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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1917)
4 THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, JANUARY 21, 1917 TAI THE llrHll IT II T m 1 n I.J . I r WAS about this time that a runner brought a letter that, when she learned the con tents, filled Meriem rith excitement. Visitors were com ing! A number of Engu.sn iauies and gentlemen bad ac cepted My Bear's invitation to spend a month of hunting and exploring with them. Meriem was all expectancy. What would these Btrangers "be like? Would they be as nice to her as had Bwana and My Dear, or would they be. like, the other white folk she had known cruel and re lentless? My Dear assured her that they all were gentlefolk, and that she would find them kind, considerate and honor able. To My Dear's surprise there was none of the shyness of the wild creature in Meriem's anticipation of the visit of strangers. She looked forward to their coming with curiosity and with a certain pleas urable anticipation when once she was assured that they would not bite her. In fact, she appeared no different than would any pretty young miss who had learned of the expected coming of com pany: Korak's image was still often in her thoughts, but it aroused now a lei well defined sense of bereavement. A quiet sadness pervaded Meriem when she thought of him, but the poignant grief of her loss when it was .young no longer goaded her to de&pjeratiou. Yet she was still loyal to him. She still hoped that some day he would find her, nor did she doubt for a moment but that he was searching for her if be still lived. It Was this last suggestion that caused )rer the greatest perturbation. Korak might be dead. It hardly seemed possi ble that one so well equipped to meet the emergencies of jungle life should have succumbed so young, yet when she Trad last seen him he had betm beset by a horde of armed warriors; and should he have returned to the village again, as she well knew he must have, he may have been killed. Even her Korak could not single handed slay an entire tribe. AT LAST the visitors arrived. There were three men and two women the wives of the two older men. The yoengl est member of the party was the Hen. Mortson Bnynes, a young man of consid erable, wealth, who, having exhausted all the possibilities for pleasure offered by the capitals of Europe, had gladly seixed upon this opportunity to turn to another continent for excitement and adventure!. He looked upon all things ncn-Euro-pean as rather more or less impossible; . Jttill Via won nnt air arr.n - , ' - ' .-v. ... .i rt fcv, triijKj y Hlg the novelty of unaccustomed places and making the most of strangers indigenous thereto, however unspeakable they might hare seemed to him at hdme. In manner he was scare and courteous to att If possible a trffte more punctilious toward those he considered of meaner clay than toward the few he mentally admitted to equality. - . uivm Lille whb a splen did physique and a handsome face, and also with sufficient good judgment to ap preciate that, whale he night enjoy the contemplation of his superiority to the masses, there was little likelihood of the being; equally entranced by th cause. And so he eas&r main tained the reputation of being a meet deneeratie ajad likable fellowand In deed ke was likanta. Jam sm. ma egotism, was occasionally apparent nev er snfBcJent to becom a trardan to ids By Edgar Rice Burroughs Ithtstratcd by Dorothy Ditlin - And this, briefly, was the Hen, Mori on Bayneo of luxurious European civ ilization. What would be the Hon. Mori son Barnes of central Africa it were diffi cult to guess, Meriem at first was shy and reserved in the presence of the strangers. Her benefactors had seen fit to ignore men tion of her strange past, . and so she passed as their ward, whose antecedents pot having been mentioned were not to bo inquired into. The guests found her sweet and unassuming, laughing, viva cious, and a never-exhausted storehouse of tfuaint and Interesting jungle lore. She had ridden much during her year with Bwana and My "Dear. She knew each favorite clump of concealing reds along the river that the buffalo loved best. She knew a dozen places where lions laired, and every drinking hole in the drier country twenty-five miles back from the river . With unerring precision that was almost uncanny si could track the largest or the smallest beast to his hiding place. But the thing that baffled them all was her instant consciousness of the l-resence of carnivora that others, exert ing their faculties to-the utmost, could