It was an unhappy Korak who wandered aimlessly through thejungle the day following his inhospitable reception by thegreat apes. His heart was heavy from disappointment. Unsatisfied vengeance smoldered in his breast. He looked withhatred upon the denizens of his jungle world, bearing his fightingfangs and growling at those that came within radius of his senses. The mark of his father's early life was strong upon him and enhancedby months of association with beasts, from whom the imitativefaculty of youth had absorbed a countless number of littlemannerisms of the predatory creatures of the wild.

He bared his fangs now as naturally and upon as slightprovocation as Sheeta, the panther, bared his. He growled asferociously as Akut himself. When he came suddenly upon anotherbeast his quick crouch bore a strange resemblance to the archingof a cat's back. Korak, the killer, was looking for trouble.In his heart of hearts he hoped to meet the king ape who haddriven him from the amphitheater. To this end he insisted uponremaining in the vicinity; but the exigencies of the perpetualsearch for food led them several miles further away during day.

They were moving slowly down wind, and warily because theadvantage was with whatever beast might chance to be huntingahead of them, where their scent-spoor was being borne by thelight breeze. Suddenly the two halted simultaneously. Two headswere cocked upon one side. Like creatures hewn from solid rockthey stood immovable, listening. Not a muscle quivered. For several seconds they remained thus, then Korak advancedcautiously a few yards and leaped nimbly into a tree. Akut followedclose upon his heels. Neither had made a noise that would havebeen appreciable to human ears at a dozen paces.

Stopping often to listen they crept forward through the trees.That both were greatly puzzled was apparent from the questioninglooks they cast at one another from time to time. Finally thelad caught a glimpse of a palisade a hundred yards ahead, andbeyond it the tops of some goatskin tents and a number ofthatched huts. His lip upcurled in a savage snarl. Blacks! How he hated them. He signed to Akut to remain where he waswhile he advanced to reconnoiter.

Woe betide the unfortunate villager whom The Killer cameupon now. Slinking through the lower branches of the trees,leaping lightly from one jungle giant to its neighbor where thedistance was not too great, or swinging from one hand hold toanother Korak came silently toward the village. He heard a voicebeyond the palisade and toward that he made his way. A greattree overhung the enclosure at the very point from which thevoice came. Into this Korak crept. His spear was ready inhis hand. His ears told him of the proximity of a human being. All that his eyes required was a single glance to show him his target.Then, lightning like, the missile would fly to its goal. With raisedspear he crept among the branches of the tree glaring narrowlydownward in search of the owner of the voice which rose to himfrom below.

At last he saw a human back. The spear hand flew to the limitof the throwing position to gather the force that would sendthe iron shod missile completely through the body of theunconscious victim. And then The Killer paused. He leaned forwarda little to get a better view of the target. Was it to insure moreperfect aim, or had there been that in the graceful lines and thechildish curves of the little body below him that had held incheck the spirit of murder running riot in his veins?

He lowered his spear cautiously that it might make no noiseby scraping against foliage or branches. Quietly he crouched ina comfortable position along a great limb and there he lay withwide eyes looking down in wonder upon the creature he had creptupon to kill--looking down upon a little girl, a little nutbrown maiden. The snarl had gone from his lip. His onlyexpression was one of interested attention--he was trying todiscover what the girl was doing. Suddenly a broad grin overspreadhis face, for a turn of the girl's body had revealed Geeka of theivory head and the rat skin torso--Geeka of the splinter limbs andthe disreputable appearance. The little girl raised the marredface to hers and rocking herself backward and forward crooneda plaintive Arab lullaby to the doll. A softer light entered theeyes of The Killer. For a long hour that passed very quickly tohim Korak lay with gaze riveted upon the playing child. Not oncehad he had a view of the girl's full face. For the most part hesaw only a mass of wavy, black hair, one brown little shoulderexposed upon the side from where her single robe was caughtbeneath her arm, and a shapely knee protruding from beneathher garment as she sat cross legged upon the ground. A tilt ofthe head as she emphasized some maternal admonition to thepassive Geeka revealed occasionally a rounded cheek or a piquantlittle chin. Now she was shaking a slim finger at Geeka,reprovingly, and again she crushed to her heart this onlyobject upon which she might lavish the untold wealth of herchildish affections.

