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.
The stranger remained until Malbihn and his safari had disappeared
into the jungle toward the north. Meriem, trustful now, stood
at his side, Geeka clutched in one slim, brown hand. They talked
together, the man wondering at the faltering Arabic of the girl,
but attributing it finally to her defective mentality. Could he
have known that years had elapsed since she had used it until she
was taken by the Swedes he would not have wondered that she had
half forgotten it.
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