“Korak! Why Korak is an ape. I have no other people. Korak and I live in the jungle alone since A’ht went to be king of the apes.” She had always thus pronounced Akut’s name, for so it had sounded to her when first she came with Korak and the ape. “Korak could have been kind, but he would not.”
A questioning expression entered the stranger’s eyes. He looked at the girl closely.
“So Korak is an ape?” he said. “And what, pray, are you?”
“I am Meriem. I, also, am an ape.”
“M-m,” was the stranger’s only oral comment upon this startling announcement; but what he thought might have been partially interpreted through the pitying light that entered his eyes. He approached the girl and started to lay his hand upon her forehead. She drew back with a savage little growl. A smile touched his lips.
“You need not fear me,” he said. “I shall not harm you. I only wish to discover if you have fever—if you are entirely well. If you are we will set forth in search of Korak.”
Meriem looked straight into the keen gray eyes. She must have found there an unquestionable assurance of the honorableness of their owner, for she permitted him to lay his palm upon her forehead and feel her pulse. Apparently she had no fever.
“How long have you been an ape?” asked the man.
“Since I was a little girl, many, many years ago, and Korak came and took me from my father who was beating me. Since then I have lived in the trees with Korak and A’ht.”
“Where in the jungle lives Korak?” asked the stranger.