His actions she could only interpret as a menace,
for how could she guess that he was parading to excite admiration?
Nor could she know of the bond of fellowship which existed between
this great brute and the godlike youth who had rescued her from
the Sheik.
Meriem spent an evening and a night of unmitigated terror. Korak
and Akut led her along dizzy ways as they searched for food. Once
they hid her in the branches of a tree while they stalked a near-by
buck. Even her natural terror of being left alone in the awful
jungle was submerged in a greater horror as she saw the man and
the beast spring simultaneously upon their prey and drag it down,
as she saw the handsome face of her preserver contorted in a bestial
snarl; as she saw his strong, white teeth buried in the soft flesh
of the kill.
When he came back to her blood smeared his face and hands and breast
and 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, a moment later, he scampered away into the forest to return
with fruit for her she was once more forced to alter her estimation
of him.
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