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