Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar ..........................................................................................................................1

Edgar Rice Burroughs ..............................................................................................................................1

Lieutenant Albert Werper had only the prestige of the name he had dishonored to thank for his narrow escape

from being cashiered. At first he had been humbly thankful, too, that they had sent him to this Godforsaken

Congo post instead of courtmartialing him, as he had so justly deserved; but now six months of the

monotony, the frightful isolation and the loneliness had wrought a change. The young man brooded

continually over his fate. His days were filled with morbid selfpity, which eventually engendered in his

weak and vacillating mind a hatred for those who had sent him here for the very men he had at first

He regretted the gay life of Brussels as he never had regretted the sins which had snatched him from that

gayest of capitals, and as the days passed he came to center his resentment upon the representative in Congo

This officer was a cold, taciturn man, inspiring little love in those directly beneath him, yet respected and

Werper was accustomed to sit for hours glaring at his superior as the two sat upon the veranda of their

common quarters, smoking their evening cigarets in a silence which neither seemed desirous of breaking. The

senseless hatred of the lieutenant grew at last into a form of mania. The captain's natural taciturnity he

distorted into a studied attempt to insult him because of his past shortcomings. He imagined that his superior

held him in contempt, and so he chafed and fumed inwardly until one evening his madness became suddenly

homicidal. He fingered the butt of the revolver at his hip, his eyes narrowed and his brows contracted. At last

"You have insulted me for the last time!" he cried, springing to his feet. "I am an officer and a gentleman, and

The captain, an expression of surprise upon his features, turned toward his junior. He had seen men before

with the jungle madness upon themthe madness of solitude and unrestrained brooding, and perhaps a touch

He rose and extended his hand to lay it upon the other's shoulder. Quiet words of counsel were upon his lips;

but they were never spoken. Werper construed his superior's action into an attempt to close with him. His

revolver was on a level with the captain's heart, and the latter had taken but a step when Werper pulled the

trigger. Without a moan the man sank to the rough planking of the veranda, and as he fell the mists that had

clouded Werper's brain lifted, so that he saw himself and the deed that he had done in the same light that

He heard excited exclamations from the quarters of the soldiers and he heard men running in his direction.

They would seize him, and if they didn't kill him they would take him down the Congo to a point where a

properly ordered military tribunal would do so just as effectively, though in a more regular manner.

Werper had no desire to die. Never before had he so yearned for life as in this moment that he had so

effectively forfeited his right to live. The men were nearing him. What was he to do? He glanced about as

though searching for the tangible form of a legitimate excuse for his crime; but he could find only the body of

In despair, he turned and fled from the oncoming soldiery. Across the compound he ran, his revolver still

clutched tightly in his hand. At the gates a sentry halted him. Werper did not pause to parley or to exert the

influence of his commissionhe merely raised his weapon and shot down the innocent black. A moment

later the fugitive had torn open the gates and vanished into the blackness of the jungle, but not before he had

transferred the rifle and ammunition belts of the dead sentry to his own person.

All that night Werper fled farther and farther into the heart of the wilderness. Now and again the voice of a

lion brought him to a listening halt; but with cocked and ready rifle he pushed ahead again, more fearful of

Dawn came at last, but still the man plodded on. All sense of hunger and fatigue were lost in the terrors of

contemplated capture. He could think only of escape. He dared not pause to rest or eat until there was no

further danger from pursuit, and so he staggered on until at last he fell and could rise no more. How long he

had fled he did not know, or try to know. When he could flee no longer the knowledge that he had reached

And thus it was that Achmet Zek, the Arab, found him. Achmet's followers were for running a spear through

the body of their hereditary enemy; but Achmet would have it otherwise. First he would question the Belgian.

It were easier to question a man first and kill him afterward, than kill him first and then question him.

So he had Lieutenant Albert Werper carried to his own tent, and there slaves administered wine and food in

small quantities until at last the prisoner regained consciousness. As he opened his eyes he saw the faces of

strange black men about him, and just outside the tent the figure of an Arab. Nowhere was the uniform of his

The Arab turned and seeing the open eyes of the prisoner upon him, entered the tent.

"I am Achmet Zek," he announced. "Who are you, and what were you doing in my country? Where are your

Achmet Zek! Werper's eyes went wide, and his heart sank. He was in the clutches of the most notorious of

cutthroatsa hater of all Europeans, especially those who wore the uniform of Belgium. For years the

military forces of Belgian Congo had waged a fruitless war upon this man and his followersa war in which

But presently in the very hatred of the man for Belgians, Werper saw a faint ray of hope for himself. He, too,

was an outcast and an outlaw. So far, at least, they possessed a common interest, and Werper decided to play

"I have heard of you," he replied, "and was searching for you. My people have turned against me. I hate them.

Even now their soldiers are searching for me, to kill me. I knew that you would protect me from them, for

you, too, hate them. In return I will take service with you. I am a trained soldier. I can fight, and your enemies

Achmet Zek eyed the European in silence. In his mind he revolved many thoughts, chief among which was

that the unbeliever lied. Of course there was the chance that he did not lie, and if he told the truth then his

proposition was one well worthy of consideration, since fighting men were never over plentifulespecially

white men with the training and knowledge of military matters that a European officer must possess.

Achmet Zek scowled and Werper's heart sank; but Werper did not know Achmet Zek, who was quite apt to

"And if you have lied to me," said Achmet Zek, "I will kill you at any time. What return, other than your life,

"My keep only, at first," replied Werper. "Later, if I am worth more, we can easily reach an understanding."

Werper's only desire at the moment was to preserve his life. And so the agreement was reached and

Lieutenant Albert Werper became a member of the ivory and slave raiding band of the notorious Achmet

For months the renegade Belgian rode with the savage raider. He fought with a savage abandon, and a vicious

cruelty fully equal to that of his fellow desperadoes. Achmet Zek watched his recruit with eagle eye, and with

a growing satisfaction which finally found expression in a greater confidence in the man, and resulted in an

Achmet Zek took the Belgian into his confidence to a great extent, and at last unfolded to him a pet scheme

which the Arab had long fostered, but which he never had found an opportunity to effect. With the aid of a

"But for him we might carry on our 'trading' in safety and with great profit," continued the Arab. "For years

he has fought us, driving us from the richest part of the country, harassing us, and arming the natives that they

may repel us when we come to 'trade.' He is very rich. If we could find some way to make him pay us many

pieces of gold we should not only be avenged upon him; but repaid for much that he has prevented us from

"He has a wife," replied Achmet Zek, "whom men say is very beautiful. She would bring a great price farther

Werper bent his head in thought. Achmet Zek stood awaiting his reply. What good remained in Albert

Werper revolted at the thought of selling a white woman into the slavery and degradation of a Moslem harem.

He looked up at Achmet Zek. He saw the Arab's eyes narrow, and he guessed that the other had sensed his

antagonism to the plan. What would it mean to Werper to refuse? His life lay in the hands of this

semibarbarian, who esteemed the life of an unbeliever less highly than that of a dog. Werper loved life.

What was this woman to him, anyway? She was a European, doubtless, a member of organized society. He

was an outcast. The hand of every white man was against him. She was his natural enemy, and if he refused

"I was but weighing the chances of success," lied Werper, "and my reward. As a European I can gain

admittance to their home and table. You have no other with you who could do so much. The risk will be

"Well said, Werper," and Achmet Zek slapped his lieutenant upon the shoulder. "You should be well paid and

you shall. Now let us sit together and plan how best the thing may be done," and the two men squatted upon a

soft rug beneath the faded silks of Achmet's once gorgeous tent, and talked together in low voices well into

the night. Both were tall and bearded, and the exposure to sun and wind had given an almost Arab hue to the

European's complexion. In every detail of dress, too, he copied the fashions of his chief, so that outwardly he

was as much an Arab as the other. It was late when he arose and retired to his own tent.

The following day Werper spent in overhauling his Belgian uniform, removing from it every vestige of

evidence that might indicate its military purposes. From a heterogeneous collection of loot, Achmet Zek

procured a pith helmet and a European saddle, and from his black slaves and followers a party of porters,

askaris and tent boys to make up a modest safari for a big game hunter. At the head of this party Werper set

It was two weeks later that John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, riding in from a tour of inspection of his vast

African estate, glimpsed the head of a column of men crossing the plain that lay between his bungalow and

He reined in his horse and watched the little party as it emerged from a concealing swale. His keen eyes

caught the reflection of the sun upon the white helmet of a mounted man, and with the conviction that a

wandering European hunter was seeking his hospitality, he wheeled his mount and rode slowly forward to

A half hour later he was mounting the steps leading to the veranda of his bungalow, and introducing M. Jules

"I was completely lost," M. Frecoult was explaining. "My head man had never before been in this part of the

country and the guides who were to have accompanied me from the last village we passed knew even less of

the country than we. They finally deserted us two days since. I am very fortunate indeed to have stumbled so

providentially upon succor. I do not know what I should have done, had I not found you."

It was decided that Frecoult and his party should remain several days, or until they were thoroughly rested,

when Lord Greystoke would furnish guides to lead them safely back into country with which Frecoult's head

In his guise of a French gentleman of leisure, Werper found little difficulty in deceiving his host and in

ingratiating himself with both Tarzan and Jane Clayton; but the longer he remained the less hopeful he

Lady Greystoke never rode alone at any great distance from the bungalow, and the savage loyalty of the

ferocious Waziri warriors who formed a great part of Tarzan's followers seemed to preclude the possibility of

a successful attempt at forcible abduction, or of the bribery of the Waziri themselves.

A week passed, and Werper was no nearer the fulfillment of his plan, in so far as he could judge, than upon

the day of his arrival, but at that very moment something occurred which gave him renewed hope and set his

A runner had arrived at the bungalow with the weekly mail, and Lord Greystoke had spent the afternoon in

his study reading and answering letters. At dinner he seemed distraught, and early in the evening he excused

himself and retired, Lady Greystoke following him very soon after. Werper, sitting upon the veranda, could

hear their voices in earnest discussion, and having realized that something of unusual moment was afoot, he

quietly rose from his chair, and keeping well in the shadow of the shrubbery growing profusely about the

bungalow, made his silent way to a point beneath the window of the room in which his host and hostess slept.

Here he listened, and not without result, for almost the first words he overheard filled him with excitement.

"I always feared for the stability of the company," she was saying; "but it seems incredible that they should

have failed for so enormous a sumunless there has been some dishonest manipulation."

"That is what I suspect," replied Tarzan; "but whatever the cause, the fact remains that I have lost everything,

"Oh, John," cried Lady Greystoke, and Werper could feel the shudder through her voice, "is there no other

way? I cannot bear to think of you returning to that frightful city. I would rather live in poverty always than

"You need have no fear," replied Tarzan, laughing. "I am pretty well able to take care of myself, and were I

"They will not do it again," he answered. "They were very much ashamed of themselves, and were coming

"There is no other way half so easy to obtain another fortune, as to go to the treasure vaults of Opar and bring

it away," he replied. "I shall be very careful, Jane, and the chances are that the inhabitants of Opar will never

know that I have been there again and despoiled them of another portion of the treasure, the very existence of

The finality in his tone seemed to assure Lady Greystoke that further argument was futile, and so she

Werper remained, listening, for a short time, and then, confident that he had overheard all that was necessary

and fearing discovery, returned to the veranda, where he smoked numerous cigarets in rapid succession

The following morning at breakfast, Werper announced his intention of making an early departure, and asked

Tarzan's permission to hunt big game in the Waziri country on his way outpermission which Lord

The Belgian consumed two days in completing his preparations, but finally got away with his safari,

accompanied by a single Waziri guide whom Lord Greystoke had loaned him. The party made but a single

short march when Werper simulated illness, and announced his intention of remaining where he was until he

had fully recovered. As they had gone but a short distance from the Greystoke bungalow, Werper dismissed

the Waziri guide, telling the warrior that he would send for him when he was able to proceed. The Waziri

gone, the Belgian summoned one of Achmet Zek's trusted blacks to his tent, and dispatched him to watch for

the departure of Tarzan, returning immediately to advise Werper of the event and the direction taken by the

The Belgian did not have long to wait, for the following day his emissary returned with word that Tarzan and

a party of fifty Waziri warriors had set out toward the southeast early in the morning.

Werper called his head man to him, after writing a long letter to Achmet Zek. This letter he handed to the

"Send a runner at once to Achmet Zek with this," he instructed the head man. "Remain here in camp awaiting

further instructions from him or from me. If any come from the bungalow of the Englishman, tell them that I

am very ill within my tent and can see no one. Now, give me six porters and six askaristhe strongest and

bravest of the safariand I will march after the Englishman and discover where his gold is hidden."

And so it was that as Tarzan, stripped to the loin cloth and armed after the primitive fashion he best loved, led

his loyal Waziri toward the dead city of Opar, Werper, the renegade, haunted his trail through the long, hot

And as they marched, Achmet Zek rode with his entire following southward toward the Greystoke farm.

To Tarzan of the Apes the expedition was in the nature of a holiday outing. His civilization was at best but an

outward veneer which he gladly peeled off with his uncomfortable European clothes whenever any

reasonable pretext presented itself. It was a woman's love which kept Tarzan even to the semblance of

civilizationa condition for which familiarity had bred contempt. He hated the shams and the hypocrisies of

it and with the clear vision of an unspoiled mind he had penetrated to the rotten core of the heart of the

thingthe cowardly greed for peace and ease and the safeguarding of property rights. That the fine things

of lifeart, music and literaturehad thriven upon such enervating ideals he strenuously denied, insisting,

"Show me the fat, opulent coward," he was wont to say, "who ever originated a beautiful ideal. In the clash of

arms, in the battle for survival, amid hunger and death and danger, in the face of God as manifested in the

display of Nature's most terrific forces, is born all that is finest and best in the human heart and mind."

And so Tarzan always came back to Nature in the spirit of a lover keeping a long deferred tryst after a period

behind prison walls. His Waziri, at marrow, were more civilized than he. They cooked their meat before they

ate it and they shunned many articles of food as unclean that Tarzan had eaten with gusto all his life and so

insidious is the virus of hypocrisy that even the stalwart apeman hesitated to give rein to his natural longings

before them. He ate burnt flesh when he would have preferred it raw and unspoiled, and he brought down

game with arrow or spear when he would far rather have leaped upon it from ambush and sunk his strong

teeth in its jugular; but at last the call of the milk of the savage mother that had suckled him in infancy rose to

an insistent demandhe craved the hot blood of a fresh kill and his muscles yearned to pit themselves

against the savage jungle in the battle for existence that had been his sole birthright for the first twenty years

Moved by these vague yet allpowerful urgings the apeman lay awake one night in the little thorn boma that

protected, in a way, his party from the depredations of the great carnivora of the jungle. A single warrior

stood sleepy guard beside the fire that yellow eyes out of the darkness beyond the camp made imperative.

