Big Bwana to the
west."

The Negro assented with a grunt. He had no desire to follow this
strange white man who was afraid at night; he had less to remain at the
tender mercies of the Big Bwana's lusty warriors, between whom and his
people there was long-standing blood feud; and he was more than
delighted, into the bargain, for a legitimate excuse for deserting his
much hated Swede master. He knew a way to the north and his own
country that the white men did not know--a short cut across an arid
plateau where lay water holes of which the white hunters and explorers
that had passed from time to time the fringe of the dry country had
never dreamed. He might even elude the Big Bwana should he follow
them, and with this thought uppermost in his mind he gathered the
remnants of Malbihn's safari into a semblance of order and moved off
toward the north. And toward the southwest the black boy led the Hon.
Morison Baynes into the jungles.

Korak had waited about the camp, watching the Hon. Morison until the
safari had started north. Then, assured that the young Englishman was
going in the wrong direction to meet Meriem he had abandoned him and
returned slowly to the point where he had seen the girl, for whom his
heart yearned, in the arms of another.

So great had been his happiness at seeing Meriem alive that, for the
instant, no thought of jealousy had entered his mind. Later these
thoughts had come--dark, bloody thoughts that would have made the flesh
of the Hon. Morison creep could he have guessed that they were
revolving in the brain of a savage creature creeping stealthily among
the branches of the forest giant beneath which he waited the coming of
"Hanson" and the girl.

And with passing of the hours had come subdued reflection in which he
had weighed himself against the trimly clad English gentleman
and--found that he was wanting. What had he to offer her by comparison
with that which the other man might offer? What was his "mess of
pottage" to the birthright that the other had preserved? How could he
dare go, naked and unkempt, to that fair thing who had once been his
jungle-fellow and propose the thing that had been in his mind when
first the realization of his love had swept over him? He shuddered as
he thought of the irreparable wrong that his love would have done the
innocent child but for the chance that had snatched her from him before
it was too late. Doubtless she knew now the horror that had bee