And so it was that a score of the fleetest and most doughty warriors
of the tribe set out in pursuit of Korak and Akut but a few minutes
after they had left the scene of The Killer's many depredations.
The youth and the ape had traveled slowly and with no precautions
against a successful pursuit. Nor was their attitude of careless
indifference to the blacks at all remarkable. So many similar
raids had gone unpunished that the two had come to look upon the
Negroes with contempt. The return journey led them straight up
wind. The result being that the scent of their pursuers was borne
away from them, so they proceeded upon their way in total ignorance
of the fact that tireless trackers but little less expert in the
mysteries of woodcraft than themselves were dogging their trail
with savage insistence.
The little party of warriors was led by Kovudoo, the chief; a
middle-aged savage of exceptional cunning and bravery. It was he
who first came within sight of the quarry which they had followed
for hours by the mysterious methods of their almost uncanny powers
of observation, intuition, and even scent.
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