Morison
shuddered.
He was about to call aloud in the hope that after all the girl still
lived when he saw her in a tree close beside that was occupied by
the baboons, and now he saw that they were snarling and jabbering
at her. To his amazement he saw the girl swing, ape-like, into
the tree below the huge beasts. He saw her pause upon a branch a
few feet from the nearest baboon. He was about to raise his rifle
and put a bullet through the hideous creature that seemed about
to leap upon her when he heard the girl speak. He almost dropped
his rifle from surprise as a strange jabbering, identical with that
of the apes, broke from Meriem's lips.
The baboons stopped their snarling and listened. It was quite
evident that they were as much surprised as the Hon. Morison Baynes.
Slowly and one by one they approached the girl. She gave not the
slightest evidence of fear of them. They quite surrounded her now
so that Baynes could not have fired without endangering the girl's
life; but he no longer desired to fire. He was consumed with
curiosity.
For several minutes the girl carried on what could be nothing less
than a conversation with the baboons, and then with seeming alacrity
every article of her apparel in their possession was handed over
to her.
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