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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1917)
THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, JANUARY 21, 1917 brow. Meriem glanced toward him. "Ton f are warm," she said. "Now that the sun " -Is setting I find it quite cool. Why do " you perspire now?" rT. He had not intended to let her know , that he had seen her with the baboons; but suddenly, before he realized what he was saying, he had blurted it out., " r ' 4,1 Prspire from emotion," he said. "I went into the jungle when I discovered your pony. I wanted to surprise you; but It 'was I who was surprised. I saw - you m the trees with the baboons." -"Yes?" she said, quite unemotionally, " . though it was" a matter of little mo- xnent that a young girl should be upon Intimate terms with savage jungle ; , beasts. ... 1 was horrible!" ejaculated the Hon. Mori son. - "Horrible?" repeated Meriem, pucker- - , lng her brows in bewilderment. "What ' was horrible about it? They are my "7 friends. Is it horrible to talk with one's friends?" "You were really talking with them. then?" cried the Hon. Morison. "You un , derstood them, and they understood you?" . "Certainly." fl' "But they are hideous creatures de- ' graded beasts of a lower order! How could you speak thejlanguage of beasts?" "They are not hideous or degraded." replied Meriem warmly. "Friends are never that. I lived among them for years before Bwana found me and brought me here. I scarce knew any other tongue than that of the Manganl. Should I refuse to know them now sim- ' 7 ply because I happen, for the present, to 'e t live among humans?" ' "For the P5811!" ejaculated the Hon. . Morison. "You cannot mean that you expect to return to live among them? Come, come, what foolishness are we . ; talking? The very idea! You are spoof ing; me. Miss Meriem. You haTe been kind to these baboons here and they r know, you and do not molest you; but that you once lived among them no, t that is preposterous!" "But I did, though," insisted the girl, seeing the real horror that the man felt in the presence of such an idea reflected in his tone and manner, and rather en joying baiting him still further. "Yes, I lived, almost naked, among the ; great apes and the lesser apes. I dwelt H among the branches of the trees. I pounced upon the smaller prey and de voured it raw. With Korak and A'ht I hunted the antelope and the boar, and I '''' . sat upon a tree limb and made faces at Numa, the lion, and threw sticks at him .and annoyed him until he roared so ter ribly in his rage that the earth shook. - "And Korak built me a lair high among the branches of a mighty tree. He brought me fruits and flesh. He fought for me and was kind, to me until i" I came to Bwana and My Dear I do not recall that any other than Korak was V ' - ever kind to me." t 1 There was a wistful note in the girl's voice now, and she had forgotten that - . she was bantering the Hon. Morison. She was thinking of Korak." She had not thought of him a great deal of late. :- ' . ORa time both were silently absorbed T- - T to their own reflections as they rode - on toward the bungalow of their host. The V- , was thinking of a J4megure,-a VJ- 1 leopard skin half concealing his smooth, brown hide as he leaped nimbly through', the trees to lay an offering of food be- : fore her on his return from a successful t hunt. Behind him, shaggy and powerful swung a'hanlbroidiCwhUe,!,-.: ' - Meriem, laughing and shouting her wel-a"- come, swung upon a swaying limb, before the entrance to her sylvan bower. . It was a pretty picture is she recalled - - It The other side seldom obtruded itself - - upon her memory the long, black nights; ' - . the chill, terrible jungle nights; the 'cold and damp and discomfort . of the , rainy season; the hideous mouthlngs of ... the,; savage carnlvora as ' they prowled through the Stygian darkness beneath; , the constant menace of Sheets, the panther, and Hista, the snake; the sting ing insects, the loathsome vermin. For, in truth, all these had been outweighed by the happiness of the sunny days, the freedom of it all, and, most, the compan ionship of Korak. The man's thoughts were rather jum bled. He had suddenly realized that he had come mighty near falling in love with this girt of whom he had known nothing up to the previous moment when she had voluntarily revealed a portion of her past to him. The more he thought upon the matter the more evident it be came to him that he had given her his love that he had been upon the verge of offering her his honorable name. He trembled a little at the narrowness of his escape. Yet he still loved her. There" was no objection to that, accord ing to the ethics of the Hon. Morison Baynes and his kind. She was of meaner clay than he. He