t should be Albert Werper. They traced out the
figure of a man, and then an arm shot upward, poised for an instant and
descended. Again and again it rose and fell, and each time the long
blade of the knife buried itself in the thing beneath the blankets.
But there was an initial lifelessness in the silent bulk that gave the
assassin momentary wonder. Feverishly he threw back the coverlets, and
searched with nervous hands for the pouch of jewels which he expected
to find concealed upon his victim's body.

An instant later he rose with a curse upon his lips. It was Achmet
Zek, and he cursed because he had discovered beneath the blankets of
his lieutenant only a pile of discarded clothing arranged in the form
and semblance of a sleeping man--Albert Werper had fled.

Out into the village ran the chief, calling in angry tones to the
sleepy Arabs, who tumbled from their tents in answer to his voice. But
though they searched the village again and again they found no trace of
the Belgian. Foaming with anger, Achmet Zek called his followers to
horse, and though the night was pitchy black they set out to scour the
adjoining forest for their quarry.

As they galloped from the open gates, Mugambi, hiding in a nearby bush,
slipped, unseen, within the palisade. A score of blacks crowded about
the entrance to watch the searchers depart, and as the last of them
passed out of the village the blacks seized the portals and drew them
to, and Mugambi lent a hand in the work as though the best of his life
had been spent among the raiders.

In the darkness he passed, unchallenged, as one of their number, and as
they returned from the gates to their respective tents and huts,
Mugambi melted into the shadows and disappeared.

For an hour he crept about in the rear of the various huts and tents in
an effort to locate that in which his master's mate was imprisoned.
One there was which he was reasonably assured contained her, for it was
the only hut before the door of which a sentry had been posted.
Mugambi was crouching in the shadow of this structure, just around the
corner from the unsuspecting guard, when another approached to relieve
his comrade.

"The prisoner is safe within?" asked the newcomer.

"She is," replied the other, "for none has passed this doorway since I
came."

The new sentry squatted beside the door, while he whom he had relieved
made his way to his own hut. Mugambi slunk closer to the corner of the
building.