that was the reason I did not like you.'
'Let's forget all that and start over.'
'Yes, of course,' she agreed; 'but you must have come a long way and faced many dangers to save me. Why did you do it?'
'Because I-' He hesitated. 'Because I couldn't see a white woman fall into the hands of these devils.'
'What are we going to do now? Where can we go?'
'We can't do much of anything before morning,' he replied. 'I'd like to get a little farther away from that village; then we must rest until morning. After that we'll try to reach my camp. It's two days' march on the opposite side of the river-if I can find the river. I got lost today trying to locate Rebega's village.'
They moved on slowly through the darkness. He knew that they were starting in the right direction, for when he had come to the clearing where the village stood he had noted the constellations in the sky; but how long they could continue to hold their course in the blackness of the forest night where the stars were hidden from their view, he did not know.
'What happened to you after Bobolo dragged me from the canoe at the mouth of that frightful river?' she asked.
'They took me back to the temple.'
The girl shuddered. 'That terrible place!'
'They were going to-to prepare me for one of their feasts,' he continued. 'I imagine I'll never be so close to death as that again without dying. The priestesses were just about to mess me up with their clubs.'
'How did you escape?'
'It was nothing short of a miracle,' he replied. 'Even now I cannot explain it. A voice called down from the rafters of the temple, claiming to be the muzimo of some native. A muzimo, you know, is some kind of ghost; I think each one of them is supposed to have a muzimo that looks after him. Then the finest looking white man I ever saw shinned down one of the pillars, grabbed me right out from under the noses of the priests and priestesses, and escorted me to the river where he had a canoe waiting for me.'
'Hadn't you ever seen him before?'
'No. I tell you it was a modern miracle, not unlike one that happened in the pygmy village just as I had busted in to head off that bloodthirsty, old she-devil who was going to knife you.'
'The only miracle that I am aware of was your coming just when you did; if there was another I didn't witness it. You see I had my eyes closed, waiting for Wlala to use her knife, when you stopped her.'
'I didn't stop her.'
'What?'
'That was the miracle.'
'I do not understand.'
'Just as the woman grabbed you by the hair and raised her knife to kill you, an arrow passed completely through her body, and she fell dead. Then as I rushed in and the warriors started to interfere with me, three or four of them fell with arrows through them, but where the arrows came from I haven't the slightest idea. I didn't see anyone who might have shot them. I don't know whether it was someone trying to aid us, or some natives attacking the Betete village.'
'Or some one else trying to steal me,' suggested the girl. 'I have been stolen so many times recently that I have come to expect it; but I hope it wasn't that, for they might be following us.'
'Happy thought,' commented Old Timer; 'but I hope you're wrong. I think you are, too, for if they had been following us to get you, they would have been on us before. There is no reason why they should have waited.'
They moved on slowly through the darkness for about half an hour longer; then the man stopped. 'I think we had better rest until morning,' he said, 'though I don't know just how we are going to accomplish it. There is no place to lie down but the trail, and as that is used by the leopards at night it isn't exactly a safe couch.'
'We might try the trees,' she suggested.
'It is the only alternative. The underbrush is too thick here-we couldn't find a place large enough to lie down. Can you climb?'
'I may need a little help.'
'I'll go up first and reach down and help you up,' he suggested.
A moment later he had found a low branch and clambered onto it. 'Here,' he said, reaching down, 'give me your hand.' Without difficulty he swung her to his side. 'Stay here until I find a more comfortable place.'
She heard him climbing about in the tree for a few minutes, and then he returned to her. 'I found just the place,' he announced. 'It couldn't have been better if it had been made to order.' He helped her to her feet, and then he put an arm about her and assisted her from branch to branch as they climbed upward toward the retreat he had located.
It was a great crotch where three branches forked, two of them laterally and almost parallel. 'I can fix this up like a Pullman,' he observed. 'Just wait a minute until I cut some small branches. How I ever stumbled on it in the dark gets me.'
'Another miracle, perhaps,' she suggested.
Growing all about them were small branches, and it did not take Old Timer long to cut as many as he needed. These he laid close together across the two parallel branches. Over them he placed a covering of leaves.
'Try that,' he directed. 'It may not be a feather bed, but it's better than none.'
'It's wonderful.' She had stretched out on it in the first utter relaxation she had experienced for days- relaxation of the mind and nerves even more than of the body. For the first time in days she did not lie with terror at her side.
He could see her only dimly in the darkness; but in his mind's eyes he visualized the contours of that perfect form, the firm bosom, the slender waist, the rounded thigh; and again passion swept through him like a racing torrent of molten gold.
'Where are you going to sleep?' she asked.
'I'll find a place,' he replied huskily. He was edging closer to her. His desire to take her in his arms was almost maniacal.
'I am so happy,' she whispered sleepily. 'I didn't expect ever to be happy again. It must be because I feel so safe with you.'
The man made no reply. Suddenly he felt very cold, as though his blood had turned to water; then a hot flush suffused him. 'What the devil did she say that for?' he soliloquized. It angered him. He felt that it was not fair. What right had she to say it? She was not safe with him. It only made the thing that he contemplated that much harder to do-took some of the pleasure from it. Had he not saved her life at the risk of his own? Did she not owe him something? Did not all women owe him a debt for what one woman had done to him?
'It seems so strange,' she said drowsily.
'What?' he asked.
'I was so afraid of you after you came to my camp, and now I should be afraid if you were not here. It just goes to show that I am not a very good judge of character, but really you were not very nice then. You seem to have changed.'
He made no comment, but he groped about in the darkness until he had found a place where he could settle himself, not comfortably, but with a minimum of discomfort. He felt that he was weak from hunger and exhaustion. He would wait until tomorrow. He thought that it might be easier then when her confidence in him was not so fresh in his mind, but he did not give up his intention.
He wedged himself into a crotch where a great limb branched from the main bole of the tree. He was very uncomfortable there, but at least there was less danger that he might fall should he doze. The girl was a short distance above him. She seemed to radiate an influence that enveloped him in an aura at once delicious and painful. He was too far from her to touch her, yet always he felt her. Presently he heard the regular breathing that denoted that she slept. Somehow it reminded him of a baby-innocent, trusting, confident. He wished that it did not. Why was she so lovely? Why did she have hair like that? Why had God given her such eyes and lips? Why– Tired nature would be denied no longer. He slept.
Old Timer was very stiff and sore when he awoke. It was daylight. He glanced up toward the girl. She was sitting up looking at him. When their eyes met she smiled. Little things, trivial things often have a tremendous effect upon our lives. Had Kali Bwana not smiled then in just the way that she did, the lives of two people might have
