Chapter 9
It was an unhappy Korak who wandered aimlessly through the jungle theday following his inhospitable reception by the great apes. His heartwas heavy from disappointment. Unsatisfied vengeance smoldered in hisbreast. He looked with hatred upon the denizens of his jungle world,baring his fighting fangs and growling at those that came withinradius of his senses. The mark of his father's early life was strongupon him and enhanced by months of association with beasts, from whomthe imitative faculty of youth had absorbed a countless number oflittle mannerisms of the predatory creatures of the wild.
He bared his fangs now as naturally and upon as slight provocation asSheeta, the panther, bared his. He growled as ferociously as Akuthimself. When he came suddenly upon another beast his quick crouchbore a strange resemblance to the arching of a cat's back. Korak, thekiller, was looking for trouble. In his heart of hearts he hoped tomeet the king ape who had driven him from the amphitheater. To thisend he insisted upon remaining in the vicinity; but the exigencies ofthe perpetual search for food led them several miles further awayduring day.
They were moving slowly down wind, and warily because the advantage waswith whatever beast might chance to be hunting ahead of them, wheretheir scent-spoor was being borne by the light breeze. Suddenly thetwo halted simultaneously. Two heads were cocked upon one side. Likecreatures hewn from solid rock they stood immovable, listening. Not amuscle quivered. For several seconds they remained thus, then Korakadvanced cautiously a few yards and leaped nimbly into a tree. Akutfollowed close upon his heels. Neither had made a noise that wouldhave been appreciable to human ears at a dozen paces.
Stopping often to listen they crept forward through the trees. Thatboth were greatly puzzled was apparent from the questioning looks theycast at one another from time to time. Finally the lad caught aglimpse of a palisade a hundred yards ahead, and beyond it the tops ofsome goatskin tents and a number of thatched huts. His lip upcurled ina savage snarl. Blacks! How he hated them. He signed to Akut toremain where he was while he advanced to reconnoiter.
Woe betide the unfortunate villager whom The Killer came upon now.Slinking through the lower branches of the trees, leaping lightly fromone jungle giant to its neighbor where the distance was not too great,or swinging from one hand hold to another Korak came silently towardthe village. He heard a voice beyond the palisade and toward that hemade his way. A great tree overhung the enclosure at the very pointfrom which the voice came. Into this Korak crept. His spear was readyin his hand. His ears told him of the proximity of a human being. Allthat his eyes required was a single glance to show him his target.Then, lightning like, the missile would fly to its goal. With raisedspear he crept among the branches of the tree glaring narrowly downwardin search of the owner of the voice which rose to him from below.
At last he saw a human back. The spear hand flew to the limit of thethrowing position to gather the force that would send the iron shodmissile completely through the body of the unconscious victim. Andthen The Killer paused. He leaned forward a little to get a betterview of the target. Was it to insure more perfect aim, or had therebeen that in the graceful lines and the childish curves of the littlebody below him that had held in check the spirit of murder running riotin his veins?
He lowered his spear cautiously that it might make no noise by scrapingagainst foliage or branches. Quietly he crouched in a comfortableposition along a great limb and there he lay with wide eyes lookingdown in wonder upon the creature he had crept upon to kill--lookingdown upon a little girl, a little nut brown maiden. The snarl had gonefrom his lip. His only expression was one of interested attention--hewas trying to discover what the girl was doing. Suddenly a broad grinoverspread his face, for a turn of the girl's body had revealed Geekaof the ivory head and the rat skin torso--Geeka of the splinter limbsand the disreputable appearance. The little girl raised the marredface to hers and rocking herself backward and forward crooned aplaintive Arab lullaby to the doll. A softer light entered the eyes ofThe Killer. For a long hour that passed very quickly to him Korak laywith gaze riveted upon the playing child. Not once had he had a viewof the girl's full face. For the most part he saw only a mass of wavy,black hair, one brown little shoulder exposed upon the side from whereher single robe was caught beneath her arm, and a shapely kneeprotruding from beneath her garment as she sat cross legged upon theground. A tilt of the head as she emphasized some maternal admonitionto the passive Geeka revealed occasionally a rounded cheek or a piquantlittle chin. Now she was shaking a slim finger at Geeka, reprovingly,and again she crushed to her heart this only object upon which shemight lavish the untold wealth of her childish affections.