The moans and the coughing of the big cats mingled with the myriad noises of the lesser denizens of the

jungle to fan the savage flame in the breast of this savage English lord. He tossed upon his bed of grasses,

sleepless, for an hour and then he rose, noiseless as a wraith, and while the Waziri's back was turned, vaulted

the boma wall in the face of the flaming eyes, swung silently into a great tree and was gone.

For a time in sheer exuberance of animal spirit he raced swiftly through the middle terrace, swinging

perilously across wide spans from one jungle giant to the next, and then he clambered upward to the swaying,

lesser boughs of the upper terrace where the moon shone full upon him and the air was stirred by little

breezes and death lurked ready in each frail branch. Here he paused and raised his face to Goro, the moon.

With uplifted arm he stood, the cry of the bull ape quivering upon his lips, yet he remained silent lest he

arouse his faithful Waziri who were all too familiar with the hideous challenge of their master.

And then he went on more slowly and with greater stealth and caution, for now Tarzan of the Apes was

seeking a kill. Down to the ground he came in the utter blackness of the closeset boles and the overhanging

verdure of the jungle. He stooped from time to time and put his nose close to earth. He sought and found a

wide game trail and at last his nostrils were rewarded with the scent of the fresh spoor of Bara, the deer.

Tarzan's mouth watered and a low growl escaped his patrician lips. Sloughed from him was the last vestige of

artificial casteonce again he was the primeval hunterthe first manthe highest caste type of the human

race. Up wind he followed the elusive spoor with a sense of perception so transcending that of ordinary man

as to be inconceivable to us. Through counter currents of the heavy stench of meat eaters he traced the trail of

Bara; the sweet and cloying stink of Horta, the boar, could not drown his quarry's scent the permeating,

Presently the body scent of the deer told Tarzan that his prey was close at hand. It sent him into the trees

againinto the lower terrace where he could watch the ground below and catch with ears and nose the first

intimation of actual contact with his quarry. Nor was it long before the apeman came upon Bara standing

alert at the edge of a moonbathed clearing. Noiselessly Tarzan crept through the trees until he was directly

over the deer. In the apeman's right hand was the long hunting knife of his father and in his heart the blood

lust of the carnivore. Just for an instant he poised above the unsuspecting Bara and then he launched himself

downward upon the sleek back. The impact of his weight carried the deer to its knees and before the animal

could regain its feet the knife had found its heart. As Tarzan rose upon the body of his kill to scream forth his

hideous victory cry into the face of the moon the wind carried to his nostrils something which froze him to

statuesque immobility and silence. His savage eyes blazed into the direction from which the wind had borne

down the warning to him and a moment later the grasses at one side of the clearing parted and Numa, the

lion, strode majestically into view. His yellowgreen eyes were fastened upon Tarzan as he halted just within

the clearing and glared enviously at the successful hunter, for Numa had had no luck this night.

From the lips of the apeman broke a rumbling growl of warning. Numa answered but he did not advance.

Instead he stood waving his tail gently to and fro, and presently Tarzan squatted upon his kill and cut a

generous portion from a hind quarter. Numa eyed him with growing resentment and rage as, between

mouthfuls, the apeman growled out his savage warnings. Now this particular lion had never before come in

contact with Tarzan of the Apes and he was much mystified. Here was the appearance and the scent of a

manthing and Numa had tasted of human flesh and learned that though not the most palatable it was

certainly by far the easiest to secure, yet there was that in the bestial growls of the strange creature which

reminded him of formidable antagonists and gave him pause, while his hunger and the odor of the hot flesh of

Bara goaded him almost to madness. Always Tarzan watched him, guessing what was passing in the little

brain of the carnivore and well it was that he did watch him, for at last Numa could stand it no longer. His tail

shot suddenly erect and at the same instant the wary apeman, knowing all too well what the signal

portended, grasped the remainder of the deer's hind quarter between his teeth and leaped into a nearby tree as

Numa charged him with all the speed and a sufficient semblance of the weight of an express train.

Tarzan's retreat was no indication that he felt fear. Jungle life is ordered along different lines than ours and

different standards prevail. Had Tarzan been famished he would, doubtless, have stood his ground and met

the lion's charge. He had done the thing before upon more than one occasion, just as in the past he had

charged lions himself; but tonight he was far from famished and in the hind quarter he had carried off with

him was more raw flesh than he could eat; yet it was with no equanimity that he looked down upon Numa

rending the flesh of Tarzan's kill. The presumption of this strange Numa must be punished! And forthwith

Tarzan set out to make life miserable for the big cat. Close by were many trees bearing large, hard fruits and

to one of these the apeman swung with the agility of a squirrel. Then commenced a bombardment which

brought forth earthshaking roars from Numa. One after another as rapidly as he could gather and hurl them,

Tarzan pelted the hard fruit down upon the lion. It was impossible for the tawny cat to eat under that hail of

missileshe could but roar and growl and dodge and eventually he was driven away entirely from the

carcass of Bara, the deer. He went roaring and resentful; but in the very center of the clearing his voice was

suddenly hushed and Tarzan saw the great head lower and flatten out, the body crouch and the long tail

Immediately Tarzan was alert. He lifted his head and sniffed the slow, jungle breeze. What was it that had

attracted Numa's attention and taken him softfooted and silent away from the scene of his discomfiture? Just

as the lion disappeared among the trees beyond the clearing Tarzan caught upon the downcoming wind the

explanation of his new interestthe scent spoor of man was wafted strongly to the sensitive nostrils.

Caching the remainder of the deer's hind quarter in the crotch of a tree the apeman wiped his greasy palms

upon his naked thighs and swung off in pursuit of Numa. A broad, wellbeaten elephant path led into the

forest from the clearing. Parallel to this slunk Numa, while above him Tarzan moved through the trees, the

shadow of a wraith. The savage cat and the savage man saw Numa's quarry almost simultaneously, though

both had known before it came within the vision of their eyes that it was a black man. Their sensitive nostrils

had told them this much and Tarzan's had told him that the scent spoor was that of a strangerold and a

male, for race and sex and age each has its own distinctive scent. It was an old man that made his way alone

through the gloomy jungle, a wrinkled, dried up, little old man hideously scarred and tattooed and strangely

garbed, with the skin of a hyena about his shoulders and the dried head mounted upon his grey pate. Tarzan

recognized the earmarks of the witchdoctor and awaited Numa's charge with a feeling of pleasurable

anticipation, for the apeman had no love for witchdoctors; but in the instant that Numa did charge, the

white man suddenly recalled that the lion had stolen his kill a few minutes before and that revenge is sweet.

The first intimation the black man had that he was in danger was the crash of twigs as Numa charged through

the bushes into the game trail not twenty yards behind him. Then he turned to see a huge, blackmaned lion

racing toward him and even as he turned, Numa seized him. At the same instant the apeman dropped from

an overhanging limb full upon the lion's back and as he alighted he plunged his knife into the tawny side

behind the left shoulder, tangled the fingers of his right hand in the long mane, buried his teeth in Numa's

neck and wound his powerful legs about the beast's torso. With a roar of pain and rage, Numa reared up and

fell backward upon the apeman; but still the mighty manthing clung to his hold and repeatedly the long

knife plunged rapidly into his side. Over and over rolled Numa, the lion, clawing and biting at the air, roaring

and growling horribly in savage attempt to reach the thing upon its back. More than once was Tarzan almost

brushed from his hold. He was battered and bruised and covered with blood from Numa and dirt from the

trail, yet not for an instant did he lessen the ferocity of his mad attack nor his grim hold upon the back of his

antagonist. To have loosened for an instant his grip there, would have been to bring him within reach of those

tearing talons or rending fangs, and have ended forever the grim career of this junglebred English lord.

Where he had fallen beneath the spring of the lion the witchdoctor lay, torn and bleeding, unable to drag

himself away and watched the terrific battle between these two lords of the jungle. His sunken eyes glittered

and his wrinkled lips moved over toothless gums as he mumbled weird incantations to the demons of his cult.

For a time he felt no doubt as to the outcomethe strange white man must certainly succumb to terrible

Simbawhoever heard of a lone man armed only with a knife slaying so mighty a beast! Yet presently the

old black man's eyes went wider and he commenced to have his doubts and misgivings. What wonderful sort

of creature was this that battled with Simba and held his own despite the mighty muscles of the king of beasts

and slowly there dawned in those sunken eyes, gleaming so brightly from the scarred and wrinkled face, the

light of a dawning recollection. Gropingly backward into the past reached the fingers of memory, until at last

they seized upon a faint picture, faded and yellow with the passing years. It was the picture of a lithe,

whiteskinned youth swinging through the trees in company with a band of huge apes, and the old eyes

blinked and a great fear came into themthe superstitious fear of one who believes in ghosts and spirits and

And came the time once more when the witchdoctor no longer doubted the outcome of the duel, yet his first

judgment was reversed, for now he knew that the jungle god would slay Simba and the old black was even

more terrified of his own impending fate at the hands of the victor than he had been by the sure and sudden

death which the triumphant lion would have meted out to him. He saw the lion weaken from loss of blood.

He saw the mighty limbs tremble and stagger and at last he saw the beast sink down to rise no more. He saw

the forest god or demon rise from the vanquished foe, and placing a foot upon the still quivering carcass, raise

his face to the moon and bay out a hideous cry that froze the ebbing blood in the veins of the witchdoctor.

Then Tarzan turned his attention to the man. He had not slain Numa to save the Negrohe had merely done

it in revenge upon the lion; but now that he saw the old man lying helpless and dying before him something

akin to pity touched his savage heart. In his youth he would have slain the witchdoctor without the slightest

compunction; but civilization had had its softening effect upon him even as it does upon the nations and races

which it touches, though it had not yet gone far enough with Tarzan to render him either cowardly or

effeminate. He saw an old man suffering and dying, and he stooped and felt of his wounds and stanched the

"I am TarzanTarzan of the Apes," replied the apeman and not without a greater touch of pride than he

The witchdoctor shook convulsively and closed his eyes. When he opened them again there was in them a

resignation to whatever horrible fate awaited him at the hands of this feared demon of the woods. "Why do

"Why should I kill you?" inquired Tarzan. "You have not harmed me, and anyway you are already dying.

"You would not kill me?" Surprise and incredulity were in the tones of the quavering old voice.

"I would save you if I could," replied Tarzan, "but that cannot be done. Why did you think I would kill you?"

For a moment the old man was silent. When he spoke it was evidently after some little effort to muster his

courage. "I knew you of old," he said, "when you ranged the jungle in the country of Mbonga, the chief. I was

already a witchdoctor when you slew Kulonga and the others, and when you robbed our huts and our poison

pot. At first I did not remember you; but at last I didthe whiteskinned ape that lived with the hairy apes

and made life miserable in the village of Mbonga, the chiefthe forest godthe MunangoKeewati for

whom we set food outside our gates and who came and ate it. Tell me before I dieare you man or devil?"

The old fellow sighed and shook his head. "You have tried to save me from Simba," he said. "For that I shall

reward you. I am a great witchdoctor. Listen to me, white man! I see bad days ahead of you. It is writ in my

own blood which I have smeared upon my palm. A god greater even than you will rise up and strike you

down. Turn back, MunangoKeewati! Turn back before it is too late. Danger lies ahead of you and danger

lurks behind; but greater is the danger before. I see" He paused and drew a long, gasping breath. Then he

crumpled into a little, wrinkled heap and died. Tarzan wondered what else he had seen.

It was very late when the apeman reentered the boma and lay down among his black warriors. None had

seen him go and none saw him return. He thought about the warning of the old witchdoctor before he fell

asleep and he thought of it again after he awoke; but he did not turn back for he was unafraid, though had he

known what lay in store for one he loved most in all the world he would have flown through the trees to her

side and allowed the gold of Opar to remain forever hidden in its forgotten storehouse.

Behind him that morning another white man pondered something he had heard during the night and very

nearly did he give up his project and turn back upon his trail. It was Werper, the murderer, who in the still of

the night had heard far away upon the trail ahead of him a sound that had filled his cowardly soul with

terrora sound such as he never before had heard in all his life, nor dreamed that such a frightful thing could

emanate from the lungs of a Godcreated creature. He had heard the victory cry of the bull ape as Tarzan had

screamed it forth into the face of Goro, the moon, and he had trembled then and hidden his face; and now in

the broad light of a new day he trembled again as he recalled it, and would have turned back from the

nameless danger the echo of that frightful sound seemed to portend, had he not stood in even greater fear of

And so Tarzan of the Apes forged steadily ahead toward Opar's ruined ramparts and behind him slunk

At the edge of the desolate valley, overlooking the golden domes and minarets of Opar, Tarzan halted. By

night he would go alone to the treasure vault, reconnoitering, for he had determined that caution should mark

With the coming of night he set forth, and Werper, who had scaled the cliffs alone behind the apeman's

party, and hidden through the day among the rough boulders of the mountain top, slunk stealthily after him.

The boulderstrewn plain between the valley's edge and the mighty granite kopje, outside the city's walls,

where lay the entrance to the passageway leading to the treasure vault, gave the Belgian ample cover as he

He saw the giant apeman swing himself nimbly up the face of the great rock. Werper, clawing fearfully

during the perilous ascent, sweating in terror, almost palsied by fear, but spurred on by avarice, following

Tarzan was nowhere in sight. For a time Werper hid behind one of the lesser boulders that were scattered

over the top of the hill, but, seeing or hearing nothing of the Englishman, he crept from his place of

concealment to undertake a systematic search of his surroundings, in the hope that he might discover the

location of the treasure in ample time to make his escape before Tarzan returned, for it was the Belgian's

desire merely to locate the gold, that, after Tarzan had departed, he might come in safety with his followers

He found the narrow cleft leading downward into the heart of the kopje along wellworn, granite steps. He

advanced quite to the dark mouth of the tunnel into which the runway disappeared; but here he halted, fearing

The apeman, far ahead of him, groped his way along the rocky passage, until he came to the ancient wooden

door. A moment later he stood within the treasure chamber, where, ages since, longdead hands had ranged

the lofty rows of precious ingots for the rulers of that great continent which now lies submerged beneath the

No sound broke the stillness of the subterranean vault. There was no evidence that another had discovered the

Satisfied, Tarzan turned and retraced his steps toward the summit of the kopje. Werper, from the concealment

of a jutting, granite shoulder, watched him pass up from the shadows of the stairway and advance toward the

edge of the hill which faced the rim of the valley where the Waziri awaited the signal of their master. Then

Werper, slipping stealthily from his hiding place, dropped into the somber darkness of the entrance and

Tarzan, halting upon the kopje's edge, raised his voice in the thunderous roar of a lion. Twice, at regular

intervals, he repeated the call, standing in attentive silence for several minutes after the echoes of the third

call had died away. And then, from far across the valley, faintly, came an answering roaronce, twice,

Tarzan again made his way toward the treasure vault, knowing that in a few hours his blacks would be with

him, ready to bear away another fortune in the strangely shaped, golden ingots of Opar. In the meantime he

would carry as much of the precious metal to the summit of the kopje as he could.

