Cautiously she opened her eyes the tiniest bit, and as she
did so her heart stood still. Creeping silently toward her was
a huge bull ape that she never before had seen. Behind him was
another like him.
With the agility of a squirrel Meriem was upon her feet and at the
same instant the great bull lunged for her. Leaping from limb to
limb the girl fled through the jungle while close behind her came the
two great apes. Above them raced a bevy of screaming, chattering
monkeys, hurling taunts and insults at the Mangani, and encouragement
and advice to the girl.
From tree to tree swung Meriem working ever upward toward the
smaller branches which would not bear the weight of her pursuers.
Faster and faster came the bull apes after her. The clutching
fingers of the foremost were almost upon her again and again, but
she eluded them by sudden bursts of speed or reckless chances as
she threw herself across dizzy spaces.
Slowly she was gaining her way to the greater heights where safety
lay, when, after a particularly daring leap, the swaying branch
she grasped bent low beneath her weight, nor whipped upward again
as it should have done.
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