neither see nor hear. The lion. Morisen Barnes found Me riem a most beautiful and charming com panion. He was delighted with her fom the first. Particularly so, it is possible because he had not thought to find com panionship of this sort upon th African estate of his London friends; They were together a great deal, as they were the only unmarried coupto hi the little com. Cny. Meriem, entirely unaccustomed to the companknahip ef sorb ax Baynes. was fascinated by him. RIs, tales of the great, gay cities with which he was fa miliar fiTled her with admiration and with wonder. If the Hen. klorison always shone to advantage in these- narratives, Meriem saw in that fact but a natural consequence to Ws-presence upon the scene of his story wherever Morison might be, heimust be a hero. So thought the girl. With the actual presence and com panionship of the young Englishman the image of Korak became less real. "Where before It had been an actuality to her, she now realized that Korak was but a memory. To that memory she still was loyal; but what weight has a memory In ihe presence of a rasematir.g reality? Meriem had never accompanied the r.icn upon a hunt since the arrival of the guests. 'he never had eared particularly for the sport of killing. The tracking she enjoyed: but the mere killing for the sake of killing she could not find pleas ure m little savage she had been, and still to some measure was. When Bwana had gone forth to shoot for meat she had always been his en thusiastic; companion but with th comi ing of the. London guests the hunting-had Tieteriorated Into mere killing. Slaughter the host would not permit: yet the pur pose of the hunts was for heads and skins, and not for foe ' - SO Meriem remained behind and spent her days either with Sly Dew upon the shaded veranda or riding her favorite pony across the plains or to the forest edge Here she would leave him unteth ered white sh discarded nonessential and took to the- trees for the unalloyed pleasures of a return to the wild, free ex istence of her earlier childhood Then would come again visions of Ko rak. and. tired at last of leaping- and swinging through, the trees, she would stretch herself - com forUbry upon- a branch ami dream. And presently, as today bc found the features of Korak slowly dissorrmg ?T merging into those of another; and the figure of a tanned, half naked Tarman- gani became a khaki-clothed and sturdy Englishman astride a hunting pony. And while she dreamed there came to her earn from a distance, faintly, the ter lifled bleating of a kid. Meriem was In stantly alert. You or I. even had we been able to hear the, pitiful wall at so great a distance, could not have inter preted It; but to Meriem it meant a spe cies of terror that afflicts the ruminant when a carnivore is near and escape im possibld. It had been both a pleasure and a sport of Korak's to rob Numa of his prey whenever possible, and Meriem, too, had often joyed in the thrill of snatching some dainty morsel almost from the very jaws ef the king of beasts. Now, at the sound of the kid's bleat, ail the well-remerabered thrills recurred. Instantly she was all excitement to play again the game of hide-and-seek with death. Already she had discarded her riding skirt it was a heavy handicap to suc cessful travel hi the trees. Her boots itnd stockings had followed the skirt, for the bore sole of the human foot does not slip upon dry or even wet bark as does the hard leather of a boot. ' SHE would have liked to discard her riding breeches as well, but a year of motherly admonitions on the part of My Dear had almost convinced Meriem that it was not good form to go naked through the world. At her hip hung a hunting knife. Her rifle was still in Its hoot at her pony's withers. ITer revolver she had not brought- The kid was still bleutieg as Meriem started rapidly iu its direction, which she knew was straight toward a certain wa- 'ter-hole which had once been famous as a rendezvous for lions. Of late there had been no evidences of carnivora in the neighborhood of this drinking place; but Meriem was positive that th bleating of the kid was due to the presence of either a lion or a panther. But she would soon know, for she was rapidly approaching the terrified animal. xHhe wondered' as she hastened onward that the sounds ecntimied to come from the same point. Why did the kkl not run away? And then she came In sight of the lit tle animal, and knew. The kid was teth ered to a stake beside the water-hole Meriem paused in the branches of a near-by tree and scanned the surround ing clearing