The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1918-03-22
CHAPTER xV-Continued.

ttllu tiiC
the gunwale of the canoe close oy
Baynes' face. Baynes fired again as
his canoe drifted further downstream,
and Malbihn answered from the shore,
where he lay In pool OF his own
blood.
And thus. doggedly, the two wounded
men continued to carry on their weira
duel until the winding African river
had carried the Hon. Morrison Baynes
out of sight around wooded point.
Meriem had traversed half the
length of the village street when q
score of white-robed negroes ana naiI-
castles leaped out upon her from the
dark interiors of the surrounding huts.
She tried to flee, but heavy hands
seized her, and when she turned Mt last
to plead with them her eyes fell upon
the face of tall, grim old man glarins
down upon her from the folds OF MS
burnoese.
At sight of him she staggered back
in shocked and terrified surprise. 1t
was the sheik!
THE. sheik and his party had been
marching southwark along the river
when one of them, dropping out OF
line to fetch water, had seen Meriem
making for the village. The fellow had
called the sheik's attention to the
strange sight--a white woman alone IN
central Africa-and the old Arab had
hidden his men in the deserted village
to capture her.
And when ut last the woman had
walked into the trap he had set Tor
/ her and he had recognized: her as the
same little girl he had brutalized and
maltreated years before his gratif1ca-
ton had been huge. Now he lost no
time in establishing the old relations
of father and daughter that had 5ex-
listed between them in the past. :
A two days march brought them at
last to the familiar scenes of .her:
childhood, and the first face upon
which She set her eyes as she was
driven through the gates into the
strong stockade was that of the tooth
less, hideous Nahum, her one time
nurse. 1t was as though all the years
that had interviewed were but dream.
Had it not been for her clothing and
the fact that she had grown in stature
she might we'll have believed it so.
For time the inhabitants of the
sheiks village who had not been upon
the march with him amused them
selves by inspecting the strangely clad
white girl whom some Of them had
known as little child.
Among the Arabs who had come in
her absence was tall young fellow
: of. twenty, "a handsome, sinister look
ing youth, who stared at her in open
admiration until the sheik came and
ordered him away, and Abdul Kamak
went, scowling.
At last, their curiosity satisfied, Me-
rfeln was left alone. AS of old, she
was permitted the freedom of the viii
lage, for the stockade was high and
strong and the only gates were well
guarded by day and night. But, as of
old, she cared not for the companion
ship of the cruel Arabs and the de-
graded blacks who formed the follow
ing of the sheik, and so, as had been
her want in the sad days of her child
hood, she skunk down to an unfrequent-
ed corner of the Enclosure where she
had often played at housekeeping with
her beloved Geeka.
Meriem pressed her hand above her
heart and stifled sigh, and as she did
so she felt the hard outlines of the
photographs she had hidden there as
she skunk from lIalbihn's tent. Now
she drew it forth and commenced to
re-examine 1t more carefully than she
had had time to do before.
AS she sat gazing at the picture she
suddenly became aware that she was
not alone ;;that some one was standing
close behind her, some one who had
approached her nolseIessly. Guiltily
she thrust the picture back into her
waist. A hand fell upon her shoulder.
She was sure that it was the sheik,
and she awaited in dumb terror the
blow that she knew would immediate
ly follow.
No blow came, and she looked up
ward over her shoulder-into the eyes
of Abdul Kamak, the young Arab.
y 81 saw" he said, "the picture that
You have just hidden. 1t is you when
YOU were a child, very young child.
May / see 1t again?"
Meriem drew away from him.
Il will give 1t back" he said. Il
have heard of you, and ! know that
YOU have no love for the sheik, your
father. Neither have !. ] will not
betrny you. Let me see the pictures
She drew the photograph from It's
hiding place and handed it to him.
.. .,,-,ad the E,sct7re over, and as