Korak, momentarily forgetful of his bloody mission, permitted thefingers of his spear hand to relax a little their grasp upon the shaftof his formidable weapon. It slipped, almost falling; but theoccurrence recalled The Killer to himself. It reminded him of hispurpose in slinking stealthily upon the owner of the voice that hadattracted his vengeful attention. He glanced at the spear, with itswell-worn grip and cruel, barbed head. Then he let his eyes wanderagain to the dainty form below him. In imagination he saw the heavyweapon shooting downward. He saw it pierce the tender flesh, drivingits way deep into the yielding body. He saw the ridiculous doll dropfrom its owner's arms to lie sprawled and pathetic beside the quiveringbody of the little girl. The Killer shuddered, scowling at theinanimate iron and wood of the spear as though they constituted asentient being endowed with a malignant mind.
Korak wondered what the girl would do were he to drop suddenly from thetree to her side. Most likely she would scream and run away. Thenwould come the men of the village with spears and guns and set uponhim. They would either kill him or drive him away. A lump rose in theboy's throat. He craved the companionship of his own kind, though hescarce realized how greatly. He would have liked to slip down besidethe little girl and talk with her, though he knew from the words he hadoverheard that she spoke a language with which he was unfamiliar. Theycould have talked by signs a little. That would have been better thannothing. Too, he would have been glad to see her face. What he hadglimpsed assured him that she was pretty; but her strongest appeal tohim lay in the affectionate nature revealed by her gentle mothering ofthe grotesque doll.
At last he hit upon a plan. He would attract her attention, andreassure her by a smiling greeting from a greater distance. Silentlyhe wormed his way back into the tree. It was his intention to hail herfrom beyond the palisade, giving her the feeling of security which heimagined the stout barricade would afford.
He had scarcely left his position in the tree when his attention wasattracted by a considerable noise upon the opposite side of thevillage. By moving a little he could see the gate at the far end ofthe main street. A number of men, women and children were runningtoward it. It swung open, revealing the head of a caravan upon theopposite side. In trooped the motley organization--black slaves anddark hued Arabs of the northern deserts; cursing camel drivers urgingon their vicious charges; overburdened donkeys, waving sadly pendulousears while they endured with stoic patience the brutalities of theirmasters; goats, sheep and horses. Into the village they all troopedbehind a tall, sour, old man, who rode without greetings to those whoshrunk from his path directly to a large goatskin tent in the center ofthe village. Here he spoke to a wrinkled hag.
Korak, from his vantage spot, could see it all. He saw the old manasking questions of the black woman, and then he saw the latter pointtoward a secluded corner of the village which was hidden from the mainstreet by the tents of the Arabs and the huts of the natives in thedirection of the tree beneath which the little girl played. This wasdoubtless her father, thought Korak. He had been away and his firstthought upon returning was of his little daughter. How glad she wouldbe to see him! How she would run and throw herself into his arms, tobe crushed to his breast and covered with his kisses. Korak sighed.He thought of his own father and mother far away in London.
He returned to his place in the tree above the girl. If he couldn'thave happiness of this sort himself he wanted to enjoy the happiness ofothers. Possibly if he made himself known to the old man he might bepermitted to come to the village occasionally as a friend. It would beworth trying. He would wait until the old Arab had greeted hisdaughter, then he would make his presence known with signs of peace.
The Arab was striding softly toward the girl. In a moment he would bebeside her, and then how surprised and delighted she would be! Korak'seyes sparkled in anticipation--and now the old man stood behind thelittle girl. His stern old face was still unrelaxed. The child wasyet unconscious of his presence. She prattled on to the unresponsiveGeeka. Then the old man coughed. With a start the child glancedquickly up over her shoulder. Korak could see her full face now. Itwas very beautiful in its sweet and innocent childishness--all soft andlovely curves. He could see her great, dark eyes. He looked for thehappy love light that would follow recognition; but it did not come.Instead, terror, stark, paralyzing terror, was mirrored in her eyes, inthe expression of her mouth, in the tense, cowering attitude of herbody. A grim smile curved the thin, cruel lip of the Arab. The childessayed to crawl away; but before she could get out of his reach theold man kicked her brutally, sending her sprawling upon the grass.Then he followed her up to seize and strike her as was his custom.
Above them, in the tree, a beast crouched where a moment before hadbeen a boy--a beast with dilating nostrils and bared fangs--a beastthat trembled with rage.
The Sheik was stooping to reach for the girl when The Killer dropped tothe ground at his side. His spear was still in his left hand but hehad forgotten it. Instead his right fist was clenched and as The Sheiktook a backward step, astonished by the sudden materialization of thisstrange apparition apparently out of clear air, the heavy fist landedfull upon his mouth backed by the weight of the young giant and theterrific power of his more than human muscles.
