Unsuspicious of the man's true character, Jane Clayton saw nothing
peculiar in his plans, or in his specious explanation of his former
friendship for the raider, and so she grasped with alacrity the
seeming hope for safety which he proffered her, and turning about
she set out with Albert Werper toward the hostile camp in which
she so lately had been a prisoner.

It was late in the afternoon of the second day before they reached
their destination, and as they paused upon the edge of the clearing
before the gates of the walled village, Werper cautioned the girl
to accede to whatever he might suggest by his conversation with
the raiders.

"I shall tell them," he said, "that I apprehended you after you
escaped from the camp, that I took you to Achmet Zek, and that as
he was engaged in a stubborn battle with the Waziri, he directed
me to return to camp with you, to obtain here a sufficient guard,
and to ride north with you as rapidly as possible and dispose of
you at the most advantageous terms to a certain slave broker whose
name he gave me."

Again the girl was deceived by the apparent frankness of the Belgian.
She realized that desperate situations required desperate handling,
and though she trembled inwardly at the thought of again entering
the vile and hideous village of the raiders she saw no better course
than that which her companion had suggested.

Calling aloud to those who tended the gates, Werper, grasping Jane
Clayton by the arm, walked boldly across the clearing. Those who