Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-01-30

In English and then in the language OF
the apes. But neither Of these were |
ineligible to her.
She leaned forward and touched the
hilt Of the long knife that the Arab
wore. Then she raised her clasped
hand above her head and drove an i'm |
aginary blade into her breast above
her heart.
Korak understood. The old man
would kin her.
The girl came to his side again and
stood there trembling. She did not
fear him. Why should shel He had
saved her from q terrible beating at
the hands of the sheik. Never in her
memory had another so befriended her.
She looked up into his face. 1t was
boyish. handsome face. nut brown like
her own. She admired the spotted
leopard skin that circled his 1.-THE body
from one shoulder to his knees.
And Korak looked at the girl. he
had always held girls in species Of
contempt Boys who associated with
them were, in his estimation, molly
coddles. He wondered what he should
do.
He stood for several minutes buried
in thought. The girl watched his face,
wondering what was passing In his
mind. She, too, was thinking Of the
future.
She feared to remain ana sul1er me
vengeance Of the sheik. There was no
one In all the world to whom she
might turn other than this half naked
stranger who had dropped miraculous
" from the clouds to save her from
one of the sheik's accustomed beat
ings. Would her new friend leave her
now: Wistfully she gazed at his In
tent face. She moved little closer to
him, laying a slim, brown hand upon
his arm.
The contact awakened the lad from
his absorption. He looked down at
her. and then his arm went about her
shoulders once more, for he saw tears
upon her lashes.
Come" he said, ''the jungle is kind
er than man. You shall live in the
Jungle, and Korak and Akut will pro-
tect you"
She did not understand his words,
but the pressure Of his arm drawing
her away from the PROSTATE Arab and
the tents was quite Ineligible. One
little arm crept about his waist, and
together they walked toward the pail
sadie.
Beneath the great tree that had har-
bored korak while he watched the girl
at play he lifted her in his arms and,
throwing her lightly across his Shout
ders. leaped nimbly into the lower
branches.
And so Meriem entered the jungle
with korak. trusting. in her childish
innocence, the stranger who had be-
friended her and perhaps Influenced in
her belief in him by that strange in
tuitive power possessed by woman.
The two had gone but a short dis
| lance from the village when the girl
spied the huge proportions of the great
Akut. With half stified scream she
chung more closely to Korak and point
ed fearfully toward the ape.
| Akut, thinking that the Killer was
returning with prisoner came grOwl-
( ing toward them. A little girl aroused
no more sympathy in the beasts heart
than would full grown bull ape. She
was stranger and therefore to be
killed. He barred his yellow fangs as
/ he approached, and to his surprise the
Killer barred his likewise, but he barred
| them at Akut and snarled menacingly.
| "Ah," thought Akut. the Killer has
/ taken a mattel" And SO, .obedient to
the tribal laws of his kind, he left
them alone, become suddenly absorbed
! n fuzzy caterpillar Of peculiarly
succu'ent appearance.
/ The larva disposed Of. he glanced
from the corner Of an eye at Korak
The youth had deposited his burden
upon large limb, where she chung
uCSpCldlCAN " ACcp AIoh AulIAA6'
"She will accompany u.s." said Ko
rak to Akut, jerking a thumb in thu
direction of the girl. do not harm
her. We will protect her"
Akut shrugged. To be burdened by
the young of man was in no way tt
his liking. He could see from her evi
dent fright at her position on thu
branch and from the terrified glance'
she cast in his direction that she wal
h0pelessly unfit.
BY all the ethics Of Akut's training
and Inheritance the unfit should b.
eliminated, but If the Killer wished
this she there was nothing to be dom
about ii but to tolerate her.
Meriem spent an evening and nigh
IF unmitigated terror.