Korak, momentarily forgetful of his bloody mission, permittedthe fingers of his spear hand to relax a little their grasp uponthe shaft of his formidable weapon. It slipped, almost falling;but the occurrence recalled The Killer to himself. It reminded himof his purpose in slinking stealthily upon the owner of the voicethat had attracted his vengeful attention. He glanced at the spear,with its well-worn grip and cruel, barbed head. Then he let hiseyes wander again to the dainty form below him. In imaginationhe saw the heavy weapon shooting downward. He saw it pierce thetender flesh, driving its way deep into the yielding body. He sawthe ridiculous doll drop from its owner's arms to lie sprawledand pathetic beside the quivering body of the little girl. The Killer shuddered, scowling at the inanimate iron andwood of the spear as though they constituted a sentient beingendowed with a malignant mind.

Korak wondered what the girl would do were he to drop suddenlyfrom the tree to her side. Most likely she would screamand run away. Then would come the men of the village withspears and guns and set upon him. They would either kill himor drive him away. A lump rose in the boy's throat. He cravedthe companionship of his own kind, though he scarce realizedhow greatly. He would have liked to slip down beside the littlegirl and talk with her, though he knew from the words he hadoverheard that she spoke a language with which he was unfamiliar. They could have talked by signs a little. That would havebeen better than nothing. Too, he would have been glad to seeher face. What he had glimpsed assured him that she was pretty;but her strongest appeal to him lay in the affectionate naturerevealed by her gentle mothering of the grotesque doll.

At last he hit upon a plan. He would attract her attention,and reassure her by a smiling greeting from a greater distance. Silently he wormed his way back into the tree. It was hisintention to hail her from beyond the palisade, giving herthe feeling of security which he imagined the stout barricadewould afford.

He had scarcely left his position in the tree when his attentionwas attracted by a considerable noise upon the opposite side ofthe village. By moving a little he could see the gate at the farend of the main street. A number of men, women and childrenwere running toward it. It swung open, revealing the head of acaravan upon the opposite side. In trooped the motley organization--black slaves and dark hued Arabs of the northern deserts; cursingcamel drivers urging on their vicious charges; overburdeneddonkeys, waving sadly pendulous ears while they endured withstoic patience the brutalities of their masters; goats, sheepand horses. Into the village they all trooped behind a tall,sour, old man, who rode without greetings to those who shrunkfrom his path directly to a large goatskin tent in the center ofthe village. Here he spoke to a wrinkled hag.

Korak, from his vantage spot, could see it all. He saw the oldman asking questions of the black woman, and then he saw thelatter point toward a secluded corner of the village which washidden from the main street by the tents of the Arabs and thehuts of the natives in the direction of the tree beneath which thelittle girl played. This was doubtless her father, thought Korak.He had been away and his first thought upon returning was ofhis little daughter. How glad she would be to see him! How shewould run and throw herself into his arms, to be crushed to hisbreast and covered with his kisses. Korak sighed. He thought ofhis own father and mother far away in london.

He returned to his place in the tree above the girl. If hecouldn't have happiness of this sort himself he wanted to enjoythe happiness of others. Possibly if he made himself known tothe old man he might be permitted to come to the village occasionallyas a friend. It would be worth trying. He would wait until theold Arab had greeted his daughter, then he would make hispresence known with signs of peace.

The Arab was striding softly toward the girl. In a moment hewould be beside her, and then how surprised and delighted shewould be! Korak's eyes sparkled in anticipation--and now theold man stood behind the little girl. His stern old face wasstill unrelaxed. The child was yet unconscious of his presence. She prattled on to the unresponsive Geeka. Then the old man coughed. With a start the child glanced quickly up over her shoulder. Korak could see her full face now. It was very beautiful in itssweet and innocent childishness--all soft and lovely curves. He could see her great, dark eyes. He looked for the happy lovelight that would follow recognition; but it did not come. Instead, terror, stark, paralyzing terror, was mirrored inher eyes, in the expression of her mouth, in the tense, coweringattitude of her body. A grim smile curved the thin, cruel lip ofthe Arab. The child essayed to crawl away; but before she couldget out of his reach the old man kicked her brutally, sending hersprawling upon the grass. Then he followed her up to seize andstrike her as was his custom.

Above them, in the tree, a beast crouched where a momentbefore had been a boy--a beast with dilating nostrils and baredfangs--a beast that trembled with rage.

The Sheik was stooping to reach for the girl when The Killerdropped to the ground at his side. His spear was still in his lefthand but he had forgotten it. Instead his right fist was clenchedand as The Sheik took a backward step, astonished by the sudden materialization of this strangeapparition apparently out ofclear air, the heavy fist landed full upon his mouth backed bythe weight of the young giant and the terrific power of his morethan human muscles.

