his followers to silence and concealment. Crouching behind the
bushes the three waited, their eyes fastened upon the far side of
the open space.

Presently the foliage parted and a woman's face appeared, glancing
fearfully from side to side. A moment later, evidently satisfied
that no immediate danger lurked before her, she stepped out into
the clearing in full view of the Arab.

Achmet Zek caught his breath with a muttered exclamation of
incredulity and an imprecation. The woman was the prisoner he had
thought safely guarded at his camp!

Apparently she was alone, but Achmet Zek waited that he might make
sure of it before seizing her. Slowly Jane Clayton started across
the clearing. Twice already since she had quitted the village
of the raiders had she barely escaped the fangs of carnivora, and
once she had almost stumbled into the path of one of the searchers.
Though she was almost despairing of ever reaching safety she still
was determined to fight on, until death or success terminated her
endeavors.

As the Arabs watched her from the safety of their concealment, and
Achmet Zek noted with satisfaction that she was walking directly
into his clutches, another pair of eyes looked down upon the entire
scene from the foliage of an adjacent tree.

Puzzled, troubled eyes they were, for all their gray and savage
glint, for their owner was struggling with an intangible suggestion
of the familiarity of the face and figure of the woman below him.