Meriem pointed with a sweep of her hand that took in, generously, half the continent of Africa.
“Could you find your way back to him?”
“I do not know,” she replied; “but he will find his way to me.”
“Then I have a plan,” said the stranger. “I live but a few marches from here. I shall take you home where my wife will look after you and care for you until we can find Korak or Korak finds us. If he could find you here he can find you at my village. Is it not so?”
Meriem thought that it was so; but she did not like the idea of not starting immediately back to meet Korak. On the other hand the man had no intention of permitting this poor, insane child to wander further amidst the dangers of the jungle. From whence she had come, or what she had undergone he could not guess, but that her Korak and their life among the apes was but a figment of a disordered mind he could not doubt. He knew the jungle well, and he knew that men have lived alone and naked among the savage beasts for years; but a frail and slender girl! No, it was not possible.
Together they went outside. Malbihn’s boys were striking camp in preparation for a hasty departure. The stranger’s blacks were conversing with them. Malbihn stood at a distance, angry and glowering. The stranger approached one of his own men.
“Find out where they got this girl,” he commanded.
The Negro thus addressed questioned one of Malbihn’s followers. Presently he returned to his master.
“They bought her from old Kovudoo,” he said. “That is all that this fellow will tell me. He pretends that he knows nothing more, and I guess that he does not. These two white men were very bad men. They did many things that their boys knew not the meanings of. It would be well, Bwana, to kill the other.”
“I wish that I might; but a new law is come into this part of the jungle. It is not as it was in the old days, Muviri,” replied the master.