Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-31

Meriem was all expectancy. What wouIt
these strangers be like7 Would they be as
| nice to her as had Bwana and MY Dear, oil
| would they be like the other white foll
| she had known-cruel and relentless? My
/ Dear assured her that they all were gentle
| folk. and that she would find them kind
| consderate and honorable.
To My Dears surprise there was none oi
| the shyness OF the wild creature In Mer.
| iem's anticipation of the visit of strangers
She looked forward to their coming with
curiosity and with a certain pleasurabls
anticipation when once she was assured
that they would not bite her. In fact. she
appeared no different than would any pret-
~ young miss who had learned of the ex-
pected coming Of company.
Koraks image was still often in her
thoughts, but II aroused now a less we'll
ness pervaded Meriem when she thought
Of him. but the poignant grief OF her loss
when II was young no longer goaded her
to desperation.
Yet she was stiil loyal to him. She still
hoped that some day he would find her, nor
did she doubt for moment but that he
was searching for her II he still lived.
1t was this last suggestion that caused
her the greatest perturbation. Korak might
be dead. 1t hardly seemed possible that
one so well equipped to meet the emer-
gencies Of Jungle life should have succumbed
so young, yet when she had last seen him
he had been beset by horde of armed
warriors; and should he have returned to
tho village again, as she we'll knew he must
have, he may have been killed.
Even her Korak could not sngle-handed
slay an entire tribe.
At last the visitors arrived. There were
three men and two women. The youngest
member of the party was Hon. Morrison
Baynes n young man of considerable
Nyhn win oxh ad
sioilities for pleasure offered by the capt.
tails of Europe. had gladly seized upon this
opportunity to turn to another continent
for excitement and adventure.
He looked upon all things non-European
as rather more or less impossible: still he
vas not at all averse to enjoying the nov
city of unaccustomed places, and making
the most OF strangers Indigenous thereto,
however unspeakable they might have
seemed to him at home. In manner he was
suave and courteous to all-lf possible
trifie more punctilious toward those he con-
sidered of meaner clay than toward the few
he mentally admitted to equality.
Nature had favored him with a splendid
physique and a handsome face, and also
with sufficient good judgment to appreciate
that, while he might enjoy the contempla-
ton of his superiority to the masses, there
was little likelihood of the masses being
equally entranced by the same cause. And
so he easily maintained the reputation of
Delng most democratic and likable fellow,
and indeed he was lkable. Just a shade
of his egotism was occasionally apparent
never sufficient to become burden to his
associates.
And this. briefly, was the Hon. Morrison
Baynes of luxurious European civilization.
What would be the Hon. Morrison Baynes
of Central Africa 1t were difficult to guess
Meriem at first was shy and reserved
In the presence of the strangers. Her ben-
efactors had seen ht to ignore mention of
her strange past, and so she passed as
their ward whose antecedents not having
been mentioned were not to be inquired
into. The guests found her sweet and un-
assuming, laughing, vivacious and never
exhausted storehouse of quaint and inter-
esting jungle lore
She had ridden much during her year
with Bwana and My Dear. She knew each
favorite clump of concealing reeds along the
river that the buffalo loved best She knew
a dozen places where lions laired, and every
drinking hole in the drier country 25 miles
back from the river With unerrlng preci-
sion that was almost uncanny she could