Bleeding and senseless The Sheik sank to earth. Korak turned towardthe child. She had regained her feet and stood wide eyed andfrightened, looking first into his face and then, horror struck, at therecumbent figure of The Sheik. In an involuntary gesture of protectionThe Killer threw an arm about the girl's shoulders and stood waitingfor the Arab to regain consciousness. For a moment they remained thus,when the girl spoke.
"When he regains his senses he will kill me," she said, in Arabic.
Korak could not understand her. He shook his head, speaking to herfirst in English and then in the language of the great apes; butneither of these was intelligible to her. She leaned forward andtouched the hilt of the long knife that the Arab wore. Then she raisedher clasped hand above her head and drove an imaginary blade into herbreast above her heart. Korak understood. The old man would kill her.The girl came to his side again and stood there trembling. She did notfear him. Why should she? He had saved her from a terrible beating atthe hands of The Sheik. Never, in her memory, had another sobefriended her. She looked up into his face. It was a boyish,handsome face, nut-brown like her own. She admired the spotted leopardskin that circled his lithe body from one shoulder to his knees. Themetal anklets and armlets adorning him aroused her envy. Always hadshe coveted something of the kind; but never had The Sheik permittedher more than the single cotton garment that barely sufficed to coverher nakedness. No furs or silks or jewelry had there ever been forlittle Meriem.
And Korak looked at the girl. He had always held girls in a species ofcontempt. Boys who associated with them were, in his estimation,mollycoddles. He wondered what he should do. Could he leave her hereto be abused, possibly murdered, by the villainous old Arab? No! But,on the other hand, could he take her into the jungle with him? Whatcould he accomplish burdened by a weak and frightened girl? She wouldscream at her own shadow when the moon came out upon the jungle nightand the great beasts roamed, moaning and roaring, through the darkness.
He stood for several minutes buried in thought. The girl watched hisface, wondering what was passing in his mind. She, too, was thinkingof the future. She feared to remain and suffer the vengeance of TheSheik. There was no one in all the world to whom she might turn, otherthan this half-naked stranger who had dropped miraculously from theclouds to save her from one of The Sheik's accustomed beatings. Wouldher new friend leave her now? Wistfully she gazed at his intent face.She moved a little closer to him, laying a slim, brown hand upon hisarm. The contact awakened the lad from his absorption. He looked downat her, and then his arm went about her shoulder once more, for he sawtears upon her lashes.
"Come," he said. "The jungle is kinder than man. You shall live inthe jungle and Korak and Akut will protect you."
She did not understand his words, but the pressure of his arm drawingher away from the prostrate Arab and the tents was quite intelligible.One little arm crept about his waist and together they walked towardthe palisade. Beneath the great tree that had harbored Korak while hewatched the girl at play he lifted her in his arms and throwing herlightly across his shoulder leaped nimbly into the lower branches. Herarms were about his neck and from one little hand Geeka dangled downhis straight young back.
And so Meriem entered the jungle with Korak, trusting, in her childishinnocence, the stranger who had befriended her, and perhaps influencedin her belief in him by that strange intuitive power possessed bywoman. She had no conception of what the future might hold. She didnot know, nor could she have guessed the manner of life led by herprotector. Possibly she pictured a distant village similar to that ofThe Sheik in which lived other white men like the stranger. That shewas to be taken into the savage, primeval life of a jungle beast couldnot have occurred to her. Had it, her little heart would havepalpitated with fear. Often had she wished to run away from thecruelties of The Sheik and Mabunu; but the dangers of the jungle alwayshad deterred her.
The two had gone but a short distance from the village when the girlspied the huge proportions of the great Akut. With a half-stifledscream she clung more closely to Korak, and pointed fearfully towardthe ape.
Akut, thinking that The Killer was returning with a prisoner, camegrowling toward them--a little girl aroused no more sympathy in thebeast's heart than would a full-grown bull ape. She was a stranger andtherefore to be killed. He bared his yellow fangs as he approached,and to his surprise The Killer bared his likewise, but he bared them atAkut, and snarled menacingly.
"Ah," thought Akut, "The Killer has taken a mate," and so, obedient tothe tribal laws of his kind, he left them alone, becoming suddenlyabsorbed in a fuzzy caterpillar of peculiarly succulent appearance.The larva disposed of, he glanced from the corner of an eye at Korak.The youth had deposited his burden upon a large limb, where she clungdesperately to keep from falling.