Bleeding and senseless The Sheik sank to earth. Korak turnedtoward the child. She had regained her feet and stood wide eyedand frightened, looking first into his face and then, horror struck,at the recumbent figure of The Sheik. In an involuntary gestureof protection The Killer threw an arm about the girl's shouldersand stood waiting for the Arab to regain consciousness. For amoment they remained thus, when the girl spoke.

"When he regains his senses he will kill me," she said, in Arabic.

Korak could not understand her. He shook his head, speakingto her first in English and then in the language of the great apes;but neither of these was intelligible to her. She leaned forwardand touched the hilt of the long knife that the Arab wore. Then sheraised her clasped hand above her head and drove an imaginary bladeinto her breast above her heart. Korak understood. The old manwould kill her. The girl came to his side again and stoodthere trembling. She did not fear him. Why should she?He had saved her from a terrible beating at the hands ofThe Sheik. Never, in her memory, had another so befriended her.She looked up into his face. It was a boyish, handsome face,nut-brown like her own. She admired the spotted leopard skinthat circled his lithe body from one shoulder to his knees. The metal anklets and armlets adorning him aroused her envy.Always had she coveted something of the kind; but never had TheSheik permitted her more than the single cotton garment thatbarely sufficed to cover her nakedness. No furs or silks orjewelry had there ever been for little Meriem.

And Korak looked at the girl. He had always held girls in aspecies of contempt. Boys who associated with them were, inhis estimation, mollycoddles. He wondered what he should do.Could he leave her here to be abused, possibly murdered, bythe villainous old Arab? No! But, on the other hand, could hetake her into the jungle with him? What could he accomplishburdened by a weak and frightened girl? She would scream ather own shadow when the moon came out upon the jungle nightand the great beasts roamed, moaning and roaring, throughthe darkness.

He stood for several minutes buried in thought. The girlwatched his face, wondering what was passing in his mind. She, too, was thinking of the future. She feared to remainand suffer the vengeance of The Sheik. There was no one inall the world to whom she might turn, other than this half-nakedstranger who had dropped miraculously from the clouds to saveher from one of The Sheik's accustomed beatings. Would her newfriend leave her now? Wistfully she gazed at his intent face. She moved a little closer to him, laying a slim, brown hand uponhis arm. The contact awakened the lad from his absorption. He looked down at her, and then his arm went about her shoulderonce more, for he saw tears upon her lashes.

"Come," he said. "The jungle is kinder than man. You shalllive in the jungle and Korak and Akut will protect you."

She did not understand his words, but the pressure of his armdrawing her away from the prostrate Arab and the tents wasquite intelligible. One little arm crept about his waist andtogether they walked toward the palisade. Beneath the great treethat had harbored Korak while he watched the girl at play helifted her in his arms and throwing her lightly across hisshoulder leaped nimbly into the lower branches. Her arms wereabout his neck and from one little hand Geeka dangled down hisstraight youngback.

And so Meriem entered the jungle with Korak, trusting, inher childish innocence, the stranger who had befriended her,and perhaps influenced in her belief in him by that strangeintuitive power possessed by woman. She had no conception ofwhat the future might hold. She did not know, nor could shehave guessed the manner of life led by her protector. Possibly shepictured a distant village similar to that of The Sheik in whichlived other white men like the stranger. That she was to betaken into the savage, primeval life of a jungle beast couldnot have occurred to her. Had it, her little heart would havepalpitated with fear. Often had she wished to run away from thecruelties of The Sheik and Mabunu; but the dangers of the junglealways had deterred her.

The two had gone but a short distance from the village whenthe girl spied the huge proportions of the great Akut. With ahalf-stifled scream she clung more closely to Korak, and pointedfearfully toward the ape.

Akut, thinking that The Killer was returning with a prisoner,came growling toward them--a little girl aroused no more sympathyin the beast's heart than would a full-grown bull ape. She wasa stranger and therefore to be killed. He bared his yellowfangs as he approached, and to his surprise The Killer bared hislikewise, but he bared them at Akut, and snarled menacingly.

"Ah," thought Akut, "The Killer has taken a mate," and so,obedient to the tribal laws of his kind, he left them alone,becoming suddenly absorbed in a fuzzy caterpillar of peculiarlysucculent appearance. The larva disposed of, he glanced fromthe corner of an eye at Korak. The youth had deposited hisburden upon a large limb, where she clung desperately to keepfrom falling.

"She will accompany us," said Korak to Akut, jerking a thumbin the direction of the girl. "Do not harm her. We willprotect her."

