st landed
full upon his mouth backed by the weight of the young giant and the
terrific power of his more than human muscles.

Bleeding and senseless The Sheik sank to earth. Korak turned toward
the child. She had regained her feet and stood wide eyed and
frightened, looking first into his face and then, horror struck, at the
recumbent figure of The Sheik. In an involuntary gesture of protection
The Killer threw an arm about the girl's shoulders and stood waiting
for the Arab to regain consciousness. For a moment they remained thus,
when the girl spoke.

"When he regains his senses he will kill me," she said, in Arabic.

Korak could not understand her. He shook his head, speaking to her
first in English and then in the language of the great apes; but
neither of these was intelligible to her. She leaned forward and
touched the hilt of the long knife that the Arab wore. Then she raised
her clasped hand above her head and drove an imaginary blade into her
breast above her heart. Korak understood. The old man would kill her.
The girl came to his side again and stood there trembling. She did not
fear him. Why should she? He had saved her from a terrible beating at
the hands of The Sheik. Never, in her memory, had another so
befriended her. She looked up into his face. It was a boyish,
handsome face, nut-brown like her own. She admired the spotted leopard
skin that circled his lithe body from one shoulder to his knees. The
metal anklets and armlets adorning him aroused her envy. Always had
she coveted something of the kind; but never had The Sheik permitted
her more than the single cotton garment that barely sufficed to cover
her nakedness. No furs or silks or jewelry had there ever been for
little Meriem.

And Korak looked at the girl. He had always held girls in a species of
contempt. Boys who associated with them were, in his estimation,
mollycoddles. He wondered what he should do. Could he leave her here
to be abused, possibly murdered, by the villainous old Arab? No! But,
on the other hand, could he take her into the jungle with him? What
could he accomplish burdened by a weak and frightened girl? She would
scream at her own shadow when the moon came out upon the jungle night
and the great beasts roamed, moaning and roaring, through the darkness.

He stood for several minutes buried in thought. The girl watched his
face, wondering what was passing in his mind. She, too, was thinking
of t