Six trips he made in the five hours before Basuli reached the kopje, and at the end of that time he had

transported fortyeight ingots to the edge of the great boulder, carrying upon each trip a load which might

well have staggered two ordinary men, yet his giant frame showed no evidence of fatigue, as he helped to

raise his ebon warriors to the hill top with the rope that had been brought for the purpose.

Six times he had returned to the treasure chamber, and six times Werper, the Belgian, had cowered in the

black shadows at the far end of the long vault. Once again came the apeman, and this time there came with

him fifty fighting men, turning porters for love of the only creature in the world who might command of their

fierce and haughty natures such menial service. Fiftytwo more ingots passed out of the vaults, making the

As the last of the Waziri filed from the chamber, Tarzan turned back for a last glimpse of the fabulous wealth

upon which his two inroads had made no appreciable impression. Before he extinguished the single candle he

had brought with him for the purpose, and the flickering light of which had cast the first alleviating rays into

the impenetrable darkness of the buried chamber, that it had known for the countless ages since it had lain

forgotten of man, Tarzan's mind reverted to that first occasion upon which he had entered the treasure vault,

coming upon it by chance as he fled from the pits beneath the temple, where he had been hidden by La, the

He recalled the scene within the temple when he had lain stretched upon the sacrificial altar, while La, with

highraised dagger, stood above him, and the rows of priests and priestesses awaited, in the ecstatic hysteria

of fanaticism, the first gush of their victim's warm blood, that they might fill their golden goblets and drink to

The brutal and bloody interruption by Tha, the mad priest, passed vividly before the apeman's recollective

eyes, the flight of the votaries before the insane blood lust of the hideous creature, the brutal attack upon La,

and his own part of the grim tragedy when he had battled with the infuriated Oparian and left him dead at the

This and much more passed through Tarzan's memory as he stood gazing at the long tiers of dullyellow

metal. He wondered if La still ruled the temples of the ruined city whose crumbling walls rose upon the very

foundations about him. Had she finally been forced into a union with one of her grotesque priests? It seemed

a hideous fate, indeed, for one so beautiful. With a shake of his head, Tarzan stepped to the flickering candle,

Behind him the spy waited for him to be gone. He had learned the secret for which he had come, and now he

could return at his leisure to his waiting followers, bring them to the treasure vault and carry away all the gold

The Waziri had reached the outer end of the tunnel, and were winding upward toward the fresh air and the

welcome starlight of the kopje's summit, before Tarzan shook off the detaining hand of reverie and started

Once again, and, he thought, for the last time, he closed the massive door of the treasure room. In the

darkness behind him Werper rose and stretched his cramped muscles. He stretched forth a hand and lovingly

caressed a golden ingot on the nearest tier. He raised it from its immemorial resting place and weighed it in

Tarzan dreamed of the happy homecoming which lay before him, of dear arms about his neck, and a soft

cheek pressed to his; but there rose to dispel that dream the memory of the old witchdoctor and his warning.

And then, in the span of a few brief seconds, the hopes of both these men were shattered. The one forgot even

his greed in the panic of terrorthe other was plunged into total forgetfulness of the past by a jagged

It was at the moment that Tarzan turned from the closed door to pursue his way to the outer world. The thing

came without warning. One instant all was quiet and stabilitythe next, and the world rocked, the tortured

sides of the narrow passageway split and crumbled, great blocks of granite, dislodged from the ceiling,

tumbled into the narrow way, choking it, and the walls bent inward upon the wreckage. Beneath the blow of a

fragment of the roof, Tarzan staggered back against the door to the treasure room, his weight pushed it open

In the great apartment where the treasure lay less damage was wrought by the earthquake. A few ingots

toppled from the higher tiers, a single piece of the rocky ceiling splintered off and crashed downward to the

There was but the single shock, no other followed to complete the damage undertaken by the first. Werper,

thrown to his length by the suddenness and violence of the disturbance, staggered to his feet when he found

himself unhurt. Groping his way toward the far end of the chamber, he sought the candle which Tarzan had

By striking numerous matches the Belgian at last found what he sought, and when, a moment later, the sickly

rays relieved the Stygian darkness about him, he breathed a nervous sigh of relief, for the impenetrable gloom

As they became accustomed to the light the man turned his eyes toward the doorhis one thought now was

of escape from this frightful tomband as he did so he saw the body of the naked giant lying stretched upon

the floor just within the doorway. Werper drew back in sudden fear of detection; but a second glance

convinced him that the Englishman was dead. From a great gash in the man's head a pool of blood had

Quickly, the Belgian leaped over the prostrate form of his erstwhile host, and without a thought of succor for

the man in whom, for aught he knew, life still remained, he bolted for the passageway and safety.

But his renewed hopes were soon dashed. Just beyond the doorway he found the passage completely clogged

and choked by impenetrable masses of shattered rock. Once more he turned and reentered the treasure vault.

Taking the candle from its place he commenced a systematic search of the apartment, nor had he gone far

before he discovered another door in the opposite end of the room, a door which gave upon creaking hinges

to the weight of his body. Beyond the door lay another narrow passageway. Along this Werper made his way,

ascending a flight of stone steps to another corridor twenty feet above the level of the first. The flickering

candle lighted the way before him, and a moment later he was thankful for the possession of this crude and

antiquated luminant, which, a few hours before he might have looked upon with contempt, for it showed him,

just in time, a yawning pit, apparently terminating the tunnel he was traversing.

Before him was a circular shaft. He held the candle above it and peered downward. Below him, at a great

distance, he saw the light reflected back from the surface of a pool of water. He had come upon a well. He

raised the candle above his head and peered across the black void, and there upon the opposite side he saw

As he stood there measuring the distance to the opposite side and wondering if he dared venture so great a

leap, there broke suddenly upon his startled ears a piercing scream which diminished gradually until it ended

in a series of dismal moans. The voice seemed partly human, yet so hideous that it might well have emanated

The Belgian shuddered and looked fearfully upward, for the scream had seemed to come from above him. As

he looked he saw an opening far overhead, and a patch of sky pinked with brilliant stars.

His halfformed intention to call for help was expunged by the terrifying crywhere such a voice lived, no

human creatures could dwell. He dared not reveal himself to whatever inhabitants dwelt in the place above

him. He cursed himself for a fool that he had ever embarked upon such a mission. He wished himself safely

back in the camp of Achmet Zek, and would almost have embraced an opportunity to give himself up to the

military authorities of the Congo if by so doing he might be rescued from the frightful predicament in which

He listened fearfully, but the cry was not repeated, and at last spurred to desperate means, he gathered himself

for the leap across the chasm. Going back twenty paces, he took a running start, and at the edge of the well,

In his hand he clutched the sputtering candle, and as he took the leap the rush of air extinguished it. In utter

darkness he flew through space, clutching outward for a hold should his feet miss the invisible ledge.

He struck the edge of the door of the opposite terminus of the rocky tunnel with his knees, slipped backward,

clutched desperately for a moment, and at last hung half within and half without the opening; but he was safe.

For several minutes he dared not move; but clung, weak and sweating, where he lay. At last, cautiously, he

drew himself well within the tunnel, and again he lay at full length upon the floor, fighting to regain control

When his knees struck the edge of the tunnel he had dropped the candle. Presently, hoping against hope that it

had fallen upon the floor of the passageway, rather than back into the depths of the well, he rose upon all

fours and commenced a diligent search for the little tallow cylinder, which now seemed infinitely more

And when, at last, he found it, he clasped it to him and sank back sobbing and exhausted. For many minutes

he lay trembling and broken; but finally he drew himself to a sitting posture, and taking a match from his

pocket, lighted the stump of the candle which remained to him. With the light he found it easier to regain

control of his nerves, and presently he was again making his way along the tunnel in search of an avenue of

escape. The horrid cry that had come down to him from above through the ancient wellshaft still haunted

him, so that he trembled in terror at even the sounds of his own cautious advance.

He had gone forward but a short distance, when, to his chagrin, a wall of masonry barred his farther progress,

closing the tunnel completely from top to bottom and from side to side. What could it mean? Werper was an

educated and intelligent man. His military training had taught him to use his mind for the purpose for which it

was intended. A blind tunnel such as this was senseless. It must continue beyond the wall. Someone, at some

time in the past, had had it blocked for an unknown purpose of his own. The man fell to examining the

masonry by the light of his candle. To his delight he discovered that the thin blocks of hewn stone of which it

was constructed were fitted in loosely without mortar or cement. He tugged upon one of them, and to his joy

found that it was easily removable. One after another he pulled out the blocks until he had opened an aperture

large enough to admit his body, then he crawled through into a large, low chamber. Across this another door

barred his way; but this, too, gave before his efforts, for it was not barred. A long, dark corridor showed

before him, but before he had followed it far, his candle burned down until it scorched his fingers. With an

Now he was in total darkness, and again terror rode heavily astride his neck. What further pitfalls and dangers

lay ahead he could not guess; but that he was as far as ever from liberty he was quite willing to believe, so

Slowly he groped his way along, feeling with his hands upon the tunnel's walls, and cautiously with his feet

ahead of him upon the floor before he could take a single forward step. How long he crept on thus he could

not guess; but at last, feeling that the tunnel's length was interminable, and exhausted by his efforts, by terror,

and loss of sleep, he determined to lie down and rest before proceeding farther.

When he awoke there was no change in the surrounding blackness. He might have slept a second or a

dayhe could not know; but that he had slept for some time was attested by the fact that he felt refreshed

Again he commenced his groping advance; but this time he had gone but a short distance when he emerged

into a room, which was lighted through an opening in the ceiling, from which a flight of concrete steps led

Above him, through the aperture, Werper could see sunlight glancing from massive columns, which were

twined about by clinging vines. He listened; but he heard no sound other than the soughing of the wind

through leafy branches, the hoarse cries of birds, and the chattering of monkeys.

Boldly he ascended the stairway, to find himself in a circular court. Just before him stood a stone altar,

stained with rustybrown discolorations. At the time Werper gave no thought to an explanation of these

Beside the opening in the floor, just behind the altar, through which he had entered the court from the

subterranean chamber below, the Belgian discovered several doors leading from the enclosure upon the level

of the floor. Above, and circling the courtyard, was a series of open balconies. Monkeys scampered about the

deserted ruins, and gaily plumaged birds flitted in and out among the columns and the galleries far above; but

no sign of human presence was discernible. Werper felt relieved. He sighed, as though a great weight had

been lifted from his shoulders. He took a step toward one of the exits, and then he halted, wideeyed in

astonishment and terror, for almost at the same instant a dozen doors opened in the courtyard wall and a

They were the priests of the Flaming God of Oparthe same, shaggy, knotted, hideous little men who had

dragged Jane Clayton to the sacrificial altar at this very spot years before. Their long arms, their short and

crooked legs, their closeset, evil eyes, and their low, receding foreheads gave them a bestial appearance that

With a scream he turned to flee back into the lesser terrors of the gloomy corridors and apartments from

which he had just emerged, but the frightful men anticipated his intentions. They blocked the way; they

seized him, and though he fell, groveling upon his knees before them, begging for his life, they bound him

The rest was but a repetition of what Tarzan and Jane Clayton had passed through. The priestesses came, and

with them La, the High Priestess. Werper was raised and laid across the altar. Cold sweat exuded from his

every pore as La raised the cruel, sacrificial knife above him. The death chant fell upon his tortured ears. His

staring eyes wandered to the golden goblets from which the hideous votaries would soon quench their

He wished that he might be granted the brief respite of unconsciousness before the final plunge of the keen

bladeand then there was a frightful roar that sounded almost in his ears. The High Priestess lowered her

dagger. Her eyes went wide in horror. The priestesses, her votaresses, screamed and fled madly toward the

exits. The priests roared out their rage and terror according to the temper of their courage. Werper strained his

neck about to catch a sight of the cause of their panic, and when, at last he saw it, he too went cold in dread,

for what his eyes beheld was the figure of a huge lion standing in the center of the temple, and already a

Again the lord of the wilderness roared, turning his baleful gaze upon the altar. La staggered forward, reeled,

After their first terror had subsided subsequent to the shock of the earthquake, Basuli and his warriors

hastened back into the passageway in search of Tarzan and two of their own number who were also missing.

They found the way blocked by jammed and distorted rock. For two days they labored to tear a way through

to their imprisoned friends; but when, after Herculean efforts, they had unearthed but a few yards of the

choked passage, and discovered the mangled remains of one of their fellows they were forced to the

conclusion that Tarzan and the second Waziri also lay dead beneath the rock mass farther in, beyond human

Again and again as they labored they called aloud the names of their master and their comrade; but no

answering call rewarded their listening ears. At last they gave up the search. Tearfully they cast a last look at

the shattered tomb of their master, shouldered the heavy burden of gold that would at least furnish comfort, if

not happiness, to their bereaved and beloved mistress, and made their mournful way back across the desolate

valley of Opar, and downward through the forests beyond toward the distant bungalow.

And as they marched what sorry fate was already drawing down upon that peaceful, happy home!

From the north came Achmet Zek, riding to the summons of his lieutenant's letter. With him came his horde

of renegade Arabs, outlawed marauders, these, and equally degraded blacks, garnered from the more debased

and ignorant tribes of savage cannibals through whose countries the raider passed to and fro with perfect

Mugambi, the ebon Hercules, who had shared the dangers and vicissitudes of his beloved Bwana, from

Jungle Island, almost to the headwaters of the Ugambi, was the first to note the bold approach of the sinister

He it was whom Tarzan had left in charge of the warriors who remained to guard Lady Greystoke, nor could

a braver or more loyal guardian have been found in any clime or upon any soil. A giant in stature, a savage,

fearless warrior, the huge black possessed also soul and judgment in proportion to his bulk and his ferocity.

Not once since his master had departed had he been beyond sight or sound of the bungalow, except when

Lady Greystoke chose to canter across the broad plain, or relieve the monotony of her loneliness by a brief

hunting excursion. On such occasions Mugambi, mounted upon a wiry Arab, had ridden close at her horse's

The raiders were still a long way off when the warrior's keen eyes discovered them. For a time he stood

scrutinizing the advancing party in silence, then he turned and ran rapidly in the direction of the native huts

Here he called out to the lolling warriors. He issued orders rapidly. In compliance with them the men seized

upon their weapons and their shields. Some ran to call in the workers from the fields and to warn the tenders

of the flocks and herds. The majority followed Mugambi back toward the bungalow.

