ibility Korak placed little faith.

The ape-man, as unafraid of the mighty Tantor as though he had not just
witnessed his shocking murder of a human being, signalled the beast to
approach and lift him to its head, and Tantor came as he was bid,
docile as a kitten, and hoisted The Killer tenderly aloft.

From the safety of their hiding places in the jungle Malbihn's boys had
witnessed the killing of their master, and now, with wide, frightened
eyes, they saw the strange white warrior, mounted upon the head of his
ferocious charger, disappear into the jungle at the point from which he
had emerged upon their terrified vision.

Chapter 25

The Sheik glowered at the prisoner which his two men brought back to
him from the North. He had sent the party after Abdul Kamak, and he
was wroth that instead of his erstwhile lieutenant they had sent back a
wounded and useless Englishman. Why had they not dispatched him where
they had found him? He was some penniless beggar of a trader who had
wandered from his own district and became lost. He was worthless. The
Sheik scowled terribly upon him.

"Who are you?" he asked in French.

"I am the Hon. Morison Baynes of London," replied his prisoner.

The title sounded promising, and at once the wily old robber had
visions of ransom. His intentions, if not his attitude toward the
prisoner underwent a change--he would investigate further.

"What were you doing poaching in my country?" growled he.

"I was not aware that you owned Africa," replied the Hon. Morison. "I
was searching for a young woman who had been abducted from the home of
a friend. The abductor wounded me and I drifted down river in a
canoe--I was on my back to his camp when your men seized me."

"A young woman?" asked The Sheik. "Is that she?" and he pointed to his
left over toward a clump of bushes near the stockade.

Baynes looked in the direction indicated and his eyes went wide, for
there, sitting cross-legged upon the ground, her back toward them, was
Meriem.

"Meriem!" he shouted, starting toward her; but one of his guards
grasped his arm and jerked him back. The girl leaped to her feet and
turned toward him as she heard her name.

"Morison!" she cried.

"Be still, and stay where you are," snapped The Sheik, and then to
Baynes. "So you are the dog of a Christian who stole my daughter from
me?"

"Your daughter?" ejaculated Baynes. "She is your daughter?"

"She is my daughter," growled