he
possibilities for punishment that lay within those smooth flowing
muscles beneath the velvet brown skin of the strange, white giant. He
rushed among them with all the force and ferocity of a bull elephant
gone mad. Hither and thither he charged striking down the few who had
the temerity to stand against him, and it was evident that unless a
chance spear thrust brought him down he would rout the entire village
and regain his prize. But old Kovudoo was not to be so easily robbed
of the ransom which the girl represented, and seeing that their attack
which had up to now resulted in a series of individual combats with the
white warrior, he called his tribesmen off, and forming them in a
compact body about the girl and the two who watched over her bid them
do nothing more than repel the assaults of the ape-man.

Again and again Korak rushed against this human barricade bristling
with spear points. Again and again he was repulsed, often with severe
wounds to caution him to greater wariness. From head to foot he was
red with his own blood, and at last, weakening from the loss of it, he
came to the bitter realization that alone he could do no more to succor
his Meriem.

Presently an idea flashed through his brain. He called aloud to the
girl. She had regained consciousness now and replied.

"Korak goes," he shouted; "but he will return and take you from the
Gomangani. Good-bye, my Meriem. Korak will come for you again."

"Good-bye!" cried the girl. "Meriem will look for you until you come."

Like a flash, and before they could know his intention or prevent him,
Korak wheeled, raced across the village and with a single leap
disappeared into the foliage of the great tree that was his highroad to
the village of Kovudoo. A shower of spears followed him, but their
only harvest was a taunting laugh flung back from out the darkness of
the jungle.

Chapter 13

Meriem, again bound and under heavy guard in Kovudoo's own hut, saw the
night pass and the new day come without bringing the momentarily looked
for return of Korak. She had no doubt but that he would come back and
less still that he would easily free her from her captivity. To her
Korak was little short of omnipotent. He embodied for her all that was
finest and strongest and best in her savage world. She gloried in his
prowess and worshipped him for the tender thoughtfulness that always
had marked his treatment of her. No other within the ken of