Chapter 14
With wide eyes fixed upon him, like a trapped creature horrified
beneath the mesmeric gaze of a great serpent, the girl watched
the approach of the man. Her hands were free, the Swedes having
secured her with a length of ancient slave chain fastened at one
end to an iron collar padlocked about her neck and at the other to
a long stake driven deep into the ground.
Slowly Meriem shrank inch by inch toward the opposite end of
the tent. Malbihn followed her. His hands were extended and his
fingers half-opened--claw-like--to seize her. His lips were parted,
and his breath came quickly, pantingly.
The girl recalled Jenssen's instructions to call him should Malbihn
molest her; but Jenssen had gone into the jungle to hunt. Malbihn
had chosen his time well. Yet she screamed, loud and shrill, once,
twice, a third time, before Malbihn could leap across the tent
and throttle her alarming cries with his brute fingers. Then she
fought him, as any jungle she might fight, with tooth and nail. The
man found her no easy prey. In that slender, young body, beneath
the rounded curves and the fine, soft skin, lay the muscles of
a young lioness. But Malbihn was no weakling. His character and
appearance were brutal, nor did they belie his brawn. He was of
giant stature and of giant strength. Slowly he forced the girl
back upon the ground, striking her in the face when she hurt him
badly either with teeth or nails. Meriem struck back, but she was
growing weaker from the choking fingers at her throat.
Out in the jungle Jenssen had brought down two bucks. His hunting
had not carried him far afield, nor was he prone to permit it
to do so. He was suspicious of Malbihn. The very fact that his
companion had refused to accompany him and elected instead to hunt
alone in another direction would not, under ordinary circumstances,
have seemed fraught with sinister suggestion; but Jenssen knew
Malbihn well, and so, having secured meat, he turned immediately
back toward camp, while his boys brought in his kill.
He had covered about half the return journey when a scream came
faintly to his ears from the direction of camp. He halted to
listen. It was repeated twice. Then silence. With a muttered
curse Jenssen broke into a rapid run. He wondered if he would be
too late. What a fool Malbihn was indeed to thus chance jeopardizing
a fortune!
Further away from camp than Jenssen and upon the opposite side
another heard Meriem's screams--a stranger who was not even aware
of the proximity of white men other than himself--a hunter with a
handful of sleek, black warriors. He, too, listened intently for
a moment. That the voice was that of a woman in distress he could
not doubt, and so he also hastened at a run in the direction of
the affrighted voice; but he was much further away than Jenssen
so that the latter reached the tent first. What the Swede found
there roused no pity within his calloused heart, only anger against
his fellow scoundrel. Meriem was still fighting off her attacker.
Malbihn still was showering blows upon her. Jenssen, streaming foul
curses upon his erstwhile friend, burst into the tent. Malbihn,
interrupted, dropped his victim and turned to meet Jenssen's
infuriated charge. He whipped a revolver from his hip. Jenssen,
anticipating the lightning move of the other's hand, drew almost
simultaneously, and both men fired at once. Jenssen was still
moving toward Malbihn at the time, but at the flash of the explosion
he stopped. His revolver dropped from nerveless fingers. For a
moment he staggered drunkenly. Deliberately Malbihn put two more
bullets into his friend's body at close range. Even in the midst
of the excitement and her terror Meriem found herself wondering at
the tenacity of life which the hit man displayed. His eyes were
closed, his head dropped forward upon his breast, his hands hung
limply before him. Yet still he stood there upon his feet, though
he reeled horribly. It was not until the third bullet had found
its mark within his body that he lunged forward upon his face.
Then Malbihn approached him, and with an oath kicked him viciously.
Then he returned once more to Meriem. Again he seized her, and at
the same instant the flaps of the tent opened silently and a tall
white man stood in the aperture. Neither Meriem or Malbihn saw
the newcomer. The latter's back was toward him while his body hid
the stranger from Meriem's eyes.