with orttk. penetrating eyes. Where was the hunter? Bwana and his people did not hunt thus. Who could have tethered this poor little beast as a lure to Numa? Bwana rever counte nanced such acts in his country, and his word was law among those who hunted within a radius of many miles of his es tate. Some wandering savages, doubtless, thought Meriem: but where were they? Not even her keen eyes could discover them. And where was Numa? Why had he not long sinee sprung upon this deli cious and defenseless morsel? That he was dose by was attested by the pitiful crying of the kid. Ah! Now she saw him. He was lying close In a champ of brush a few yards to her right. The kid was down wind from him and getting the fhir benefit of his terrorizing- scent, which did not reach Meriem. To circle to the opposite side of the clearing where the trees approached closer to the kid, to leap eufekry to the little animal's aide and est the tether that held him would be the. work of but a moment. In that moment Numa might charge, and then there would be time to regain the safety of the yet It might be done. Meriem had es caped from closer quarters than that many times before. The doubt that gave her momentary I a use was caused by fear of the unseen hunters more than by fear of Numa. If they were stranger blacks, the spears that they held in readiness for Numa might as readily be loosed upon whoever dared release their bait as upon the prey they sought thus to trap. ' Again the kid struggled to be free. Again his piteous wail touched the ten der heartstrings of the girl. Tossing dis cretion aside, she commenced to circle the clearing. Only from Numa did she attempt to conceal her presence. At last she reached the opposite trees. An instant she paused to lock toward the great lion, and at the same moment she saw the huge beast rise slowly to his full height. A low roar betokened that he was ready. Meriem loosened her knife and leaped to the ground. A quick run brought her to the side of the kid. Numa. saw her. He lashed his tail against his tawny sides. .He roared terribly; but for an In stant he remained where he stood sur prised Into Inaction, doubtless, by the strange apparition that had sprung so unexpectedly from the Jungle. Other eyes were upon Meriem, too eyes in which were no less surprise than that reflected in the yellow-green orbs of the carnivore. A white man, hiding in a thorn bo ma, half rose as the young gfrl leaped into the clearing and dashed toward the kid. He saw Numa hesitate. He raised his rifle and covered the beast' breast. The girl reached the kid's side. Her knife flashed, and the little prisoner was free. With a porting bleat it dashed ofT Into the jungle. Then the girl turned to retreat toward the safety 'of the tree from which she had dropped so suddenly and unexpect edly mto the surprised view of the lion, the kid and the strange white man. As she turned the girl's face was turned toward the hunter. His eyes went wide as he saw her features. He gave a little gasp of surprise; but now the lion demanded alt his attention-the baffled, angry beast was charging. His breast was still covered by the motionless rifle The man could have fired and stopped the charge at once; but for some reason, since he had seen the giiTs face, be hesitated. Could It be that he did not care to save her? Or did he prefer, If possible, to remain unseen by her? It must have been tho latter cause Mhich kept the trigger-finger of the steady hand from exerting the little pres sure that would have brought the great beast at least to a temporary pause. Like an eagle tho man watched the race for life the girl was making. A sec ond or two measured the time which the whole exciting event consumed from the moment that the lion broke into his charge,- Nor once did the rifle sights fail to cover the broad breast or the tawny side as the lion's course took him a little to the man's left. Once, at the very last moment, when escape seemed impossible, the hunter's finger tightened ever so little upon tne trigger; but almost eoincidentally the girl leaped for an overhanging branch-but the Hon leaped, toof ' CHAPTER XVIIL The Hee. MeHsee. BUT the mmUe Meriem had swusg herself beyond the Ilea's reach wfth out a second or aa inch, to rpere. . ! The man breathed a sigh of relief as he lowered his rifle. He saw the girl fUag a grimace at the angry, roaring; nina eaber beneath her, and then, laughing; speed away into the forest, Fsr. an hour the ties, remained about the water hefe. A hwndred times eouM the b safer have bagged his prey. Why dM h fait tn do