The dust of the raiders was still a long distance away. Mugambi could not know positively that it hid an

enemy; but he had spent a lifetime of savage life in savage Africa, and he had seen parties before come thus

unheralded. Sometimes they had come in peace and sometimes they had come in warone could never tell.

It was well to be prepared. Mugambi did not like the haste with which the strangers advanced.

The Greystoke bungalow was not well adapted for defense. No palisade surrounded it, for, situated as it was,

in the heart of loyal Waziri, its master had anticipated no possibility of an attack in force by any enemy.

Heavy, wooden shutters there were to close the window apertures against hostile arrows, and these Mugambi

"Why, Mugambi!" she exclaimed. "What has happened? Why are you lowering the shutters?"

Mugambi pointed out across the plain to where a whiterobed force of mounted men was now distinctly

"Arabs," he explained. "They come for no good purpose in the absence of the Great Bwana."

Beyond the neat lawn and the flowering shrubs, Jane Clayton saw the glistening bodies of her Waziri. The

sun glanced from the tips of their metalshod spears, picked out the gorgeous colors in the feathers of their

war bonnets, and reflected the highlights from the glossy skins of their broad shoulders and high cheek

Jane Clayton surveyed them with unmixed feelings of pride and affection. What harm could befall her with

The raiders had halted now, a hundred yards out upon the plain. Mugambi had hastened down to join his

warriors. He advanced a few yards before them and raising his voice hailed the strangers. Achmet Zek sat

"Then turn and go in peace," replied Mugambi. "We do not want you here. There can be no peace between

Mugambi, although not born in Waziri, had been adopted into the tribe, which now contained no member

Achmet Zek drew to one side of his horde, speaking to his men in a low voice. A moment later, without

warning, a ragged volley was poured into the ranks of the Waziri. A couple of warriors fell, the others were

for charging the attackers; but Mugambi was a cautious as well as a brave leader. He knew the futility of

charging mounted men armed with muskets. He withdrew his force behind the shrubbery of the garden. Some

he dispatched to various other parts of the grounds surrounding the bungalow. Half a dozen he sent to the

bungalow itself with instructions to keep their mistress within doors, and to protect her with their lives.

Adopting the tactics of the desert fighters from which he had sprung, Achmet Zek led his followers at a

gallop in a long, thin line, describing a great circle which drew closer and closer in toward the defenders.

At that part of the circle closest to the Waziri, a constant fusillade of shots was poured into the bushes behind

which the black warriors had concealed themselves. The latter, on their part, loosed their slim shafts at the

The Waziri, justly famed for their archery, found no cause to blush for their performance that day. Time and

again some swarthy horseman threw hands above his head and toppled from his saddle, pierced by a deadly

arrow; but the contest was uneven. The Arabs outnumbered the Waziri; their bullets penetrated the shrubbery

and found marks that the Arab riflemen had not even seen; and then Achmet Zek circled inward a half mile

above the bungalow, tore down a section of the fence, and led his marauders within the grounds.

Across the fields they charged at a mad run. Not again did they pause to lower fences, instead, they drove

their wild mounts straight for them, clearing the obstacles as lightly as winged gulls.

Mugambi saw them coming, and, calling those of his warriors who remained, ran for the bungalow and the

last stand. Upon the veranda Lady Greystoke stood, rifle in hand. More than a single raider had accounted to

her steady nerves and cool aim for his outlawry; more than a single pony raced, riderless, in the wake of the

Mugambi pushed his mistress back into the greater security of the interior, and with his depleted force

On came the Arabs, shouting and waving their long guns above their heads. Past the veranda they raced,

pouring a deadly fire into the kneeling Waziri who discharged their volley of arrows from behind their long,

oval shieldsshields well adapted, perhaps, to stop a hostile arrow, or deflect a spear; but futile, quite,

From beneath the halfraised shutters of the bungalow other bowmen did effective service in greater security,

and after the first assault, Mugambi withdrew his entire force within the building.

Again and again the Arabs charged, at last forming a stationary circle about the little fortress, and outside the

effective range of the defenders' arrows. From their new position they fired at will at the windows. One by

one the Waziri fell. Fewer and fewer were the arrows that replied to the guns of the raiders, and at last

Firing as they ran, the bloodthirsty horde raced for the veranda. A dozen of them fell to the arrows of the

defenders; but the majority reached the door. Heavy gun butts fell upon it. The crash of splintered wood

mingled with the report of a rifle as Jane Clayton fired through the panels upon the relentless foe.

Upon both sides of the door men fell; but at last the frail barrier gave to the vicious assaults of the maddened

attackers; it crumpled inward and a dozen swarthy murderers leaped into the livingroom. At the far end

stood Jane Clayton surrounded by the remnant of her devoted guardians. The floor was covered by the bodies

of those who already had given up their lives in her defense. In the forefront of her protectors stood the giant

Mugambi. The Arabs raised their rifles to pour in the last volley that would effectually end all resistance; but

"Fire not upon the woman!" he cried. "Who harms her, dies. Take the woman alive!"

The Arabs rushed across the room; the Waziri met them with their heavy spears. Swords flashed,

longbarreled pistols roared out their sullen death dooms. Mugambi launched his spear at the nearest of the

enemy with a force that drove the heavy shaft completely through the Arab's body, then he seized a pistol

from another, and grasping it by the barrel brained all who forced their way too near his mistress.

Emulating his example the few warriors who remained to him fought like demons; but one by one they fell,

From across the room Achmet Zek watched the unequal struggle and urged on his minions. In his hands was

a jeweled musket. Slowly he raised it to his shoulder, waiting until another move should place Mugambi at

his mercy without endangering the lives of the woman or any of his own followers.

At last the moment came, and Achmet Zek pulled the trigger. Without a sound the brave Mugambi sank to

An instant later she was surrounded and disarmed. Without a word they dragged her from the bungalow. A

giant Negro lifted her to the pommel of his saddle, and while the raiders searched the bungalow and

outhouses for plunder he rode with her beyond the gates and waited the coming of his master.

Jane Clayton saw the raiders lead the horses from the corral, and drive the herds in from the fields. She saw

her home plundered of all that represented intrinsic worth in the eyes of the Arabs, and then she saw the torch

And at last, when the raiders assembled after glutting their fury and their avarice, and rode away with her

toward the north, she saw the smoke and the flames rising far into the heavens until the winding of the trail

As the flames ate their way into the livingroom, reaching out forked tongues to lick up the bodies of the

dead, one of that gruesome company whose bloody welterings had long since been stilled, moved again. It

was a huge black who rolled over upon his side and opened bloodshot, suffering eyes. Mugambi, whom the

Arabs had left for dead, still lived. The hot flames were almost upon him as he raised himself painfully upon

Again and again he sank weakly to the floor; but each time he rose again and continued his pitiful way

toward safety. After what seemed to him an interminable time, during which the flames had become a

veritable fiery furnace at the far side of the room, the great black managed to reach the veranda, roll down the

All night he lay there, alternately unconscious and painfully sentient; and in the latter state watching with

savage hatred the lurid flames which still rose from burning crib and hay cock. A prowling lion roared close

at hand; but the giant black was unafraid. There was place for but a single thought in his savage mind

For some time Tarzan lay where he had fallen upon the floor of the treasure chamber beneath the ruined walls

of Opar. He lay as one dead; but he was not dead. At length he stirred. His eyes opened upon the utter

darkness of the room. He raised his hand to his head and brought it away sticky with clotted blood. He sniffed

at his fingers, as a wild beast might sniff at the lifeblood upon a wounded paw.

Slowly he rose to a sitting posturelistening. No sound reached to the buried depths of his sepulcher. He

staggered to his feet, and groped his way about among the tiers of ingots. What was he? Where was he? His

head ached; but otherwise he felt no ill effects from the blow that had felled him. The accident he did not

He let his hands grope unfamiliarly over his limbs, his torso, and his head. He felt of the quiver at his back,

the knife in his loin cloth. Something struggled for recognition within his brain. Ah! he had it. There was

something missing. He crawled about upon the floor, feeling with his hands for the thing that instinct warned

him was gone. At last he found itthe heavy war spear that in past years had formed so important a feature

of his daily life, almost of his very existence, so inseparably had it been connected with his every action since

the longgone day that he had wrested his first spear from the body of a black victim of his savage training.

Tarzan was sure that there was another and more lovely world than that which was confined to the darkness

of the four stone walls surrounding him. He continued his search and at last found the doorway leading

inward beneath the city and the temple. This he followed, most incautiously. He came to the stone steps

leading upward to the higher level. He ascended them and continued onward toward the well.

Nothing spurred his hurt memory to a recollection of past familiarity with his surroundings. He blundered on

through the darkness as though he were traversing an open plain under the brilliance of a noonday sun, and

suddenly there happened that which had to happen under the circumstances of his rash advance.

He reached the brink of the well, stepped outward into space, lunged forward, and shot downward into the

inky depths below. Still clutching his spear, he struck the water, and sank beneath its surface, plumbing the

The fall had not injured him, and when he rose to the surface, he shook the water from his eyes, and found

that he could see. Daylight was filtering into the well from the orifice far above his head. It illumined the

inner walls faintly. Tarzan gazed about him. On the level with the surface of the water he saw a large opening

in the dark and slimy wall. He swam to it, and drew himself out upon the wet floor of a tunnel.

Along this he passed; but now he went warily, for Tarzan of the Apes was learning. The unexpected pit had

taught him care in the traversing of dark passagewayshe needed no second lesson.

For a long distance the passage went straight as an arrow. The floor was slippery, as though at times the

rising waters of the well overflowed and flooded it. This, in itself, retarded Tarzan's pace, for it was with

The foot of a stairway ended the passage. Up this he made his way. It turned back and forth many times,

leading, at last, into a small, circular chamber, the gloom of which was relieved by a faint light which found

ingress through a tubular shaft several feet in diameter which rose from the center of the room's ceiling,

upward to a distance of a hundred feet or more, where it terminated in a stone grating through which Tarzan

Curiosity prompted the apeman to investigate his surroundings. Several metalbound, copperstudded

chests constituted the sole furniture of the round room. Tarzan let his hands run over these. He felt of the

copper studs, he pulled upon the hinges, and at last, by chance, he raised the cover of one.

An exclamation of delight broke from his lips at sight of the pretty contents. Gleaming and glistening in the

subdued light of the chamber, lay a great tray full of brilliant stones. Tarzan, reverted to the primitive by his

accident, had no conception of the fabulous value of his find. To him they were but pretty pebbles. He

plunged his hands into them and let the priceless gems filter through his fingers. He went to others of the

chests, only to find still further stores of precious stones. Nearly all were cut, and from these he gathered a

handful and filled the pouch which dangled at his sidethe uncut stones he tossed back into the chests.

Unwittingly, the apeman had stumbled upon the forgotten jewelroom of Opar. For ages it had lain buried

beneath the temple of the Flaming God, midway of one of the many inky passages which the superstitious

descendants of the ancient Sun Worshipers had either dared not or cared not to explore.

Tiring at last of this diversion, Tarzan took up his way along the corridor which led upward from the

jewelroom by a steep incline. Winding and twisting, but always tending upward, the tunnel led him nearer

and nearer to the surface, ending finally in a lowceiled room, lighter than any that he had as yet discovered.

Above him an opening in the ceiling at the upper end of a flight of concrete steps revealed a brilliant sunlit

scene. Tarzan viewed the vinecovered columns in mild wonderment. He puckered his brows in an attempt to

recall some recollection of similar things. He was not sure of himself. There was a tantalizing suggestion

always present in his mind that something was eluding himthat he should know many things which he did

His earnest cogitation was rudely interrupted by a thunderous roar from the opening above him. Following

the roar came the cries and screams of men and women. Tarzan grasped his spear more firmly and ascended

the steps. A strange sight met his eyes as he emerged from the semidarkness of the cellar to the brilliant

The creatures he saw before him he recognized for what they weremen and women, and a huge lion. The

men and women were scuttling for the safety of the exits. The lion stood upon the body of one who had been

less fortunate than the others. He was in the center of the temple. Directly before Tarzan, a woman stood

beside a block of stone. Upon the top of the stone lay stretched a man, and as the apeman watched the scene,

he saw the lion glare terribly at the two who remained within the temple. Another thunderous roar broke from

the savage throat, the woman screamed and swooned across the body of the man stretched prostrate upon the

The lion advanced a few steps and crouched. The tip of his sinuous tail twitched nervously. He was upon the

Werper, helpless upon the altar, saw the great carnivore preparing to leap upon him. He saw the sudden

change in the beast's expression as his eyes wandered to something beyond the altar and out of the Belgian's

view. He saw the formidable creature rise to a standing position. A figure darted past Werper. He saw a

mighty arm upraised, and a stout spear shoot forward toward the lion, to bury itself in the broad chest.

He saw the lion snapping and tearing at the weapon's shaft, and he saw, wonder of wonders, the naked giant

who had hurled the missile charging upon the great beast, only a long knife ready to meet those ferocious

The lion reared up to meet this new enemy. The beast was growling frightfully, and then upon the startled

ears of the Belgian, broke a similar savage growl from the lips of the man rushing upon the beast.

By a quick side step, Tarzan eluded the first swinging clutch of the lion's paws. Darting to the beast's side, he

leaped upon the tawny back. His arms encircled the maned neck, his teeth sank deep into the brute's flesh.

Roaring, leaping, rolling and struggling, the giant cat attempted to dislodge this savage enemy, and all the

while one great, brown fist was driving a long keen blade repeatedly into the beast's side.

During the battle, La regained consciousness. Spellbound, she stood above her victim watching the spectacle.

It seemed incredible that a human being could best the king of beasts in personal encounter and yet before her

At last Tarzan's knife found the great heart, and with a final, spasmodic struggle the lion rolled over upon the

marble floor, dead. Leaping to his feet the conqueror placed a foot upon the carcass of his kill, raised his face

toward the heavens, and gave voice to so hideous a cry that both La and Werper trembled as it reverberated

Then the apeman turned, and Werper recognized him as the man he had left for dead in the treasure room.

Werper was astounded. Could this creature be the same dignified Englishman who had entertained him so

graciously in his luxurious African home? Could this wild beast, with blazing eyes, and bloody countenance,

be at the same time a man? Could the horrid, victory cry he had but just heard have been formed in human

Tarzan was eyeing the man and the woman, a puzzled expression in his eyes, but there was no faintest tinge

of recognition. It was as though he had discovered some new species of living creature and was marveling at

"Tarzan!" she exclaimed, and then, in the vernacular of the great apes which constant association with the

anthropoids had rendered the common language of the Oparians: "You have come back to me! La has

ignored the mandates of her religion, waiting, always waiting for Tarzanfor her Tarzan. She has taken no

mate, for in all the world there was but one with whom La would mate. And now you have come back! Tell

Werper listened to the unintelligible jargon. He looked from La to Tarzan. Would the latter understand this

strange tongue? To the Belgian's surprise, the Englishman answered in a language evidently identical to hers.

