Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1921-07-14

All during his rational moments as
he had lain upon the soft furs which
lined Mericm's nest he had suife:ed
more acuteiy from fears for Meriem
than from the pain OF his own wounds.
For her he must live; for her he must
regain his strength that he might set
ont I'm search of her. But il was many
a day before strength returned TO MIN.
Mcriem, bound and under heavy
guard in KoyudoO's own hut. had no
doubt but that Korak would come
back and stiIl less that he would cas-
lily free her.
So now as she lay waiting for him
she dreamed of him ana Of all that he
meant to her She compared him with
the sheik, her father, and at the
thought of the stern. grlzzled old Arab
She shuddered Even the savage blacks
had been less harsh 10 her than he.
Not understanding their tongue, she
could not guess what purpose they had
in keeping her Il prisoner. She knew
that man ate man, and she had eX-
pectcd TO be eaten, but she had been
with them for some time now, and no
harm had befallen her.
She did not know that n runner had
been dispatched to the distant village
of the shcill 10 barter with him for a
ransom She did not know, nor did
Kovudoo, that the runner had never
reached his destinations that he had
fallen in with The safari of Jensen
and Malbihn and with the talk
atiyeness OF native had un-
folded his whole mission TO the
black servants of the two Swedes.
These had not been long In retailing
The matter 10 their masters, and the
result was that when the runner left
their camp to continue his journey he
had scarce passed from sight before
there came the report of n rifle, and
ne rolled lifeless into the underbrush
with a bullet hole in his back.
A few moments later Malbihn
strolled back into the encampment,
where ne went to some pains to let IL
De known that he had had shot at
IL fine buck and missed. The Swedes
huew that their men hated them and
that ana overt act against Kovudoo
would quickly be carried to the chief
att the first opportunity. Nor were they
sufficiently strong in either guns or
loyal followers to risk antagonizing
The willy old chief.
The next day the Swedes set out for
village. bent on securing pos
session Of the person Of the white girl
whom Kovudoos runner had told them
lazy captive in the chiefs village. How
they were 10 accomplish their end
they did not know. Force was out of
the question, though they would not
have hesltated 10 use it had they pos
sessed It.
Ia former years they had marched
roughshod over enormous areas, tax
ing toll by brute force even when kind
lineSs or diplomacy would have nc
complshed more. But now they were
i'm bad straits-so bad that they had
not shown their true colors scarce
twice I'm year, and then only when
they came upon an isolated weak viii
lage.
Koyudoo was not of these, and,
though his village was in q way re-
mote from the more populous district
10 the north, his power was such that
ne maintained an acknowledged suze-
riniy over the thin thread OF villages
which connected him with the savage
lords To the north.
To have antagonized him would have
spelled ruin for the Swedes. 1t would
nave meant that they might never
reach civilization by the northern
route. To the west the village Of the
sheik lay directly in their path barring
thcm elfectually. To the east the trail
was unknown 10 them, and to the
south there was no trail.