could no more have taken her in marriage than he could have taken one of her baboon friends, nor would she, of course, expect such an offer from him. To have his love would be sufficient honor for her his name he would, naturally, bestow upon one in his own elevated social sphere. A GIRL, who had consorted with apes, who, according to her own admission, had lived almost naked among them, could have no considerable sense of the finer quaUties of virtue. The love that he would offer her, then, would, far from offending her. probably cover all that she might desire or expect. The more the Hon. Morison Baynes thought upon the subject the more fully convinced he became that he was con templating a most chivalrous and unself ish act. Europeans will better under stand this point of view than Americans poor, benighted- provincials, who are denied a true appreciation of caste and of the fact that "the king can do no wrong." He did not even have to argue the point that she would be much happier amid the luxuries of a London apart ment, fortified as she would be by both his love and his bank account, than law fully wed to such, a one as her social po sition warranted. There was one ques tion, however, which he wished o have definitely answered before he committed himself even to the program he was con sidering. "Who were Korak and A'ht?" he asked. "A'ht was a Mangani," replied. Me riem, "and Korak a Tarmangani." "And what, pray, might a Mangani be? and a Tarmangani V The girl laughed. "You are a Tarmangani." she replied. "The Mangani are covered with hair you would call them apes." "Then Korak was a white man?" he asked. . "Yes." ' "An. he "was ah your r your He paused, for he found it ratherdlffl cult to go on with that line of question ing while the tfrt', dear, beautiful eyes were looking straight Into his. "My what?" Insisted Meriem, far too unsophisticated, in her unspoiled - inno ? cence tor guess what the Hon., Morison was driving at. ; Why-ah-yur brother?" he stum-" ;bied.';- . "No, Korak was not my brothejy" she repuea. . - .. "Washe your husband, then?"- be finally blurted;- ' -r .':.. . '-J-9?; f?ni;aki offense, Meriem broke into a merry laugh. : i " . - .' My husband!" she cried. - "Why, how old do. yotf think t arn? I am too young, to have a husband. I had never thought of such. a. thing, v Korak was why- and now she hesitated, too; -for she never before had attempted to analyze the re lationship that existed, between herself and Korak.t'Why. Korak was just Kol : rak," and again she . broke Into a-gay laugh as she realized the illuminating quality of her description. Looking at her and listening to her. the man beside her could not believe that depravity of any sort or degree entered into the girl's nature, yet he wanted to believe that she had not been virtuous, for the Hon. Morison was not entirely without conscience. -or several days the Hon. Morison made no appreciable progress toward the consummation of his scheme. Some times he almost abandoned it, for he found himself time and again wondering how slight might be the provocation necessary to trick him Into making a bona fide offer of marriage to Meriem if he permitted himself to fall more deeply in love with her, and it was difficult to see her daily and not love her. There was a quality about her which, all un known to the Hon. Morison, was making his task an extremely difficult one it was that quality of innate goodness and cleanness which is a good girl's stoutest bulwark and protection an impregnable barrier that only degeneracy has the ef frontery to assail. The Hon. Morison Baynes would never be considered a degenerate. He was sitting with Meriem upon the veranda one evening after the others had retired. Earlier they had been playing tennis a game in which the Hon. Mori son shone to advantage, as, in truth, he did in most all manly sports. He was telling her stories of London and Paris, of balls and banquets, of the wonderful women and their wonderful gowns, of the pleasures and pastimes of the rich and powerful. The Hon. Morison was past master in the art of insidious boasting. His egotism was never flagrant or tiresome he was never crude in it, for crudeness was a plebeianism that the Hon. Morison studiously avoided; yet the impression derived by a listener to the Hon. Morison was one that was not at all calculated to detract from the glory of the house of Baynes. or from that of its representa tive here present. Meriem was entranced. His tales were like fairy stories to this little Jun gle maid. The Hon. Morison loomed large and wonderful and magnificent in her mind's eye. He fascinated her. and when he drew closer to her after a short si lence and took her hand she thrilled as one might thrill beneath the touch of a deity a thrill of