The searching party from the Greystoke ranch had come upon Ibn Aswad
so unexpectedly that not a shot had been exchanged between the two
parties. The Arabs pressed from behind by the savage Wamboli warriors
had literally run into the arms of the whites and the Waziri.
When Greystoke demanded that the white girl be turned over to him at
once Ibn Aswad smote his breast and swore that there had been no white
girl with them, but one of the slaves told a different story to a
Waziri, and when the whites found that Victoria had been stolen from
Ibn Aswad by one of the sheik's lieutenants only a few hours before
they hastened to scour the jungle in search of her.
To facilitate their movements and insure covering as wide a territory
as possible each of the whites took a few Waziri and spreading out in a
far flung skirmish line beat the jungle in the direction toward which
the slave had told them Abul Mukarram had ridden.
To comb the jungle finely each white spread his Waziri upon either
side of him and thus they advanced, seldom in sight of one another;
but always within hailing distance. And so it happened that chance
brought William Curtiss, unseen, to the edge of the jungle beside the
park-like forest beneath the giant trees of which he saw a tableau that
brought him to a sudden halt.
There was the girl he loved and sought, apparently unharmed; and two
donkeys; and the dead body of an Arab; and the great wolfhound, looking
toward his hiding place and growling menacingly; and before the girl
the savage white man stood. Curtiss was about to spring forward when
he saw the man place the butt of his spear upon the ground and the
point against his heart. The act and the expression upon the man's
face proclaimed his intention, and so Curtiss drew back again waiting
for the perpetration of the deed that he knew was coming. A smile of
anticipation played about the American's lips.
Victoria Custer, too, guessed the thing that Nu contemplated. It was,
in accordance with her own reasoning, the only logical thing for the
man to do; but love is not logical, and when love saw and realized the
imminence of its bereavement it cast logic to the winds, and with a
little scream of terror the girl threw herself upon Nu of the Niocene,
striking the spear from its goal.
"No! No!" she cried. "You must not do it. I cannot let you go. I love
you, Nu; oh, how I love you," and as the strong arms infolded her once
more she gave a happy sigh of content and let her head drop again upon
the breast of him who had come back out of the ages to claim her.
The man put an arm about her waist, and together the two turned toward
the west in the direction that Abul Mukarram had been fleeing; nor did
either see the white faced, scowling man who leaped from the jungle
behind them, and with leveled rifle took deliberate aim at the back of
the black-haired giant.
Nor did they see the swift spring of the wolfhound, nor the thing that
followed there beneath the brooding silence of the savage jungle.
Ten minutes later Barney Custer broke through the tangled wall of
verdure upon a sight that took his breath away--there stood the two
patient donkeys, switching their tails and flapping their long ears;
beside them lay the corpse of Abul Mukarram, and upon the edge of the
jungle, at his feet, was stretched the dead body of William Curtiss,
his breast and throat torn by savage fangs. Across the clearing a
great, gaunt wolfhound halted in its retreat at the sound of Barney's
approach. It bared its bloody fangs in an ominous growl of warning, and
then turned and disappeared into the jungle.
Barney advanced and examined the soft ground about the donkeys and the
body of the Arab. He saw the imprints of a man's naked feet, and the
smaller impress of a woman's riding boot. He looked toward the jungle
where Terkoz had disappeared.
What had his sister gone to within the somber, savage depths beyond?
What would he bring her back to were he to follow after? He doubted
that she would come without her dream-man. Where would she be happier
with him--in the pitiless jungle which was the only world he knew, or
in the still more pitiless haunts of civilized men?