farther to the south of him, Achmet Zek gave orders to his lieutenants
that they should prepare a force of fighting men and carriers to
proceed to the ruins of the Englishman's DOUAR on the morrow and
bring back the fabulous fortune which his renegade lieutenant had
told him was buried there.

And as he delivered his instructions to those within, a silent
listener crouched without his tent, waiting for the time when
he might enter in safety and prosecute his search for the missing
pouch and the pretty pebbles that had caught his fancy.

At last the swarthy companions of Achmet Zek quitted his tent, and
the leader went with them to smoke a pipe with one of their number,
leaving his own silken habitation unguarded. Scarcely had they
left the interior when a knife blade was thrust through the fabric
of the rear wall, some six feet above the ground, and a swift
downward stroke opened an entrance to those who waited beyond.

Through the opening stepped the ape-man, and close behind him came
the huge Chulk; but Taglat did not follow them. Instead he turned
and slunk through the darkness toward the hut where the she who
had arrested his brutish interest lay securely bound. Before the
doorway the sentries sat upon their haunches, conversing in monotones.
Within, the young woman lay upon a filthy sleeping mat, resigned,
through utter hopelessness to whatever fate lay in store for her
until the opportunity arrived which would permit her to free herself
by the only means which now seemed even remotely possible--the
hitherto detested act of self-destruction.

Creeping silently toward the sentries, a white-burnoosed figure