Akut shrugged. To be burdened by the young of man was in noway to his liking. He could see from her evident fright at herposition on the branch, and from the terrified glances she castin his direction that she was hopelessly unfit. By all the ethicsof Akut's training and inheritance the unfit should be eliminated;but if The Killer wished this there was nothing to be done aboutit but to tolerate her. Akut certainly didn't want her--of thathe was quite positive. Her skin was too smooth and hairless.Quite snake-like, in fact, and her face was most unattractive.Not at all like that of a certain lovely she he had particularlynoticed among the apes in the amphitheater the previous night.Ah, there was true feminine beauty for one!--a great, generousmouth; lovely, yellow fangs, and the cutest, softest side whiskers! Akut sighed. Then he rose, expanded his great chest andstrutted back and forth along a substantial branch, for even apuny thing like this she of Korak's might admire his fine coatand his graceful carriage.

But poor little Meriem only shrank closer to Korak and almostwished that she were back in the village of The Sheik wherethe terrors of existence were of human origin, and so more orless familiar. The hideous ape frightened her. He was so largeand so ferocious in appearance. His actions she could onlyinterpret as a menace, for how could she guess that he wasparading to excite admiration? Nor could she know of the bondof fellowship which existed between this great brute and thegodlike youth who had rescued her from the Sheik.

Meriem spent an evening and a night of unmitigated terror.Korak and Akut led her along dizzy ways as they searched for food. Once they hid her in the branches of a tree while they stalkeda near-by buck. Even her natural terror of being left alone inthe awful jungle was submerged in a greater horror as she saw theman and the beast spring simultaneously upon their prey and dragit down, as she saw the handsome face of her preserver contortedin a bestial snarl; as she saw his strong, white teeth buried inthe soft flesh of the kill.

When he came back to her blood smeared his face and handsand breast and she shrank from him as he offered her a hugehunk of hot, raw meat. He was evidently much disturbed by herrefusal to eat, and when, a moment later, he scampered awayinto the forest to return with fruit for her she was once moreforced to alter her estimation of him. This time she did notshrink, but acknowledged his gift with a smile that, had sheknown it, was more than ample payment to the affection starved boy.

The sleeping problem vexed Korak. He knew that the girlcould not balance herself in safety in a tree crotch while sheslept, nor would it be safe to permit her to sleep upon the groundopen to the attacks of prowling beasts of prey. There was but asingle solution that presented itself--he must hold her in hisarms all night. And that he did, with Akut braced upon one sideof her and he upon the other, so that she was warmed by thebodies of them both.

She did not sleep much until the night was half spent; but atlast Nature overcame her terrors of the black abyss beneath andthe hairy body of the wild beast at her side, and she fell into adeep slumber which outlasted the darkness. When she openedher eyes the sun was well up. At first she could not believe inthe reality of her position. Her head had rolled from Korak'sshoulder so that her eyes were directed upon the hairy back ofthe ape. At sight of it she shrank away. Then she realizedthat someone was holding her, and turning her head she saw thesmiling eyes of the youth regarding her. When he smiled shecould not fear him, and now she shrank closer against him innatural revulsion toward the rough coat of the brute upon herother side.

Korak spoke to her in the language of the apes; but she shookher head, and spoke to him in the language of the Arab, whichwas as unintelligible to him as was ape speech to her. Akut satup and looked at them. He could understand what Korak saidbut the girl made only foolish noises that were entirelyunintelligible and ridiculous. Akut could not understand whatKorak saw in her to attract him. He looked at her long andsteadily, appraising her carefully, then he scratched his head,rose and shook himself.

His movement gave the girl a little start--she had forgottenAkut for the moment. Again she shrank from him. The beastsaw that she feared him, and being a brute enjoyed the evidenceof the terror his brutishness inspired. Crouching, he extended hishuge hand stealthily toward her, as though to seize her. She shrankstill further away. Akut's eyes were busy drinking in the humorof the situation--he did not see the narrowing eyes of the boyupon him, nor the shortening neck as the broad shoulders rosein a characteristic attitude of preparation for attack. As theape's fingers were about to close upon the girl's arm the youth rosesuddenly with a short, vicious growl. A clenched fist flew beforeMeriem's eyes to land full upon the snout of the astonished Akut.With an explosive bellow the anthropoid reeled backward andtumbled from the tree.

Korak stood glaring down upon him when a sudden swish in thebushes close by attracted his attention. The girl too waslooking down; but she saw nothing but the angry ape scramblingto his feet. Then, like a bolt from a cross bow, a mass of spotted,yellow fur shot into view straight for Akut's back. It was Sheeta,the leopard.