"I am Tarzan?" The apeman shrugged. "Well, it is a good nameI know no other, so I will keep it; but I do

not know you. I did not come hither for you. Why I came, I do not know at all; neither do I know from

Tarzan turned toward Werper and put the same question to him; but in the language of the great apes. The

Without effort, and apparently without realizing that he made the change, Tarzan repeated his question in

French. Werper suddenly came to a full realization of the magnitude of the injury of which Tarzan was a

victim. The man had lost his memoryno longer could he recollect past events. The Belgian was upon the

point of enlightening him, when it suddenly occurred to him that by keeping Tarzan in ignorance, for a time

at least, of his true identity, it might be possible to turn the apeman's misfortune to his own advantage.

"I cannot tell you from whence you came," he said; "but this I can tell youif we do not get out of this

horrible place we shall both be slain upon this bloody altar. The woman was about to plunge her knife into

my heart when the lion interrupted the fiendish ritual. Come! Before they recover from their fright and

"Then why should you have wished to kill him?" Tarzan was determined to get to the bottom of the thing.

Tarzan looked puzzled. He was again an ape, and apes do not understand such matters as souls and Flaming

"Very well then, you shall not," said Tarzan. "Come! We will go. This SHE would kill you and keep me for

herself. It is no place anyway for a Mangani. I should soon die, shut up behind these stone walls."

"Do not leave me!" she cried. "Stay, and you shall be High Priest. La loves you. All Opar shall be yours.

The apeman pushed the kneeling woman aside. "Tarzan does not desire you," he said, simply, and stepping

"Stay, you shall!" she screamed. "La will have youif she cannot have you alive, she will have you dead,"

and raising her face to the sun she gave voice to the same hideous shriek that Werper had heard once before

In answer to her cry a babel of voices broke from the surrounding chambers and corridors.

"Come, Guardian Priests!" she cried. "The infidels have profaned the holiest of the holies. Come! Strike

terror to their hearts; defend La and her altar; wash clean the temple with the blood of the polluters."

Tarzan understood, though Werper did not. The former glanced at the Belgian and saw that he was unarmed.

Stepping quickly to La's side the apeman seized her in his strong arms and though she fought with all the

mad savagery of a demon, he soon disarmed her, handing her long, sacrificial knife to Werper.

"You will need this," he said, and then from each doorway a horde of the monstrous, little men of Opar

They were armed with bludgeons and knives, and fortified in their courage by fanatical hate and frenzy.

Werper was terrified. Tarzan stood eyeing the foe in proud disdain. Slowly he advanced toward the exit he

had chosen to utilize in making his way from the temple. A burly priest barred his way. Behind the first was a

score of others. Tarzan swung his heavy spear, clublike, down upon the skull of the priest. The fellow

Again and again the weapon fell as Tarzan made his way slowly toward the doorway. Werper pressed close

behind, casting backward glances toward the shrieking, dancing mob menacing their rear. He held the

sacrificial knife ready to strike whoever might come within its reach; but none came. For a time he wondered

that they should so bravely battle with the giant apeman, yet hesitate to rush upon him, who was relatively

so weak. Had they done so he knew that he must have fallen at the first charge. Tarzan had reached the

doorway over the corpses of all that had stood to dispute his way, before Werper guessed at the reason for his

immunity. The priests feared the sacrificial knife! Willingly would they face death and welcome it if it came

while they defended their High Priestess and her altar; but evidently there were deaths, and deaths. Some

strange superstition must surround that polished blade, that no Oparian cared to chance a death thrust from it,

Once outside the temple court, Werper communicated his discovery to Tarzan. The apeman grinned, and let

Werper go before him, brandishing the jeweled and holy weapon. Like leaves before a gale, the Oparians

scattered in all directions and Tarzan and the Belgian found a clear passage through the corridors and

The Belgian's eyes went wide as they passed through the room of the seven pillars of solid gold. With

illconcealed avarice he looked upon the ageold, golden tablets set in the walls of nearly every room and

down the sides of many of the corridors. To the apeman all this wealth appeared to mean nothing.

On the two went, chance leading them toward the broad avenue which lay between the stately piles of the

halfruined edifices and the inner wall of the city. Great apes jabbered at them and menaced them; but

Tarzan answered them after their own kind, giving back taunt for taunt, insult for insult, challenge for

Werper saw a hairy bull swing down from a broken column and advance, stifflegged and bristling, toward

the naked giant. The yellow fangs were bared, angry snarls and barkings rumbled threateningly through the

The Belgian watched his companion. To his horror, he saw the man stoop until his closed knuckles rested

upon the ground as did those of the anthropoid. He saw him circle, stifflegged about the circling ape. He

heard the same bestial barkings and growlings issue from the human throat that were coming from the mouth

of the brute. Had his eyes been closed he could not have known but that two giant apes were bridling for

But there was no battle. It ended as the majority of such jungle encounters endone of the boasters loses his

nerve, and becomes suddenly interested in a blowing leaf, a beetle, or the lice upon his hairy stomach.

In this instance it was the anthropoid that retired in stiff dignity to inspect an unhappy caterpillar, which he

presently devoured. For a moment Tarzan seemed inclined to pursue the argument. He swaggered truculently,

stuck out his chest, roared and advanced closer to the bull. It was with difficulty that Werper finally

persuaded him to leave well enough alone and continue his way from the ancient city of the Sun Worshipers.

The two searched for nearly an hour before they found the narrow exit through the inner wall. From there the

wellworn trail led them beyond the outer fortification to the desolate valley of Opar.

Tarzan had no idea, in so far as Werper could discover, as to where he was or whence he came. He wandered

aimlessly about, searching for food, which he discovered beneath small rocks, or hiding in the shade of the

The Belgian was horrified by the hideous menu of his companion. Beetles, rodents and caterpillars were

At last Werper succeeded in leading his companion toward the distant hills which mark the northwestern

boundary of the valley, and together the two set out in the direction of the Greystoke bungalow.

What purpose prompted the Belgian in leading the victim of his treachery and greed back toward his former

home it is difficult to guess, unless it was that without Tarzan there could be no ransom for Tarzan's wife.

That night they camped in the valley beyond the hills, and as they sat before a little fire where cooked a wild

pig that had fallen to one of Tarzan's arrows, the latter sat lost in speculation. He seemed continually to be

At last he opened the leathern pouch which hung at his side. From it he poured into the palm of his hand a

quantity of glittering gems. The firelight playing upon them conjured a multitude of scintillating rays, and as

the wide eyes of the Belgian looked on in rapt fascination, the man's expression at last acknowledged a

For two days Werper sought for the party that had accompanied him from the camp to the barrier cliffs; but

not until late in the afternoon of the second day did he find clew to its whereabouts, and then in such

In an open glade he came upon the bodies of three of the blacks, terribly mutilated, nor did it require

considerable deductive power to explain their murder. Of the little party only these three had not been slaves.

The others, evidently tempted to hope for freedom from their cruel Arab master, had taken advantage of their

separation from the main camp, to slay the three representatives of the hated power which held them in

Cold sweat exuded from Werper's forehead as he contemplated the fate which chance had permitted him to

escape, for had he been present when the conspiracy bore fruit, he, too, must have been of the garnered.

Tarzan showed not the slightest surprise or interest in the discovery. Inherent in him was a calloused

familiarity with violent death. The refinements of his recent civilization expunged by the force of the sad

calamity which had befallen him, left only the primitive sensibilities which his childhood's training had

The training of Kala, the examples and precepts of Kerchak, of Tublat, and of Terkoz now formed the basis

of his every thought and action. He retained a mechanical knowledge of French and English speech. Werper

had spoken to him in French, and Tarzan had replied in the same tongue without conscious realization that he

had departed from the anthropoidal speech in which he had addressed La. Had Werper used English, the

Again, that night, as the two sat before their camp fire, Tarzan played with his shining baubles. Werper asked

him what they were and where he had found them. The apeman replied that they were gaycolored stones,

with which he purposed fashioning a necklace, and that he had found them far beneath the sacrificial court of

Werper was relieved to find that Tarzan had no conception of the value of the gems. This would make it

easier for the Belgian to obtain possession of them. Possibly the man would give them to him for the asking.

Werper reached out his hand toward the little pile that Tarzan had arranged upon a piece of flat wood before

Tarzan placed a large palm over his treasure. He bared his fighting fangs, and growled. Werper withdrew his

hand more quickly than he had advanced it. Tarzan resumed his playing with the gems, and his conversation

with Werper as though nothing unusual had occurred. He had but exhibited the beast's jealous protective

instinct for a possession. When he killed he shared the meat with Werper; but had Werper ever, by accident,

laid a hand upon Tarzan's share, he would have aroused the same savage, and resentful warning.

From that occurrence dated the beginning of a great fear in the breast of the Belgian for his savage

companion. He had never understood the transformation that had been wrought in Tarzan by the blow upon

his head, other than to attribute it to a form of amnesia. That Tarzan had once been, in truth, a savage, jungle

beast, Werper had not known, and so, of course, he could not guess that the man had reverted to the state in

Now Werper saw in the Englishman a dangerous maniac, whom the slightest untoward accident might turn

upon him with rending fangs. Not for a moment did Werper attempt to delude himself into the belief that he

could defend himself successfully against an attack by the apeman. His one hope lay in eluding him, and

making for the far distant camp of Achmet Zek as rapidly as he could; but armed only with the sacrificial

knife, Werper shrank from attempting the journey through the jungle. Tarzan constituted a protection that was

by no means despicable, even in the face of the larger carnivora, as Werper had reason to acknowledge from

Too, Werper had his covetous soul set upon the pouch of gems, and so he was torn between the various

emotions of avarice and fear. But avarice it was that burned most strongly in his breast, to the end that he

dared the dangers and suffered the terrors of constant association with him he thought a mad man, rather than

give up the hope of obtaining possession of the fortune which the contents of the little pouch represented.

Achmet Zek should know nothing of thesethese would be for Werper alone, and so soon as he could

encompass his design he would reach the coast and take passage for America, where he could conceal

himself beneath the veil of a new identity and enjoy to some measure the fruits of his theft. He had it all

planned out, did Lieutenant Albert Werper, living in anticipation the luxurious life of the idle rich. He even

found himself regretting that America was so provincial, and that nowhere in the new world was a city that

It was upon the third day of their progress from Opar that the keen ears of Tarzan caught the sound of men

behind them. Werper heard nothing above the humming of the jungle insects, and the chattering life of the

For a time Tarzan stood in statuesque silence, listening, his sensitive nostrils dilating as he assayed each

passing breeze. Then he withdrew Werper into the concealment of thick brush, and waited. Presently, along

the game trail that Werper and Tarzan had been following, there came in sight a sleek, black warrior, alert

In single file behind him, there followed, one after another, near fifty others, each burdened with two

dullyellow ingots lashed upon his back. Werper recognized the party immediately as that which had

accompanied Tarzan on his journey to Opar. He glanced at the apeman; but in the savage, watchful eyes he

When all had passed, Tarzan rose and emerged from concealment. He looked down the trail in the direction

"They are black," explained Tarzan. "It was a black who killed Kala. They are the enemies of the Manganis."

Werper did not relish the idea of engaging in a battle with Basuli and his fierce fighting men. And, again, he

had welcomed the sight of them returning toward the Greystoke bungalow, for he had begun to have doubts

as to his ability to retrace his steps to the Waziri country. Tarzan, he knew, had not the remotest idea of

whither they were going. By keeping at a safe distance behind the laden warriors, they would have no

difficulty in following them home. Once at the bungalow, Werper knew the way to the camp of Achmet Zek.

There was still another reason why he did not wish to interfere with the Wazirithey were bearing the great

burden of treasure in the direction he wished it borne. The farther they took it, the less the distance that he

He argued with the apeman therefore, against the latter's desire to exterminate the blacks, and at last he

prevailed upon Tarzan to follow them in peace, saying that he was sure they would lead them out of the forest

It was many marches from Opar to the Waziri country; but at last came the hour when Tarzan and the

Belgian, following the trail of the warriors, topped the last rise, and saw before them the broad Waziri plain,

A mile or more ahead of them, the line of warriors was creeping like a giant caterpillar through the tall

grasses of the plain. Beyond, grazing herds of zebra, hartebeest, and topi dotted the level landscape, while

closer to the river a bull buffalo, his head and shoulders protruding from the reeds watched the advancing

blacks for a moment, only to turn at last and disappear into the safety of his dank and gloomy retreat.

Tarzan looked out across the familiar vista with no faintest gleam of recognition in his eyes. He saw the game

animals, and his mouth watered; but he did not look in the direction of his bungalow. Werper, however, did.

A puzzled expression entered the Belgian's eyes. He shaded them with his palms and gazed long and

earnestly toward the spot where the bungalow had stood. He could not credit the testimony of his eyesthere

was no bungalowno barnsno out houses. The corrals, the hay stacksall were gone. What could it

And then, slowly there filtered into Werper's consciousness an explanation of the havoc that had been

wrought in that peaceful valley since last his eyes had rested upon itAchmet Zek had been there!

Basuli and his warriors had noted the devastation the moment they had come in sight of the farm. Now they

hastened on toward it talking excitedly among themselves in animated speculation upon the cause and

When, at last they crossed the trampled garden and stood before the charred ruins of their master's bungalow,

their greatest fears became convictions in the light of the evidence about them.

Remnants of human dead, half devoured by prowling hyenas and others of the carnivora which infested the

region, lay rotting upon the ground, and among the corpses remained sufficient remnants of their clothing and

ornaments to make clear to Basuli the frightful story of the disaster that had befallen his master's house.

