The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1915-07-14

tndn IDOSe lie hUOWu
his other life nor nearly so ferocious.
Why. he could scarce recall beast
of any description that did not rush
into a death struggle with the first
member of another species which 1t
came upon. provided. Of course. that 1t
its antagonist
or course there had been the smaller
and more timid animals whose entire
existence had consisted in snatching
such food as they could as they fed
through the savage days and awful
nights of that fierce age in the perpet-
ual effort to escape or elude the count
less myriads of huge carnivora and
bellicOse ruminants whose trails form
ed a mighty network from pole to pole.
To M the jungles of Africa seemed
silent and deserted places. The beasts,
even the more savage of them, seldom
! attacked except in hunger or the pro-
| lection of their young. He had passed
within dozen PAGES of a great herd
of diminutive, hairless mammoths, and
they had but raised their little pig eyes
and glanced at him as they tapped
their great ears back and forth against
the annoying flies and browsed upon
| the branches of young trees.
The ape people seemed frightened out
of their wits at his approach. and he
had even seen the tawny bodies of lions
| pass within a stones throw of him
{ without charging.
1t was amazing. Life in such world
would scarce be worth the living. 1t
made him lonelier than ever to feel
| that he could travel for miles without
encountering single danger.
Far behind him along the trail of the
Arabs came a dozen white men and
half Il hundred savage Waziri warriors.
Not an hour after Barney Custer dis
covered Nus absence Il native runner
had come hurrying in from the north
to beg Lord Greystoke's help in pursu-
ing and Furnishing a band of Arab slave
and ivory raiders who were laying
waste the villages, numbering the old
men and the children and carrying the
young men and women into slavery.
While Greystoke was questioning the
fellow he let drop the fact that among
the other prisoners of the Arabs was a
young white woman.
Instantly commotion reigned upon
the Greystoke ranch. White men were
jumping into field khaki, looking to
the firearms and ammunition. lest their
black body servants should have neg
lected some essential. Stable boys were
saddling the horses.
The sleek ebon warriors of Uziri
were greasing their black hides, adj
justing barbaric war bonnets, streak
Ing faces, breasts and limbs with Ocher,
vermilion or CHASTITY blush white and
looking to slim shield, poisoned arrow
and formidable spear
For time the fugitive was forgot.
ten, but as the march proceeded they
came upon certain reminders that re-
called him to their minds anu indicated
that he was far in advance of them
upon the trail of the Arabs.
The first sign of him was the car
cass of a bull buffalo. Straight through
the heart was the great hole that they
now knew was made by the passage of
the ancient stone tipped spear Strips
had been knife cut from the sides, and
the belly was torn as though by a wild
beast
Brown stopped to examine the ground
about the bull. When he Strengthened
up he looked at Greystoke and laughed.
Didn't | understand you to say that
he must have killed the dog?' he ask
ed. Look here. They ate side by
side from the body of their kill"
For three weeks now Victoria Custer
had been prisoner Of Sheik Ibn AS
wad, but other than the ordinary hard
ships of African travel she had expert
enced nothing of which she might com
plain.
She had even been permitted to ride
upon one of the few donkeys that still
survived, and her food was as good as
that of Ibn Aswad himself. for the
canny old sheik knew that the better
the condition of his prisoner the better
the price she would bring at the court
Of the sultan of Fulad..
Abul Mukarram, Ibn Aswad's right
hand man, a staggering young Arab
from the rim of the Sahara. had cast
covetous eyes upon the beautiful pris-
oner, but the cid shiek delivered him.
self of peremptory mo" when his
lieutenant broached proposal to him.
Then Abul Mukarram. baked In his
passing desire, found the thing grow
ing upon him until the idea of possess
Ing the girl became q veritable obses-
Sion with him.
Victoria. from necessity. had picked
up enough OF the language Of the sons
Of the desert to be able to converse
with them, and Abul Mukarram often
rode at her side. feasting his eyes upon
her face and figure the while he at
tempted to ingratiate himself into her