United States or Denmark ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Histah, the snake, had doubtless coiled his slimy folds about some careless Manu. The youth hastened ahead. The monkeys were Meriem's friends. He would help them if he could. He traveled rapidly along the middle terrace. In the tree by Meriem's shelter he deposited his trophies of the hunt and called aloud to her. There was no answer. He dropped quickly to a lower level.
Raising his voice he now hummed the tune. Immediately he heard Meriem's voice from the tent. She spoke rapidly. "Good bye, Morison," she cried. "If God is good I shall be dead before morning, for if I still live I shall be worse than dead after tonight." Then he heard an angry exclamation in a man's voice, followed by the sounds of a scuffle. Baynes went white with horror.
It was several weary marches to the nearest mission; but they only waited at the farm a few days for rest and preparation for the great event before setting out upon the journey, and after the marriage ceremony had been performed they kept on to the coast to take passage for England. Those days were the most wonderful of Meriem's life.
Baynes had found Meriem's hand and was pressing it as he poured words of love into her ear, and Meriem was listening. "Come to London with me," urged the Hon. Morison. "I can gather a safari and we can be a whole day upon the way to the coast before they guess that we have gone." "Why must we go that way?" asked the girl. "Bwana and My Dear would not object to our marriage."
A moment later there came to him a woman's voice in reply it was Meriem's, and The Killer, quickened into action, slunk rapidly in the direction of these two voices. The evening meal over Meriem had gone to her pallet in the women's quarters of The Sheik's tent, a little corner screened off in the rear by a couple of priceless Persian rugs to form a partition.
He struggled frantically again with his bonds. They were giving. A moment later one hand was free. It was but the work of an instant then to loose the other. Stooping, he untied the rope from his ankles, then he straightened and started for the hut doorway bent on reaching Meriem's side. As he stepped out into the night the figure of a huge black rose and barred his progress.
When he was cold in the dark days of rain, or thirsty in a prolonged drouth, his discomfort engendered first of all thoughts of Meriem's welfare after she had been made warm, after her thirst had been slaked, then he turned to the affair of ministering to his own wants. The softest skins fell gracefully from the graceful shoulders of his Meriem.
Morison Baynes slid to the ground inside the palisade to Meriem's side. "It was only for you that I left him," he said, nodding toward the tents they had just left. "I knew that he could hold them longer than I and give you a chance to escape that I might not be able to have given you. It was I though who should have remained. I heard you call him Korak and so I know now who he is.
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 relentless. My Dear assured her that they all were gentle folk and that she would find them kind, considerate and honorable. To My Dear's surprise there was none of the shyness of the wild creature in Meriem's anticipation of the visit of strangers.
A clenched fist flew before Meriem's eyes to land full upon the snout of the astonished Akut. With an explosive bellow the anthropoid reeled backward and tumbled from the tree. Korak stood glaring down upon him when a sudden swish in the bushes close by attracted his attention. The girl too was looking down; but she saw nothing but the angry ape scrambling to his feet.
Word Of The Day