Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-30
.THE CEERfUL CHFRUB

| S1S KIN
the tender mercies Of his allies, and turned
himself eagerly toward the hut In which
Meriem had been a prisoner
It was empty. One after another the
filthy interiors revealed the same disheart-
ening faot-Meriem was In none of them.
That she had not been taken by the blacks
| In their flight from the village Korak knew,
| for he had watched carefully for glimpse
of her among the fugltives.
To the mind of the apeman, knowing as
| he did the proclivites of the savages, there
was but single explanation-Meriem had
been killed and eaten. With the conviction
| that Meriem was dead, there surged
through Korak's brain a wave Of blood.red
rage against those he believed to be her
| murderers In the distance he could hear
the snarling Of the balloons mixed with the
| screams of their victims, and toward this
he made his way
When he came upon them the baboons
had commenced to tire Of the sport of bat
tie. and the blacks, in a little knot. wero
making a new stand, using their knob.sticks
| effectively upon the few bulls who still
persisted in attacking them.
Among these broke Korak from the
branches of tree above them-swift re-
lentless, terrible, he hurled himself upon
the savage warriors of Kovudoo Blind
| fury possessed him 1t protected him, too,
| by its very ferocty.
Like wounded lloness he was here,
there, everywhere; striking terrific blows
with hard fists, and with the precision and
| timeiness of the trained fighter. Again and
| again he buried his teeth in the flesh of a
foeman. He was upon one and gone again
| to another before an effective blow could
| be dealt him.
Yet, though great was the weight of his
execution In determining the result of the
L ann ahnN zf.-t--
which he inspired in the simple, super
| stitious minds of his foemen. To them this
| white warrior, who consorted with the
great apes and the fierce baboons. who
| growled and snarled and snapped like a
| beast, was not human. He was a demon
| or the forest-a fearsome god of evil whom
| they had offended and who had come out
| OF his lair deep In the jungle to punish
| them.
And because of this belief there were
| many who offered but little Defense feel.
Ing as they did the futillty of pitting their
puny mortal strength against that of a
| deity.
Those who could fled until at last there
were no more to pay the penalty for a
| deed of which, while not beyond them. thew
were, nevertheless, not guilty. Painting
| and bloody, Korak paused for want of
| further victims. The baboons gathered
about him. sated themselves with blood
and battle.
In the distance Kovudoo was gathering
his scattered tribesmen and taking ac-
count of injuries and losses His people
were panic-stricken. Nothing could pre-
vail upon them to remain longer in this
| country. They would not even return to
the village for their belongings. Instead
they insisted upon continuing their flight
| until they had put many miles between
themselves and the stamping ground of the
| demon who had so bitterly attacked them
| And thus 1t befell that Korak drove from
their homes the only people who might have
| aided him in search for Merem and
cut off the only connecting link between
him and her from whomsoever might have
come in search of him from the douar of
the kindly Bwana who had befriended his
little jungle sweetheart.
1t was a sour and savage Korak who
bid farewell to his baboon allies upon the
following morning. They wished him to
accompany them; but the apeman had no
heart FOR society Jungle life had en-
couraged taciturnity in him. His sorrow
| had deepened this to sullen moroseness
that could not brook even the savage COM
panionship of the ill-natured baboons
Broodng and Respondent. he took his SOL
itary way into the deepest Jungle He
moved along the ground when he knew that
Numa was abroad and hungry He took
to the same trees that harbored Sheeta the
panther He courted death in a hundred
ways and hundred FORMS His mind was
ever occupied with "reminiscences of Merem
and the happy years that they had spent
together.
He realized now to the full what she had
meant TO him. The sweet face. the tanned,
supple little body the bright smile that al
ways had welcomed his return from the
hunt, haunted him continually.
Inactlon soon threatened him with mad
ness He must be on the go. He must
hll his days with labor and excitement that
he might forget-that night might find him
80 exhausted that he should sleep in blessed
inconsistencies of his misery until a new
day had come.
Had he guessed that by any possibility
Meriem might still live, he would at least
have had hope. His days could have been
devoted TO searching for her. but he believed
implicitly that she was dead.
For long year he led his solitary.
roaming life. Occasionally he fell In with
Akut and his tribe, hunting with them for
a day OF two; or he might travel to the hill
country, where the balloons mad come to
accept him as a matter or course; but most
of all was he with Tantor, the elephant
the great gray battleship of the jungle
the superdreadnought or his savage world
The peaceful quiet of the monster bulls.
the Watchful solicitude of the mother
cows. the awkward playrulness of the
calves, rested, interested and amused ko-
rak The life Of the huge beasts took his
mind, temporarily, from his own grief, He
came to love them as he loved not even the
great apes, and there was one gigantic
tusker in particular OF which he was very
fond-the lord of the herd savage beast
that was wont to charge upon stranger
upon the slightest provocation or upon no
provocaton whatsoever.
He came when Korak called. He wound
his trunk about the apeman's body and
lifted him to his broad neck In response
10 a gesture, and there would Korak lie at
full length kicking his toes afectionately
into the thick hide and brushing the flies
from about the tender ears of his colossal
chum with a leafy branch torn by Tantor
from a nearby tree,
And all the while Meriem was scarce a
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