exaltation not unmixed with fear. He bent his lips close to her ear. "Meriem!" he whispered. "My little Meriem! May I hope to have the right to call you 'my little Meriem'?" - The girl turned wide eyes upward to his face; but it was in shadow. She trembled, but she did not draw awrfy. The man pu an arm about her and drew her closer. "I love you!" he whispered.' SHE did not reply. She did not know ' what to say. She knew nothing of love. She had never given it a thought; but she did know that it was very nice to be loved, whatever it meant. It was nice to have people Vind to one. She bad known so little of kindness or affection, Tell me,"; he said, "that you return my love." His lips came steadily closer to hers. They had almost touched when a vision -of Korak- sprang like a miracle before her eyea She saw Korak face close to hers, she felt his lips hot against her lips, - and then for the first time she guessed what love meant. She drew away, gently. v-tvkn- said,' that I iove , yolJti VM .vtlyrThen' Lr plenty of time. I am too young to marry yet, and I am. not sure that I should be happy in . London or Paris-they rather frighten . me." . t 7 How easily and naturally she had : connected his avowal of love with the idea' of marriage! The Hon. Morison was :r perfectly sure that 'he had not mentioned ' carriage he had been particularly care- I - ful not to do so. - v ". And then, she was not sure that she loved him! That. too. came rather in the nature of a shock to his vanity. It seemed incredible that this little barba. rian should have any doubt whatever as to the desirability cf the Hon. Morison Baynes. The first flush of passion cooled, the Hon. Morison was enabled to reason more logically. The start had been all wrong. It would be better now to wait and prepare her mind gradually for the only proposition which his exalted estate would permit him to offer her. He would go slow. He glanced down at the girl's profile. It was bathed In the silvery light of the great tropio moon. The Hon. Morison Baynes wondered If It were to be so easy a matter to "go alow." She was most alluring. Meriem rose. The vision Of Korak was still before her. "Good night," she said. "It is almost too beautiful to leave." She waved her hand in a comprehensive gesture which took in the starry heavens, the great moon, the broad, silvered plain, and the dense shadows in the distance that marked the jungle. "Oh, how I love It!" "You would love London more." he said earnestly. "And London would love you. You would be a famous beauty in any capital of Europe. You would have the world at your feet, Meriem." "Good night!" she repeated, and left him. The Hon. Morison selected a cigaret from" his crested case, lighted it. blew a thin line of blue smoke toward the moon, and smiled. CHAPTER XIX. A Night Ride. MKRIEM and Bwana were sitting on the veranda together the following day when a horseman appeared in the distance riding across the plain toward the bungalow. Bwana shaded his eyes with his hand and gazed out toward the oncoming rider. He was puzzled. Strangers were few In central Africa. Even the blacks for a distance of many miles in every di rection were well known to him. No white man came within a hundred miles that word of his coming did not reach Bwana long before the stranger. Hi, every move was reported to the big Bwana-Just what animals he killed and how many of each species; how he killed them, too, for Bwana would not permit the use of prussic acid or strychnin; and how he treated his "boys." . Several European sportsmen had been turned back to the coast by the big Eng lishman's orders because of unwarranted cruelty to their black followers, and one, whose name had long been heralded In civilized communities as that of a great sportsman, was driven from Africa with JtT ntrtr to "t when Bwana round that his bag of fourteen Hons had been mad, hy ih9 dlUrent of bait. ; The result Was that all good sports- men and all the native, loved and re spected him. His word was law wh there had never been law before.- There was scare, a headman from coast J coast who would not heed the big Wa In preference to andLH htiJ,teM Wh tbn! and ,t was easy to turn back any uxJ thjreaten to order hi. boy, to JL ' But hero" was evidently one who had pipped into the country unheralded! Bwana could not imagine who the ap proaching horseman might be. ? ;?f mnnw-of roner hospital ity the globe round, he met the newcom er at the gate, welcoming him even be fore he had dismounted. He saw a talL well-knit, man of M or mora, blond of - hair and smooth shaven. There was a tantalizing familiarity about him that convinced Bwana that he should be able to cau the visitor by name, yet be was ' unable to do so. " . (To be continued next tctek) rCopyn'rht. 1U, kjr W. C Cbapma.