He crossed the tent quickly, stepping over Jenssen's body. The
first intimation Malbihn had that he was not to carry out his design
without further interruption was a heavy hand upon his shoulder. He
wheeled to face an utter stranger--a tall, black-haired, gray-eyed
stranger clad in khaki and pith helmet. Malbihn reached for his
gun again, but another hand had been quicker than his and he saw
the weapon tossed to the ground at the side of the tent--out of
reach.
"What is the meaning of this?" the stranger addressed his question
to Meriem in a tongue she did not understand. She shook her head
and spoke in Arabic. Instantly the man changed his question to
that language.
"These men are taking me away from Korak," explained the girl.
"This one would have harmed me. The other, whom he had just killed,
tried to stop him. They were both very bad men; but this one is
the worse. If my Korak were here he would kill him. I suppose
you are like them, so you will not kill him."
The stranger smiled. "He deserves killing?" he said. "There is
no doubt of that. Once I should have killed him; but not now. I
will see, though, that he does not bother you any more."
He was holding Malbihn in a grasp the giant Swede could not break,
though he struggled to do so, and he was holding him as easily as
Malbihn might have held a little child, yet Malbihn was a huge man,
mightily thewed. The Swede began to rage and curse. He struck
at his captor, only to be twisted about and held at arm's length.
Then he shouted to his boys to come and kill the stranger. In
response a dozen strange blacks entered the tent. They, too, were
powerful, clean-limbed men, not at all like the mangy crew that
followed the Swedes.
"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.
"They bought her from old Kovudoo," he said. "That is all that
this fellow will tell me. He pretends that he knows nothing more,
and I guess that he does not. These two white men were very bad
men. They did many things that their boys knew not the meanings
of. It would be well, Bwana, to kill the other."
"I wish that I might; but a new law is come into this part of the
jungle. It is not as it was in the old days, Muviri," replied the
master.
The stranger remained until Malbihn and his safari had disappeared
into the jungle toward the north. Meriem, trustful now, stood
at his side, Geeka clutched in one slim, brown hand. They talked
together, the man wondering at the faltering Arabic of the girl,
but attributing it finally to her defective mentality. Could he
have known that years had elapsed since she had used it until she
was taken by the Swedes he would not have wondered that she had
half forgotten it. There was yet another reason why the language
of The Sheik had thus readily eluded her; but of that reason she
herself could not have guessed the truth any better than could the
man.
He tried to persuade her to return with him to his "village" as he
called it, or douar, in Arabic; but she was insistent upon searching
immediately for Korak. As a last resort he determined to take
her with him by force rather than sacrifice her life to the insane
hallucination which haunted her; but, being a wise man, he determined
to humor her first and then attempt to lead her as he would have
her go. So when they took up their march it was in the direction
of the south, though his own ranch lay almost due east.
By degrees he turned the direction of their way more and more
eastward, and greatly was he pleased to note that the girl failed
to discover that any change was being made. Little by little she
became more trusting. At first she had had but her intuition to
guide her belief that this big Tarmangani meant her no harm, but
as the days passed and she saw that his kindness and consideration
never faltered she came to compare him with Korak, and to be very
fond of him; but never did her loyalty to her apeman flag.
On the fifth day they came suddenly upon a great plain and from
the edge of the forest the girl saw in the distance fenced fields
and many buildings. At the sight she drew back in astonishment.
"Where are we?" she asked, pointing.
"We could not find Korak," replied the man, "and as our way led
near my douar I have brought you here to wait and rest with my wife
until my men can find your ape, or he finds you. It is better thus,
little one. You will be safer with us, and you will be happier."
"I am afraid, Bwana," said the girl. "In thy douar they will beat
me as did The Sheik, my father. Let me go back into the jungle.
There Korak will find me. He would not think to look for me in
the douar of a white man."
"No one will beat you, child," replied the man. "I have not done
so, have I? Well, here all belong to me. They will treat you
well. Here no one is beaten. My wife will be very good to you,
and at last Korak will come, for I shall send men to search for
him."
The girl shook her head. "They could not bring him, for he would
kill them, as all men have tried to kill him. I am afraid. Let
me go, Bwana."