The Waziri gazed about in mute rage for several minutes. Everywhere they encountered only further evidence

of the ruthlessness of the cruel enemy that had come during the Great Bwana's absence and laid waste his

A giant black raised his spear above his head, and gave voice to a savage cry of rage and hate. The others

"This is no time for useless noises of the mouth," he said. "The Great Bwana has taught us that it is acts by

which things are done, not words. Let us save our breathwe shall need it all to follow up the Arabs and

slay them. If 'Lady' and our women live the greater the need of haste, and warriors cannot travel fast upon

From the shelter of the reeds along the river, Werper and Tarzan watched the blacks. They saw them dig a

trench with their knives and fingers. They saw them lay their yellow burdens in it and scoop the overturned

Tarzan seemed little interested, after Werper had assured him that that which they buried was not good to eat;

but Werper was intensely interested. He would have given much had he had his own followers with him, that

he might take away the treasure as soon as the blacks left, for he was sure that they would leave this scene of

The treasure buried, the blacks removed themselves a short distance up wind from the fetid corpses, where

they made camp, that they might rest before setting out in pursuit of the Arabs. It was already dusk. Werper

and Tarzan sat devouring some pieces of meat they had brought from their last camp. The Belgian was

occupied with his plans for the immediate future. He was positive that the Waziri would pursue Achmet Zek,

for he knew enough of savage warfare, and of the characteristics of the Arabs and their degraded followers to

guess that they had carried the Waziri women off into slavery. This alone would assure immediate pursuit by

Werper felt that he should find the means and the opportunity to push on ahead, that he might warn Achmet

Zek of the coming of Basuli, and also of the location of the buried treasure. What the Arab would now do

with Lady Greystoke, in view of the mental affliction of her husband, Werper neither knew nor cared. It was

enough that the golden treasure buried upon the site of the burned bungalow was infinitely more valuable

than any ransom that would have occurred even to the avaricious mind of the Arab, and if Werper could

persuade the raider to share even a portion of it with him he would be well satisfied.

But by far the most important consideration, to Werper, at least, was the incalculably valuable treasure in the

little leathern pouch at Tarzan's side. If he could but obtain possession of this! He must! He would!

His eyes wandered to the object of his greed. They measured Tarzan's giant frame, and rested upon the

rounded muscles of his arms. It was hopeless. What could he, Werper, hope to accomplish, other than his

Disconsolate, Werper threw himself upon his side. His head was pillowed on one arm, the other rested across

his face in such a way that his eyes were hidden from the apeman, though one of them was fastened upon

him from beneath the shadow of the Belgian's forearm. For a time he lay thus, glowering at Tarzan, and

originating schemes for plundering him of his treasure schemes that were discarded as futile as rapidly as

Tarzan presently let his own eyes rest upon Werper. The Belgian saw that he was being watched, and lay very

Tarzan had been thinking. He had seen the Waziri bury their belongings. Werper had told him that they were

hiding them lest some one find them and take them away. This seemed to Tarzan a splendid plan for

safeguarding valuables. Since Werper had evinced a desire to possess his glittering pebbles, Tarzan, with the

suspicions of a savage, had guarded the baubles, of whose worth he was entirely ignorant, as zealously as

For a long time the apeman sat watching his companion. At last, convinced that he slept, Tarzan withdrew

his hunting knife and commenced to dig a hole in the ground before him. With the blade he loosened up the

earth, and with his hands he scooped it out until he had excavated a little cavity a few inches in diameter, and

five or six inches in depth. Into this he placed the pouch of jewels. Werper almost forgot to breathe after the

fashion of a sleeper as he saw what the apeman was doinghe scarce repressed an ejaculation of

Tarzan become suddenly rigid as his keen ears noted the cessation of the regular inspirations and expirations

of his companion. His narrowed eyes bored straight down upon the Belgian. Werper felt that he was lost

he must risk all on his ability to carry on the deception. He sighed, threw both arms outward, and turned over

on his back mumbling as though in the throes of a bad dream. A moment later he resumed the regular

Now he could not watch Tarzan, but he was sure that the man sat for a long time looking at him. Then,

faintly, Werper heard the other's hands scraping dirt, and later patting it down. He knew then that the jewels

It was an hour before Werper moved again, then he rolled over facing Tarzan and opened his eyes. The

apeman slept. By reaching out his hand Werper could touch the spot where the pouch was buried.

For a long time he lay watching and listening. He moved about, making more noise than necessary, yet

Tarzan did not awaken. He drew the sacrificial knife from his belt, and plunged it into the ground. Tarzan did

not move. Cautiously the Belgian pushed the blade downward through the loose earth above the pouch. He

felt the point touch the soft, tough fabric of the leather. Then he pried down upon the handle. Slowly the little

mound of loose earth rose and parted. An instant later a corner of the pouch came into view. Werper pulled it

from its hiding place, and tucked it in his shirt. Then he refilled the hole and pressed the dirt carefully down

Greed had prompted him to an act, the discovery of which by his companion could lead only to the most

frightful consequences for Werper. Already he could almost feel those strong, white fangs burying

themselves in his neck. He shuddered. Far out across the plain a leopard screamed, and in the dense reeds

Werper feared these prowlers of the night; but infinitely more he feared the just wrath of the human beast

sleeping at his side. With utmost caution the Belgian arose. Tarzan did not move. Werper took a few steps

toward the plain and the distant forest to the northwest, then he paused and fingered the hilt of the long knife

He returned and bent above the apeman. Clutched tightly in his hand was the sacrificial knife of the High

Mugambi, weak and suffering, had dragged his painful way along the trail of the retreating raiders. He could

move but slowly, resting often; but savage hatred and an equally savage desire for vengeance kept him to his

task. As the days passed his wounds healed and his strength returned, until at last his giant frame had

regained all of its former mighty powers. Now he went more rapidly; but the mounted Arabs had covered a

They had reached their fortified camp, and there Achmet Zek awaited the return of his lieutenant, Albert

Werper. During the long, rough journey, Jane Clayton had suffered more in anticipation of her impending

Achmet Zek had not deigned to acquaint her with his intentions regarding her future. She prayed that she had

been captured in the hope of ransom, for if such should prove the case, no great harm would befall her at the

hands of the Arabs; but there was the chance, the horrid chance, that another fate awaited her. She had heard

of many women, among whom were white women, who had been sold by outlaws such as Achmet Zek into

the slavery of black harems, or taken farther north into the almost equally hideous existence of some Turkish

Jane Clayton was of sterner stuff than that which bends in spineless terror before danger. Until hope proved

futile she would not give it up; nor did she entertain thoughts of selfdestruction only as a final escape from

dishonor. So long as Tarzan lived there was every reason to expect succor. No man nor beast who roamed the

savage continent could boast the cunning and the powers of her lord and master. To her, he was little short of

omnipotent in his native worldthis world of savage beasts and savage men. Tarzan would come, and she

would be rescued and avenged, of that she was certain. She counted the days that must elapse before he

would return from Opar and discover what had transpired during his absence. After that it would be but a

short time before he had surrounded the Arab stronghold and punished the motley crew of wrongdoers who

That he could find her she had no slightest doubt. No spoor, however faint, could elude the keen vigilance of

his senses. To him, the trail of the raiders would be as plain as the printed page of an open book to her.

And while she hoped, there came through the dark jungle another. Terrified by night and by day, came Albert

Werper. A dozen times he had escaped the claws and fangs of the giant carnivora only by what seemed a

miracle to him. Armed with nothing more than the knife he had brought with him from Opar, he had made his

By night he had slept in trees. By day he had stumbled fearfully on, often taking refuge among the branches

when sight or sound of some great cat warned him from danger. But at last he had come within sight of the

At almost the same time Mugambi came out of the jungle before the walled village. As he stood in the

shadow of a great tree, reconnoitering, he saw a man, ragged and disheveled, emerge from the jungle almost

at his elbow. Instantly he recognized the newcomer as he who had been a guest of his master before the latter

The black was upon the point of hailing the Belgian when something stayed him. He saw the white man

walking confidently across the clearing toward the village gate. No sane man thus approached a village in this

part of Africa unless he was sure of a friendly welcome. Mugambi waited. His suspicions were aroused.

He heard Werper halloo; he saw the gates swing open, and he witnessed the surprised and friendly welcome

that was accorded the erstwhile guest of Lord and Lady Greystoke. A light broke upon the understanding of

Mugambi. This white man had been a traitor and a spy. It was to him they owed the raid during the absence

of the Great Bwana. To his hate for the Arabs, Mugambi added a still greater hate for the white spy.

Within the village Werper passed hurriedly toward the silken tent of Achmet Zek. The Arab arose as his

lieutenant entered. His face showed surprise as he viewed the tattered apparel of the Belgian.

Werper narrated all, save the little matter of the pouch of gems which were now tightly strapped about his

waist, beneath his clothing. The Arab's eyes narrowed greedily as his henchman described the treasure that

"It will be a simple matter now to return and get it," said Achmet Zek. "First we will await the coming of the

rash Waziri, and after we have slain them we may take our time to the treasurenone will disturb it where it

"I shall sell her in the north," replied the raider. "It is the only way, now. She should bring a good price."

The Belgian nodded. He was thinking rapidly. If he could persuade Achmet Zek to send him in command of

the party which took Lady Greystoke north it would give him the opportunity he craved to make his escape

from his chief. He would forego a share of the gold, if he could but get away unscathed with the jewels.

He knew Achmet Zek well enough by this time to know that no member of his band ever was voluntarily

released from the service of Achmet Zek. Most of the few who deserted were recaptured. More than once had

Werper listened to their agonized screams as they were tortured before being put to death. The Belgian had

"Who will go north with the woman," he asked, "while we are returning for the gold that the Waziri buried by

Achmet Zek thought for a moment. The buried gold was of much greater value than the price the woman

would bring. It was necessary to rid himself of her as quickly as possible and it was also well to obtain the

gold with the least possible delay. Of all his followers, the Belgian was the most logical lieutenant to intrust

with the command of one of the parties. An Arab, as familiar with the trails and tribes as Achmet Zek

himself, might collect the woman's price and make good his escape into the far north. Werper, on the other

hand, could scarce make his escape alone through a country hostile to Europeans while the men he would

send with the Belgian could be carefully selected with a view to preventing Werper from persuading any

considerable portion of his command to accompany him should he contemplate desertion of his chief.

At last the Arab spoke: "It is not necessary that we both return for the gold. You shall go north with the

woman, carrying a letter to a friend of mine who is always in touch with the best markets for such

merchandise, while I return for the gold. We can meet again here when our business is concluded."

Werper could scarce disguise the joy with which he received this welcome decision. And that he did entirely

disguise it from the keen and suspicious eyes of Achmet Zek is open to question. However, the decision

reached, the Arab and his lieutenant discussed the details of their forthcoming ventures for a short time

further, when Werper made his excuses and returned to his own tent for the comforts and luxury of a

Having bathed, the Belgian tied a small hand mirror to a cord sewn to the rear wall of his tent, placed a rude

chair beside an equally rude table that stood beside the glass, and proceeded to remove the rough stubble

In the catalog of masculine pleasures there is scarce one which imparts a feeling of greater comfort and

refreshment than follows a clean shave, and now, with weariness temporarily banished, Albert Werper

sprawled in his rickety chair to enjoy a final cigaret before retiring. His thumbs, tucked in his belt in lazy

support of the weight of his arms, touched the belt which held the jewel pouch about his waist. He tingled

with excitement as he let his mind dwell upon the value of the treasure, which, unknown to all save himself,

What would Achmet Zek say, if he knew? Werper grinned. How the old rascal's eyes would pop could he but

have a glimpse of those scintillating beauties! Werper had never yet had an opportunity to feast his eyes for

any great length of time upon them. He had not even counted themonly roughly had he guessed at their

He unfastened the belt and drew the pouch from its hiding place. He was alone. The balance of the camp,

save the sentries, had retirednone would enter the Belgian's tent. He fingered the pouch, feeling out the

shapes and sizes of the precious, little nodules within. He hefted the bag, first in one palm, then in the other,

and at last he wheeled his chair slowly around before the table, and in the rays of his small lamp let the

The refulgent rays transformed the interior of the soiled and squalid canvas to the splendor of a palace in the

eyes of the dreaming man. He saw the gilded halls of pleasure that would open their portals to the possessor

of the wealth which lay scattered upon this stained and dented table top. He dreamed of joys and luxuries and

power which always had been beyond his grasp, and as he dreamed his gaze lifted from the table, as the gaze

of a dreamer will, to a far distant goal above the mean horizon of terrestrial commonplaceness.

Unseeing, his eyes rested upon the shaving mirror which still hung upon the tent wall above the table; but his

sight was focused far beyond. And then a reflection moved within the polished surface of the tiny glass, the

man's eyes shot back out of space to the mirror's face, and in it he saw reflected the grim visage of Achmet

Werper stifled a gasp of dismay. With rare selfpossession he let his gaze drop, without appearing to have

halted upon the mirror until it rested again upon the gems. Without haste, he replaced them in the pouch,

tucked the latter into his shirt, selected a cigaret from his case, lighted it and rose. Yawning, and stretching

his arms above his head, he turned slowly toward the opposite end of the tent. The face of Achmet Zek had

To say that Albert Werper was terrified would be putting it mildly. He realized that he not only had sacrificed

his treasure; but his life as well. Achmet Zek would never permit the wealth that he had discovered to slip

through his fingers, nor would he forgive the duplicity of a lieutenant who had gained possession of such a

Slowly the Belgian prepared for bed. If he were being watched, he could not know; but if so the watcher saw

no indication of the nervous excitement which the European strove to conceal. When ready for his blankets,

It was two hours later that the flaps at the front of the tent separated silently and gave entrance to a

darkrobed figure, which passed noiselessly from the darkness without to the darkness within. Cautiously the

prowler crossed the interior. In one hand was a long knife. He came at last to the pile of blankets spread upon

Lightly, his fingers sought and found the bulk beneath the blanketsthe bulk that should be Albert Werper.

They traced out the figure of a man, and then an arm shot upward, poised for an instant and descended. Again

and again it rose and fell, and each time the long blade of the knife buried itself in the thing beneath the

blankets. But there was an initial lifelessness in the silent bulk that gave the assassin momentary wonder.

Feverishly he threw back the coverlets, and searched with nervous hands for the pouch of jewels which he

An instant later he rose with a curse upon his lips. It was Achmet Zek, and he cursed because he had

discovered beneath the blankets of his lieutenant only a pile of discarded clothing arranged in the form and

Out into the village ran the chief, calling in angry tones to the sleepy Arabs, who tumbled from their tents in

answer to his voice. But though they searched the village again and again they found no trace of the Belgian.

Foaming with anger, Achmet Zek called his followers to horse, and though the night was pitchy black they

As they galloped from the open gates, Mugambi, hiding in a nearby bush, slipped, unseen, within the

palisade. A score of blacks crowded about the entrance to watch the searchers depart, and as the last of them

passed out of the village the blacks seized the portals and drew them to, and Mugambi lent a hand in the work

In the darkness he passed, unchallenged, as one of their number, and as they returned from the gates to their

For an hour he crept about in the rear of the various huts and tents in an effort to locate that in which his

master's mate was imprisoned. One there was which he was reasonably assured contained her, for it was the

only hut before the door of which a sentry had been posted. Mugambi was crouching in the shadow of this

structure, just around the corner from the unsuspecting guard, when another approached to relieve his

The new sentry squatted beside the door, while he whom he had relieved made his way to his own hut.

