking knife. The doe-skin, he fashioned into a loin cloth,
the rope he looped over one shoulder, and the knife he thrust into the
belt formed by his gee string.

When he stood erect, his head thrown back and his great chest expanded
a grim smile touched his lips for a moment. His nostrils dilated as he
sniffed the jungle odors. His gray eyes narrowed. He crouched and
leaped to a lower limb and was away through the trees toward the
southeast, bearing away from the river. He moved swiftly, stopping
only occasionally to raise his voice in a weird and piercing scream,
and to listen for a moment after for a reply.

He had traveled thus for several hours when, ahead of him and a little
to his left, he heard, far off in the jungle, a faint response--the cry
of a bull