"You do not know the way to your own country. You would be lost.
The leopards or the lions would get you the first night, and after
all you would not find your Korak. It is better that you stay
with us. Did I not save you from the bad man? Do you not owe me
something for that? Well, then remain with us for a few weeks at
least until we can determine what is best for you. You are only
a little girl--it would be wicked to permit you to go alone into
the jungle."
Meriem laughed. "The jungle," she said, "is my father and my
mother. It has been kinder to me than have men. I am not afraid
of the jungle. Nor am I afraid of the leopard or the lion. When
my time comes I shall die. It may be that a leopard or a lion
shall kill me, or it may be a tiny bug no bigger than the end of
my littlest finger. When the lion leaps upon me, or the little bug
stings me I shall be afraid--oh, then I shall be terribly afraid,
I know; but life would be very miserable indeed were I to spend
it in terror of the thing that has not yet happened. If it be the
lion my terror shall be short of life; but if it be the little bug
I may suffer for days before I die. And so I fear the lion least
of all. He is great and noisy. I can hear him, or see him, or
smell him in time to escape; but any moment I may place a hand or
foot on the little bug, and never know that he is there until I
feel his deadly sting. No, I do not fear the jungle. I love it.
I should rather die than leave it forever; but your douar is close
beside the jungle. You have been good to me. I will do as you
wish, and remain here for a while to wait the coming of my Korak."
"Good!" said the man, and he led the way down toward the
flower-covered bungalow behind which lay the barns and out-houses
of a well-ordered African farm.
As they came nearer a dozen dogs ran barking toward them--gaunt
wolf hounds, a huge great Dane, a nimble-footed collie and a number
of yapping, quarrelsome fox terriers. At first their appearance
was savage and unfriendly in the extreme; but once they recognized
the foremost black warriors, and the white man behind them their
attitude underwent a remarkable change. The collie and the fox
terriers became frantic with delirious joy, and while the wolf
hounds and the great Dane were not a whit less delighted at the
return of their master their greetings were of a more dignified
nature. Each in turn sniffed at Meriem who displayed not the
slightest fear of any of them.
The wolf hounds bristled and growled at the scent of wild beasts
that clung to her garment; but when she laid her hand upon their
heads and her soft voice murmured caressingly they half-closed
their eyes, lifting their upper lips in contented canine smiles.
The man was watching them and he too smiled, for it was seldom
that these savage brutes took thus kindly to strangers. It was
as though in some subtile way the girl had breathed a message of
kindred savagery to their savage hearts.
With her slim fingers grasping the collar of a wolf hound upon
either side of her Meriem walked on toward the bungalow upon the
porch of which a woman dressed in white waved a welcome to her
returning lord. There was more fear in the girl's eyes now than
there had been in the presence of strange men or savage beasts.
She hesitated, turning an appealing glance toward the man.
"This is my wife," he said. "She will be glad to welcome you."
The woman came down the path to meet them. The man kissed her, and
turning toward Meriem introduced them, speaking in the Arab tongue
the girl understood.
"This is Meriem, my dear," he said, and he told the story of the
jungle waif in so far as he knew it.
Meriem saw that the woman was beautiful. She saw that sweetness
and goodness were stamped indelibly upon her countenance. She no
longer feared her, and when her brief story had been narrated and
the woman came and put her arms about her and kissed her and called
her "poor little darling" something snapped in Meriem's little heart.
She buried her face on the bosom of this new friend in whose voice
was the mother tone that Meriem had not heard for so many years
that she had forgotten its very existence. She buried her face
on the kindly bosom and wept as she had not wept before in all her
life--tears of relief and joy that she could not fathom.
And so came Meriem, the savage little Mangani, out of her beloved
jungle into the midst of a home of culture and refinement. Already
"Bwana" and "My Dear," as she first heard them called and continued
to call them, were as father and mother to her. Once her savage
fears allayed, she went to the opposite extreme of trustfulness
and love. Now she was willing to wait here until they found Korak,
or Korak found her. She did not give up that thought--Korak, her
Korak always was first.