"She will accompany us," said Korak to Akut, jerking a thumb in thedirection 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 to hisliking. He could see from her evident fright at her position on thebranch, and from the terrified glances she cast in his direction thatshe was hopelessly unfit. By all the ethics of Akut's training andinheritance the unfit should be eliminated; but if The Killer wishedthis there was nothing to be done about it but to tolerate her. Akutcertainly didn't want her--of that he was quite positive. Her skin wastoo smooth and hairless. Quite snake-like, in fact, and her face wasmost unattractive. Not at all like that of a certain lovely she he hadparticularly noticed among the apes in the amphitheater the previousnight. Ah, there was true feminine beauty for one!--a great, generousmouth; lovely, yellow fangs, and the cutest, softest side whiskers!Akut sighed. Then he rose, expanded his great chest and strutted backand forth along a substantial branch, for even a puny thing like thisshe of Korak's might admire his fine coat and his graceful carriage.
But poor little Meriem only shrank closer to Korak and almost wishedthat she were back in the village of The Sheik where the terrors ofexistence were of h
uman origin, and so more or less familiar. Thehideous ape frightened her. He was so large and so ferocious inappearance. His actions she could only interpret as a menace, for howcould she guess that he was parading to excite admiration? Nor couldshe know of the bond of fellowship which existed between this greatbrute and the godlike youth who had rescued her from the Sheik.
Meriem spent an evening and a night of unmitigated terror. Korak andAkut led her along dizzy ways as they searched for food. Once they hidher in the branches of a tree while they stalked a near-by buck. Evenher natural terror of being left alone in the awful jungle wassubmerged in a greater horror as she saw the man and the beast springsimultaneously upon their prey and drag it down, as she saw thehandsome face of her preserver contorted in a bestial snarl; as she sawhis strong, white teeth buried in the soft flesh of the kill.
When he came back to her blood smeared his face and hands and breastand she shrank from him as he offered her a huge hunk of hot, raw meat.He was evidently much disturbed by her refusal to eat, and when, amoment later, he scampered away into the forest to return with fruitfor her she was once more forced to alter her estimation of him. Thistime she did not shrink, but acknowledged his gift with a smile that,had she known it, was more than ample payment to the affection starvedboy.
The sleeping problem vexed Korak. He knew that the girl could notbalance herself in safety in a tree crotch while she slept, nor wouldit be safe to permit her to sleep upon the ground open to the attacksof prowling beasts of prey. There was but a single solution thatpresented itself--he must hold her in his arms all night. And that hedid, with Akut braced upon one side of her and he upon the other, sothat she was warmed by the bodies of them both.
She did not sleep much until the night was half spent; but at lastNature overcame her terrors of the black abyss beneath and the hairybody of the wild beast at her side, and she fell into a deep slumberwhich outlasted the darkness. When she opened her eyes the sun waswell up. At first she could not believe in the reality of herposition. Her head had rolled from Korak's shoulder so that her eyeswere directed upon the hairy back of the ape. At sight of it sheshrank away. Then she realized that someone was holding her, andturning her head she saw the smiling eyes of the youth regarding her.When he smiled she could not fear him, and now she shrank closeragainst him in natural revulsion toward the rough coat of the bruteupon her other side.
Korak spoke to her in the language of the apes; but she shook her head,and spoke to him in the language of the Arab, which was asunintelligible to him as was ape speech to her. Akut sat up and lookedat them. He could understand what Korak said but the girl made onlyfoolish noises that were entirely unintelligible and ridiculous. Akutcould not understand what Korak saw in her to attract him. He lookedat her long and steadily, appraising her carefully, then he scratchedhis head, rose and shook himself.
His movement gave the girl a little start--she had forgotten Akut forthe moment. Again she shrank from him. The beast saw that she fearedhim, and being a brute enjoyed the evidence of the terror hisbrutishness inspired. Crouching, he extended his huge hand stealthilytoward her, as though to seize her. She shrank still further away.Akut's eyes were busy drinking in the humor of the situation--he didnot see the narrowing eyes of the boy upon him, nor the shortening neckas the broad shoulders rose in a characteristic attitude of preparationfor attack. As the ape's fingers were about to close upon the girl'sarm the youth rose suddenly with a short, vicious growl. A clenchedfist flew before Meriem's eyes to land full upon the snout of theastonished Akut. With an explosive bellow the anthropoid reeledbackward and tumbled from the tree.
Korak stood glaring down upon him when a sudden swish in the bushesclose by attracted his attention. The girl too was looking down; butshe saw nothing but the angry ape scrambling to his feet. Then, like abolt from a cross bow, a mass of spotted, yellow fur shot into viewstraight for Akut's back. It was Sheeta, the leopard.