Part 23

“We have had enough foolishness,” said the stranger to Malbihn. “You deserve death, but I am not the law. I know now who you are. I have heard of you before. You and your friend here bear a most unsavory reputation. We do not want you in our country. I shall let you go this time; but should you ever return I shall take the law into my own hands. You understand?”

Malbihn blustered and threatened, finishing by applying a most uncomplimentary name to his captor. For this he received a shaking that rattled his teeth. Those who know say that the most painful punishment that can be inflicted upon an adult male, short of injuring him, is a good, old fashioned shaking. Malbihn received such a shaking.

“Now get out,” said the stranger, “and next time you see me remember who I am,” and he spoke a name in the Swede’s ear—a name that more effectually subdued the scoundrel than many beatings—then he gave him a push that carried him bodily through the tent doorway to sprawl upon the turf beyond.

“Now,” he said, turning toward Meriem, “who has the key to this thing about your neck?”

The girl pointed to Jenssen’s body. “He carried it always,” she said.

The stranger searched the clothing on the corpse until he came upon the key. A moment more Meriem was free.

“Will you let me go back to my Korak?” she asked.

“I will see that you are returned to your people,” he replied. “Who are they and where is their village?”

He had been eyeing her strange, barbaric garmenture wonderingly. From her speech she was evidently an Arab girl; but he had never before seen one thus clothed.

“Who are your people? Who is Korak?” he asked again.

“Korak! Why Korak is an ape. I have no other people. Korak and I live in the jungle alone since A’ht went to be king of the apes.” She had always thus pronounced Akut’s name, for so it had sounded to her when first she came with Korak and the ape. “Korak could have been kind, but he would not.”

A questioning expression entered the stranger’s eyes. He looked at the girl closely.

“So Korak is an ape?” he said. “And what, pray, are you?”

“I am Meriem. I, also, am an ape.”

“M-m,” was the stranger’s only oral comment upon this startling announcement; but what he thought might have been partially interpreted through the pitying light that entered his eyes. He approached the girl and started to lay his hand upon her forehead. She drew back with a savage little growl. A smile touched his lips.

“You need not fear me,” he said. “I shall not harm you. I only wish to discover if you have fever—if you are entirely well. If you are we will set forth in search of Korak.”

Meriem looked straight into the keen gray eyes. She must have found there an unquestionable assurance of the honorableness of their owner, for she permitted him to lay his palm upon her forehead and feel her pulse. Apparently she had no fever.

“How long have you been an ape?” asked the man.

“Since I was a little girl, many, many years ago, and Korak came and took me from my father who was beating me. Since then I have lived in the trees with Korak and A’ht.”

“Where in the jungle lives Korak?” asked the stranger.

Meriem pointed with a sweep of her hand that took in, generously, half the continent of Africa.

“Could you find your way back to him?”

“I do not know,” she replied; “but he will find his way to me.”

“Then I have a plan,” said the stranger. “I live but a few marches from here. I shall take you home where my wife will look after you and care for you until we can find Korak or Korak finds us. If he could find you here he can find you at my village. Is it not so?”

Meriem thought that it was so; but she did not like the idea of not starting immediately back to meet Korak. On the other hand the man had no intention of permitting this poor, insane child to wander further amidst the dangers of the jungle. From whence she had come, or what she had undergone he could not guess, but that her Korak and their life among the apes was but a figment of a disordered mind he could not doubt. He knew the jungle well, and he knew that men have lived alone and naked among the savage beasts for years; but a frail and slender girl! No, it was not possible.

Together they went outside. Malbihn’s boys were striking camp in preparation for a hasty departure. The stranger’s blacks were conversing with them. Malbihn stood at a distance, angry and glowering. The stranger approached one of his own men.

“Find out where they got this girl,” he commanded.

The Negro thus addressed questioned one of Malbihn’s followers. Presently he returned to his master.