Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-07

birthright that the other had preserved?
How could he dare CO. naked and unkempt,
to that fair thing who had once been his
iungle-fellow, and propose the thing that
had been in his mind when first the realza-
tion of his love had swept over him?
He shuddered as he thought of the ir-
reparable wrong that his love would have
done the innocent child but for the chance
that had snatched her from him before II
was too late
Doubtless she knew now the horror that
had been in his mind. Doubtless she hated
and loathed him as he hated and loathed
himself when he let his mind dwell upon It.
He had lost her. No more surely had she
been lost when he thought her dead than
she was IN reality now that he had seen
her livlng-living in the guse of refine
ment and civilization that had transfgured
and sanctifed her.
He had loved her before; now he wor-
SHIPPED her He knew that he might never
possess her now, but at least he might see
her. From distance he might look upon
her. Perhaps he might serve her; but
never must she guess that he had found
her. or that he lived
He wondered II she ever thought of him
IL the happy days that they had spent to-
gether never recurred to her mind. II
seemed unbelievable that such could be the
case and yet, too, II seemed almost equally
unbelievable that this beautiful girl was
the same disheveled. half-naked little sprite
who skipped nimbly among the branches
of the trees as they ran and played In the
lazy, happy days of the past. 1t could not
be that her memory held more of the past
than did her new appearance.
1t was a sad Korak who ranged the
jungle near the plains edge waiting for the
coming of his Merem-the Meriem who
never came
But there came another--a tall, broad
shouldered man in khaki, at the head of a
|
face was set in hard, stern lines. and the
marks of sorrow were writ deep about his
mouth and eyes-so deep that the set eX-
preston of rage upon his features could
not obliterate them.
Korak saw the man pass beneath him
where he hid in the great tree that had
harbored him before upon the edge of that
fateful little clearing. He saw him come,
and he sat rigid and frozen and suffering
above him. He saw him search the ground
with his keen eyes and he only sat there
watching with eyes that glazed from the
intensity of his gaze
He saw him sign to his men that he had
come upon that which he sought, and he
saw him pass out of sight toward the north.
and still Korak sat like a craven image,
with heart that bled in dumb misery.
An hour later Korak moved slowly away,
back into the jungle toward the west. He
went lfstlessly, with bent head and stopped
shoulders, like an old man who bore upon
his back the weight of great sorrow.
Baynes, following his black guide, bat
tied his way through the dense underbrush,
riding stopped low over his horses neck, or
often he dismounted where the low branches
swept too close to earth to permit him to
remain in the saddle.
The black was taking him the shortest
way which was no way at all for a horse
man and after the first days march the
young Englishman was forced to abandon
his mount. and follow his nimble guide en-
tirely on foot.
During the long hours of marching the
Hon. Morrison had much time to devote to
thought and as he pictured the probable
fate of Meriem at the hands of the Swede
his rage against the man became the
greater But p esently there came to him
a realization of the fact that his own base
plans had led the girl into this terrible
predicament, and that even had she es-
capped Hanson she would have found but
little better deserts awaiting her with him.
Then there came the realization that
Merlem was infinitely more precious to him
than he had imagined. For the first time
he commenced to compare her with other
women of his acquaintance-women of birth
and position-and almost to his surprise
he discovered that the young Arab girl
suffered less than they by the comparison.
And then from hating Hanson he came
to look upon himself with hate and loath-
ing-to see himself and his perfidious acts
Thus, in the crucible of shame amid the
white heat of naked truths the passion
that the man had felt for the girl he had
considered his social inferior was trans.
muted into love. And as he staggered on
there burned within him beside his new
born love another great passion-the pas
sion of hate urging him on to the consum-
nation Of revenge.
A creature of ease and luxury, he had
never been subjected to the hardships and
tortures which now were his constant com
panions; yet. his clothing torn, his flesh
scratched and bleeding, he urged the black
to greater speed, though with every dozen
steps he himself fell from exhaustion.
1t was revenge which kept him going
that and feeling that In his suffering he
was partially expiating the great wrong. he
had done the girl he loved; for hope of saw
ing her from the fate into which he had
trapped her had never existed
"roo late Too late" was the dismal ac-
compartment of thought to which he
marched TOO late Too late to save; but
not too late to avenge"
That kept him up.
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