Mugambi slunk closer to the corner of the building. In one powerful hand he gripped a heavy knobstick. No

sign of elation disturbed his phlegmatic calm, yet inwardly he was aroused to joy by the proof he had just

The sentry's back was toward the corner of the hut which hid the giant black. The fellow did not see the huge

form which silently loomed behind him. The knobstick swung upward in a curve, and downward again.

There was the sound of a dull thud, the crushing of heavy bone, and the sentry slumped into a silent,

A moment later Mugambi was searching the interior of the hut. At first slowly, calling, "Lady!" in a low

whisper, and finally with almost frantic haste, until the truth presently dawned upon himthe hut was

For a moment Werper had stood above the sleeping apeman, his murderous knife poised for the fatal thrust;

but fear stayed his hand. What if the first blow should fail to drive the point to his victim's heart? Werper

shuddered in contemplation of the disastrous consequences to himself. Awakened, and even with a few

moments of life remaining, the giant could literally tear his assailant to pieces should he choose, and the

Again came the soft sound of padded footsteps in the reedscloser this time. Werper abandoned his design.

Before him stretched the wide plain and escape. The jewels were in his possession. To remain longer was to

risk death at the hands of Tarzan, or the jaws of the hunter creeping ever nearer. Turning, he slunk away

Tarzan slept on. Where were those uncanny, guardian powers that had formerly rendered him immune from

the dangers of surprise? Could this dull sleeper be the alert, sensitive Tarzan of old?

Perhaps the blow upon his head had numbed his senses, temporarilywho may say? Closer crept the

stealthy creature through the reeds. The rustling curtain of vegetation parted a few paces from where the

sleeper lay, and the massive head of a lion appeared. The beast surveyed the apeman intently for a moment,

then he crouched, his hind feet drawn well beneath him, his tail lashing from side to side.

It was the beating of the beast's tail against the reeds which awakened Tarzan. Jungle folk do not awaken

slowlyinstantly, full consciousness and full command of their every faculty returns to them from the depth

Even as Tarzan opened his eyes he was upon his feet, his spear grasped firmly in his hand and ready for

No two lions have identical characteristics, nor does the same lion invariably act similarly under like

circumstances. Whether it was surprise, fear or caution which prompted the lion crouching ready to spring

upon the man, is immaterialthe fact remains that he did not carry out his original design, he did not spring

at the man at all, but, instead, wheeled and sprang back into the reeds as Tarzan arose and confronted him.

The apeman shrugged his broad shoulders and looked about for his companion. Werper was nowhere to be

seen. At first Tarzan suspected that the man had been seized and dragged off by another lion, but upon

examination of the ground he soon discovered that the Belgian had gone away alone out into the plain.

For a moment he was puzzled; but presently came to the conclusion that Werper had been frightened by the

approach of the lion, and had sneaked off in terror. A sneer touched Tarzan's lips as he pondered the man's

actthe desertion of a comrade in time of danger, and without warning. Well, if that was the sort of creature

Werper was, Tarzan wished nothing more of him. He had gone, and for all the apeman cared, he might

A hundred yards from where he stood grew a large tree, alone upon the edge of the reedy jungle. Tarzan

made his way to it, clambered into it, and finding a comfortable crotch among its branches, reposed himself

And when morning came Tarzan slept on long after the sun had risen. His mind, reverted to the primitive,

was untroubled by any more serious obligations than those of providing sustenance, and safeguarding his life.

Therefore, there was nothing to awaken for until danger threatened, or the pangs of hunger assailed. It was

Opening his eyes, he stretched his giant thews, yawned, rose and gazed about him through the leafy foliage of

his retreat. Across the wasted meadowlands and fields of John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, Tarzan of the Apes

looked, as a stranger, upon the moving figures of Basuli and his braves as they prepared their morning meal

and made ready to set out upon the expedition which Basuli had planned after discovering the havoc and

The apeman eyed the blacks with curiosity. In the back of his brain loitered a fleeting sense of familiarity

with all that he saw, yet he could not connect any of the various forms of life, animate and inanimate, which

had fallen within the range of his vision since he had emerged from the darkness of the pits of Opar, with any

Hazily he recalled a grim and hideous form, hairy, ferocious. A vague tenderness dominated his savage

sentiments as this phantom memory struggled for recognition. His mind had reverted to his childhood

daysit was the figure of the giant sheape, Kala, that he saw; but only half recognized. He saw, too, other

grotesque, manlike forms. They were of Terkoz, Tublat, Kerchak, and a smaller, less ferocious figure, that

Slowly, very slowly, as these visions of the past animated his lethargic memory, he came to recognize them.

They took definite shape and form, adjusting themselves nicely to the various incidents of his life with which

they had been intimately connected. His boyhood among the apes spread itself in a slow panorama before

him, and as it unfolded it induced within him a mighty longing for the companionship of the shaggy,

He watched the blacks scatter their cook fire and depart; but though the face of each of them had but recently

been as familiar to him as his own, they awakened within him no recollections whatsoever.

When they had gone, he descended from the tree and sought food. Out upon the plain grazed numerous herds

of wild ruminants. Toward a sleek, fat bunch of zebra he wormed his stealthy way. No intricate process of

reasoning caused him to circle widely until he was down wind from his preyhe acted instinctively. He took

advantage of every form of cover as he crawled upon all fours and often flat upon his stomach toward them.

A plump young mare and a fat stallion grazed nearest to him as he neared the herd. Again it was instinct

which selected the former for his meat. A low bush grew but a few yards from the unsuspecting two. The

apeman reached its shelter. He gathered his spear firmly in his grasp. Cautiously he drew his feet beneath

him. In a single swift move he rose and cast his heavy weapon at the mare's side. Nor did he wait to note the

effect of his assault, but leaped catlike after his spear, his hunting knife in his hand.

For an instant the two animals stood motionless. The tearing of the cruel barb into her side brought a sudden

scream of pain and fright from the mare, and then they both wheeled and broke for safety; but Tarzan of the

Apes, for a distance of a few yards, could equal the speed of even these, and the first stride of the mare found

her overhauled, with a savage beast at her shoulder. She turned, biting and kicking at her foe. Her mate

hesitated for an instant, as though about to rush to her assistance; but a backward glance revealed to him the

flying heels of the balance of the herd, and with a snort and a shake of his head he wheeled and dashed away.

Clinging with one hand to the short mane of his quarry, Tarzan struck again and again with his knife at the

unprotected heart. The result had, from the first, been inevitable. The mare fought bravely, but hopelessly,

and presently sank to the earth, her heart pierced. The apeman placed a foot upon her carcass and raised his

voice in the victory call of the Mangani. In the distance, Basuli halted as the faint notes of the hideous scream

"The great apes," he said to his companion. "It has been long since I have heard them in the country of the

Tarzan grasped his kill and dragged it to the partial seclusion of the bush which had hidden his own near

approach, and there he squatted upon it, cut a huge hunk of flesh from the loin and proceeded to satisfy his

Attracted by the shrill screams of the mare, a pair of hyenas slunk presently into view. They trotted to a point

a few yards from the gorging apeman, and halted. Tarzan looked up, bared his fighting fangs and growled.

The hyenas returned the compliment, and withdrew a couple of paces. They made no move to attack; but

continued to sit at a respectful distance until Tarzan had concluded his meal. After the apeman had cut a few

strips from the carcass to carry with him, he walked slowly off in the direction of the river to quench his

thirst. His way lay directly toward the hyenas, nor did he alter his course because of them.

With all the lordly majesty of Numa, the lion, he strode straight toward the growling beasts. For a moment

they held their ground, bristling and defiant; but only for a moment, and then slunk away to one side while

the indifferent apeman passed them on his lordly way. A moment later they were tearing at the remains of

Back to the reeds went Tarzan, and through them toward the river. A herd of buffalo, startled by his

approach, rose ready to charge or to fly. A great bull pawed the ground and bellowed as his bloodshot eyes

discovered the intruder; but the apeman passed across their front as though ignorant of their existence. The

bull's bellowing lessened to a low rumbling, he turned and scraped a horde of flies from his side with his

muzzle, cast a final glance at the apeman and resumed his feeding. His numerous family either followed his

example or stood gazing after Tarzan in mildeyed curiosity, until the opposite reeds swallowed him from

At the river, Tarzan drank his fill and bathed. During the heat of the day he lay up under the shade of a tree

near the ruins of his burned barns. His eyes wandered out across the plain toward the forest, and a longing for

the pleasures of its mysterious depths possessed his thoughts for a considerable time. With the next sun he

would cross the open and enter the forest! There was no hurrythere lay before him an endless vista of

tomorrows with naught to fill them but the satisfying of the appetites and caprices of the moment.

The apeman's mind was untroubled by regret for the past, or aspiration for the future. He could lie at full

length along a swaying branch, stretching his giant limbs, and luxuriating in the blessed peace of utter

thoughtlessness, without an apprehension or a worry to sap his nervous energy and rob him of his peace of

mind. Recalling only dimly any other existence, the apeman was happy. Lord Greystoke had ceased to exist.

For several hours Tarzan lolled upon his swaying, leafy couch until once again hunger and thirst suggested an

excursion. Stretching lazily he dropped to the ground and moved slowly toward the river. The game trail

down which he walked had become by ages of use a deep, narrow trench, its walls topped on either side by

impenetrable thicket and densegrowing trees closely interwoven with thickstemmed creepers and lesser

vines inextricably matted into two solid ramparts of vegetation. Tarzan had almost reached the point where

the trail debouched upon the open river bottom when he saw a family of lions approaching along the path

from the direction of the river. The apeman counted seven a male and two lionesses, full grown, and four

young lions as large and quite as formidable as their parents. Tarzan halted, growling, and the lions paused,

the great male in the lead baring his fangs and rumbling forth a warning roar. In his hand the apeman held

his heavy spear; but he had no intention of pitting his puny weapon against seven lions; yet he stood there

growling and roaring and the lions did likewise. It was purely an exhibition of jungle bluff. Each was trying

to frighten off the other. Neither wished to turn back and give way, nor did either at first desire to precipitate

an encounter. The lions were fed sufficiently so as not to be goaded by pangs of hunger and as for Tarzan he

seldom ate the meat of the carnivores; but a point of ethics was at stake and neither side wished to back

down. So they stood there facing one another, making all sorts of hideous noises the while they hurled jungle

invective back and forth. How long this bloodless duel would have persisted it is difficult to say, though

There came, however, an interruption which put an end to the deadlock and it came from Tarzan's rear. He

and the lions had been making so much noise that neither could hear anything above their concerted bedlam,

and so it was that Tarzan did not hear the great bulk bearing down upon him from behind until an instant

before it was upon him, and then he turned to see Buto, the rhinoceros, his little, pig eyes blazing, charging

madly toward him and already so close that escape seemed impossible; yet so perfectly were mind and

muscles coordinated in this unspoiled, primitive man that almost simultaneously with the sense perception of

the threatened danger he wheeled and hurled his spear at Buto's chest. It was a heavy spear shod with iron,

and behind it were the giant muscles of the apeman, while coming to meet it was the enormous weight of

Buto and the momentum of his rapid rush. All that happened in the instant that Tarzan turned to meet the

charge of the irascible rhinoceros might take long to tell, and yet would have taxed the swiftest lens to record.

As his spear left his hand the apeman was looking down upon the mighty horn lowered to toss him, so close

was Buto to him. The spear entered the rhinoceros' neck at its junction with the left shoulder and passed

almost entirely through the beast's body, and at the instant that he launched it, Tarzan leaped straight into the

Then Buto espied the lions and bore madly down upon them while Tarzan of the Apes leaped nimbly into the

tangled creepers at one side of the trail. The first lion met Buto's charge and was tossed high over the back of

the maddened brute, torn and dying, and then the six remaining lions were upon the rhinoceros, rending and

tearing the while they were being gored or trampled. From the safety of his perch Tarzan watched the royal

battle with the keenest interest, for the more intelligent of the jungle folk are interested in such encounters.

They are to them what the racetrack and the prize ring, the theater and the movies are to us. They see them

For a time it seemed to Tarzan that Buto, the rhinoceros, would prove victor in the gory battle. Already had

he accounted for four of the seven lions and badly wounded the three remaining when in a momentary lull in

the encounter he sank limply to his knees and rolled over upon his side. Tarzan's spear had done its work. It

was the manmade weapon which killed the great beast that might easily have survived the assault of seven

mighty lions, for Tarzan's spear had pierced the great lungs, and Buto, with victory almost in sight,

Then Tarzan came down from his sanctuary and as the wounded lions, growling, dragged themselves away,

the apeman cut his spear from the body of Buto, hacked off a steak and vanished into the jungle. The

episode was over. It had been all in the day's worksomething which you and I might talk about for a

lifetime Tarzan dismissed from his mind the moment that the scene passed from his sight.

Swinging back through the jungle in a wide circle the apeman came to the river at another point, drank and

took to the trees again and while he hunted, all oblivious of his past and careless of his future, there came

through the dark jungles and the open, parklike places and across the wide meadows, where grazed the

countless herbivora of the mysterious continent, a weird and terrible caravan in search of him. There were

fifty frightful men with hairy bodies and gnarled and crooked legs. They were armed with knives and great

bludgeons and at their head marched an almost naked woman, beautiful beyond compare. It was La of Opar,

High Priestess of the Flaming God, and fifty of her horrid priests searching for the purloiner of the sacred

Never before had La passed beyond the crumbling outer walls of Opar; but never before had need been so

insistent. The sacred knife was gone! Handed down through countless ages it had come to her as a heritage

and an insignia of her religious office and regal authority from some longdead progenitor of lost and

forgotten Atlantis. The loss of the crown jewels or the Great Seal of England could have brought no greater

consternation to a British king than did the pilfering of the sacred knife bring to La, the Oparian, Queen and

High Priestess of the degraded remnants of the oldest civilization upon earth. When Atlantis, with all her

mighty cities and her cultivated fields and her great commerce and culture and riches sank into the sea long

ages since, she took with her all but a handful of her colonists working the vast gold mines of Central Africa.

From these and their degraded slaves and a later intermixture of the blood of the anthropoids sprung the

gnarled men of Opar; but by some queer freak of fate, aided by natural selection, the old Atlantean strain had

remained pure and undegraded in the females descended from a single princess of the royal house of Atlantis

Burning with whitehot anger was the High Priestess, her heart a seething, molten mass of hatred for Tarzan

of the Apes. The zeal of the religious fanatic whose altar has been desecrated was triply enhanced by the rage

of a woman scorned. Twice had she thrown her heart at the feet of the godlike apeman and twice had she

been repulsed. La knew that she was beautifuland she was beautiful, not by the standards of prehistoric

Atlantis alone, but by those of modern times was La physically a creature of perfection. Before Tarzan came

that first time to Opar, La had never seen a human male other than the grotesque and knotted men of her clan.

With one of these she must mate sooner or later that the direct line of high priestesses might not be broken,

unless Fate should bring other men to Opar. Before Tarzan came upon his first visit, La had had no thought

that such men as he existed, for she knew only her hideous little priests and the bulls of the tribe of great

anthropoids that had dwelt from time immemorial in and about Opar, until they had come to be looked upon

almost as equals by the Oparians. Among the legends of Opar were tales of godlike men of the olden time

and of black men who had come more recently; but these latter had been enemies who killed and robbed.

And, too, these legends always held forth the hope that some day that nameless continent from which their

race had sprung, would rise once more out of the sea and with slaves at the long sweeps would send her

The coming of Tarzan had aroused within La's breast the wild hope that at last the fulfillment of this ancient

prophecy was at hand; but more strongly still had it aroused the hot fires of love in a heart that never

otherwise would have known the meaning of that allconsuming passion, for such a wondrous creature as La

could never have felt love for any of the repulsive priests of Opar. Custom, duty and religious zeal might

have commanded the union; but there could have been no love on La's part. She had grown to young

womanhood a cold and heartless creature, daughter of a thousand other cold, heartless, beautiful women who

had never known love. And so when love came to her it liberated all the pent passions of a thousand

generations, transforming La into a pulsing, throbbing volcano of desire, and with desire thwarted this great

force of love and gentleness and sacrifice was transmuted by its own fires into one of hatred and revenge.

It was in a state of mind superinduced by these conditions that La led forth her jabbering company to retrieve

the sacred emblem of her high office and wreak vengeance upon the author of her wrongs. To Werper she

gave little thought. The fact that the knife had been in his hand when it departed from Opar brought down no

thoughts of vengeance upon his head. Of course, he should be slain when captured; but his death would give

La no pleasureshe looked for that in the contemplated death agonies of Tarzan. He should be tortured. His

should be a slow and frightful death. His punishment should be adequate to the immensity of his crime. He

had wrested the sacred knife from La; he had lain sacreligious hands upon the High Priestess of the Flaming

God; he had desecrated the altar and the temple. For these things he should die; but he had scorned the love

The march of La and her priests was not without its adventures. Unused were these to the ways of the jungle,

since seldom did any venture forth from behind Opar's crumbling walls, yet their very numbers protected

them and so they came without fatalities far along the trail of Tarzan and Werper. Three great apes

accompanied them and to these was delegated the business of tracking the quarry, a feat beyond the senses of

the Oparians. La commanded. She arranged the order of march, she selected the camps, she set the hour for

halting and the hour for resuming and though she was inexperienced in such matters, her native intelligence

was so far above that of the men or the apes that she did better than they could have done. She was a hard

taskmaster, too, for she looked down with loathing and contempt upon the misshapen creatures amongst

which cruel Fate had thrown her and to some extent vented upon them her dissatisfaction and her thwarted

love. She made them build her a strong protection and shelter each night and keep a great fire burning before

it from dusk to dawn. When she tired of walking they were forced to carry her upon an improvised litter, nor

did one dare to question her authority or her right to such services. In fact they did not question either. To

them she was a goddess and each loved her and each hoped that he would be chosen as her mate, so they

slaved for her and bore the stinging lash of her displeasure and the habitually haughty disdain of her manner

For many days they marched, the apes following the trail easily and going a little distance ahead of the body

of the caravan that they might warn the others of impending danger. It was during a noonday halt while all

were lying resting after a tiresome march that one of the apes rose suddenly and sniffed the breeze. In a low

guttural he cautioned the others to silence and a moment later was swinging quietly up wind into the jungle.

La and the priests gathered silently together, the hideous little men fingering their knives and bludgeons, and

Nor had they long to wait before they saw him emerge from a leafy thicket and approach them. Straight to La

he came and in the language of the great apes which was also the language of decadent Opar he addressed

"The great Tarmangani lies asleep there," he said, pointing in the direction from which he had just come.

"Do not kill him," commanded La in cold tones. "Bring the great Tarmangani to me alive and unhurt. The

vengeance is La's. Go; but make no sound!" and she waved her hands to include all her followers.

Cautiously the weird party crept through the jungle in the wake of the great ape until at last he halted them

with a raised hand and pointed upward and a little ahead. There they saw the giant form of the apeman

stretched along a low bough and even in sleep one hand grasped a stout limb and one strong, brown leg

reached out and overlapped another. At ease lay Tarzan of the Apes, sleeping heavily upon a full stomach and

dreaming of Numa, the lion, and Horta, the boar, and other creatures of the jungle. No intimation of danger

assailed the dormant faculties of the apemanhe saw no crouching hairy figures upon the ground beneath

The first intimation of danger that came to Tarzan was the impact of three bodies as the three apes leaped

upon him and hurled him to the ground, where he alighted half stunned beneath their combined weight and

was immediately set upon by the fifty hairy men or as many of them as could swarm upon his person.

Instantly the apeman became the center of a whirling, striking, biting maelstrom of horror. He fought nobly

but the odds against him were too great. Slowly they overcame him though there was scarce one of them that

La had followed her company and when she saw them clawing and biting at Tarzan, she raised her voice and

cautioned them not to kill him. She saw that he was weakening and that soon the greater numbers would

prevail over him, nor had she long to wait before the mighty jungle creature lay helpless and bound at her

"Bring him to the place at which we stopped," she commanded and they carried Tarzan back to the little

"Build me a shelter!" ordered La. "We shall stop here tonight and tomorrow in the face of the Flaming God,

La will offer up the heart of this defiler of the temple. Where is the sacred knife? Who took it from him?"

But no one had seen it and each was positive in his assurance that the sacrificial weapon had not been upon

Tarzan's person when they captured him. The apeman looked upon the menacing creatures which

surrounded him and snarled his defiance. He looked upon La and smiled. In the face of death he was

"I do not know," replied Tarzan. "The man took it with him when he slipped away during the night. Since

you are so desirous for its return I would look for him and get it back for you, did you not hold me prisoner;

but now that I am to die I cannot get it back. Of what good was your knife, anyway? You can make another.

Did you follow us all this way for nothing more than a knife? Let me go and find him and I will bring it back

La laughed a bitter laugh, for in her heart she knew that Tarzan's sin was greater than the purloining of the

sacrificial knife of Opar; yet as she looked at him lying bound and helpless before her, tears rose to her eyes

so that she had to turn away to hide them; but she remained inflexible in her determination to make him pay

in frightful suffering and in eventual death for daring to spurn the love of La.

When the shelter was completed La had Tarzan transferred to it. "All night I shall torture him," she muttered

to her priests, "and at the first streak of dawn you may prepare the flaming altar upon which his heart shall be

offered up to the Flaming God. Gather wood well filled with pitch, lay it in the form and size of the altar at

Opar in the center of the clearing that the Flaming God may look down upon our handiwork and be pleased."

During the balance of the day the priests of Opar were busy erecting an altar in the center of the clearing, and

while they worked they chanted weird hymns in the ancient tongue of that lost continent that lies at the

bottom of the Atlantic. They knew not the meanings of the words they mouthed; they but repeated the ritual

that had been handed down from preceptor to neophyte since that longgone day when the ancestors of the

Piltdown man still swung by their tails in the humid jungles that are England now.

And in the shelter of the hut, La paced to and fro beside the stoic apeman. Resigned to his fate was Tarzan.

No hope of succor gleamed through the dead black of the death sentence hanging over him. He knew that his

giant muscles could not part the many strands that bound his wrists and ankles, for he had strained often, but

ineffectually for release. He had no hope of outside help and only enemies surrounded him within the camp,

and yet he smiled at La as she paced nervously back and forth the length of the shelter.

And La? She fingered her knife and looked down upon her captive. She glared and muttered but she did not

strike. "Tonight!" she thought. "Tonight, when it is dark I will torture him." She looked upon his perfect,

godlike figure and upon his handsome, smiling face and then she steeled her heart again by thoughts of her

love spurned; by religious thoughts that damned the infidel who had desecrated the holy of holies; who had

taken from the bloodstained altar of Opar the offering to the Flaming Godand not once but thrice. Three

times had Tarzan cheated the god of her fathers. At the thought La paused and knelt at his side. In her hand

was a sharp knife. She placed its point against the apeman's side and pressed upon the hilt; but Tarzan only

How beautiful he was! La bent low over him, looking into his eyes. How perfect was his figure. She

compared it with those of the knurled and knotted men from whom she must choose a mate, and La

shuddered at the thought. Dusk came and after dusk came night. A great fire blazed within the little thorn

boma about the camp. The flames played upon the new altar erected in the center of the clearing, arousing in

the mind of the High Priestess of the Flaming God a picture of the event of the coming dawn. She saw this

giant and perfect form writhing amid the flames of the burning pyre. She saw those smiling lips, burned and

blackened, falling away from the strong, white teeth. She saw the shock of black hair tousled upon Tarzan's

wellshaped head disappear in a spurt of flame. She saw these and many other frightful pictures as she stood

with closed eyes and clenched fists above the object of her hateah! was it hate that La of Opar felt?

The darkness of the jungle night had settled down upon the camp, relieved only by the fitful flarings of the

fire that was kept up to warn off the maneaters. Tarzan lay quietly in his bonds. He suffered from thirst and

from the cutting of the tight strands about his wrists and ankles; but he made no complaint. A jungle beast

was Tarzan with the stoicism of the beast and the intelligence of man. He knew that his doom was

sealedthat no supplications would avail to temper the severity of his end and so he wasted no breath in

pleadings; but waited patiently in the firm conviction that his sufferings could not endure forever.

In the darkness La stooped above him. In her hand was a sharp knife and in her mind the determination to

initiate his torture without further delay. The knife was pressed against his side and La's face was close to his

when a sudden burst of flame from new branches thrown upon the fire without, lighted up the interior of the

shelter. Close beneath her lips La saw the perfect features of the forest god and into her woman's heart welled

all the great love she had felt for Tarzan since first she had seen him, and all the accumulated passion of the

Dagger in hand, La, the High Priestess, towered above the helpless creature that had dared to violate the

sanctuary of her deity. There should be no torture there should be instant death. No longer should the

defiler of the temple pollute the sight of the lord god almighty. A single stroke of the heavy blade and then

the corpse to the flaming pyre without. The knife arm stiffened ready for the downward plunge, and then La,

She ran her hands in mute caress over his naked flesh; she covered his forehead, his eyes, his lips with hot

kisses; she covered him with her body as though to protect him from the hideous fate she had ordained for

him, and in trembling, piteous tones she begged him for his love. For hours the frenzy of her passion

possessed the burning handmaiden of the Flaming God, until at last sleep overpowered her and she lapsed

into unconsciousness beside the man she had sworn to torture and to slay. And Tarzan, untroubled by

At the first hint of dawn the chanting of the priests of Opar brought Tarzan to wakefulness. Initiated in low

and subdued tones, the sound soon rose in volume to the open diapason of barbaric blood lust. La stirred. Her

perfect arm pressed Tarzan closer to hera smile parted her lips and then she awoke, and slowly the smile

faded and her eyes went wide in horror as the significance of the death chant impinged upon her

Tarzan's bonds hurt him. He was suffering the tortures of longrestricted circulation. With an angry growl he

rolled over with his back toward La. That was her answer! The High Priestess leaped to her feet. A hot flush

of shame mantled her cheek and then she went dead white and stepped to the shelter's entrance.

The warped things advanced and entered the shelter. They laid hands upon Tarzan and bore him forth, and as

they chanted they kept time with their crooked bodies, swaying to and fro to the rhythm of their song of

blood and death. Behind them came La, swaying too; but not in unison with the chanted cadence. White and

drawn was the face of the High Priestesswhite and drawn with unrequited love and hideous terror of the

moments to come. Yet stern in her resolve was La. The infidel should die! The scorner of her love should pay

the price upon the fiery altar. She saw them lay the perfect body there upon the rough branches. She saw the

High Priest, he to whom custom would unite her bent, crooked, gnarled, stunted, hideousadvance with

the flaming torch and stand awaiting her command to apply it to the faggots surrounding the sacrificial pyre.

His hairy, bestial face was distorted in a yellowfanged grin of anticipatory enjoyment. His hands were

cupped to receive the life blood of the victimthe red nectar that at Opar would have filled the golden

La approached with upraised knife, her face turned toward the rising sun and upon her lips a prayer to the

burning deity of her people. The High Priest looked questioningly toward herthe brand was burning close

to his hand and the faggots lay temptingly near. Tarzan closed his eyes and awaited the end. He knew that he

would suffer, for he recalled the faint memories of past burns. He knew that he would suffer and die; but he

did not flinch. Death is no great adventure to the jungle bred who walk handinhand with the grim specter

by day and lie down at his side by night through all the years of their lives. It is doubtful that the apeman

even speculated upon what came after death. As a matter of fact as his end approached, his mind was

occupied by thoughts of the pretty pebbles he had lost, yet his every faculty still was open to what passed

He felt La lean over him and he opened his eyes. He saw her white, drawn face and he saw tears blinding her

eyes. "Tarzan, my Tarzan!" she moaned, "tell me that you love methat you will return to Opar with

meand you shall live. Even in the face of the anger of my people I will save you. This last chance I give

At the last moment the woman in La had triumphed over the High Priestess of a cruel cult. She saw upon the

altar the only creature that ever had aroused the fires of love within her virgin breast; she saw the beastfaced

fanatic who would one day be her mate, unless she found another less repulsive, standing with the burning

torch ready to ignite the pyre; yet with all her mad passion for the apeman she would give the word to apply

the flame if Tarzan's final answer was unsatisfactory. With heaving bosom she leaned close above him. "Yes

Through the jungle, out of the distance, came faintly a sound that brought a sudden light of hope to Tarzan's

eyes. He raised his voice in a weird scream that sent La back from him a step or two. The impatient priest

grumbled and switched the torch from one hand to the other at the same time holding it closer to the tinder at

Closer came the sound that had attracted Tarzan's attention and now the others heard itthe shrill trumpeting

of an elephant. As La looked wideeyed into Tarzan's face, there to read her fate for happiness or heartbreak,

she saw an expression of concern shadow his features. Now, for the first time, she guessed the meaning of

Tarzan's shrill screamhe had summoned Tantor, the elephant, to his rescue! La's brows contracted in a

savage scowl. "You refuse La!" she cried. "Then die! The torch!" she commanded, turning toward the priest.

Tarzan looked up into her face. "Tantor is coming," he said. "I thought that he would rescue me; but I know

now from his voice that he will slay me and you and all that fall in his path, searching out with the cunning of

Sheeta, the panther, those who would hide from him, for Tantor is mad with the madness of love."

La knew only too well the insane ferocity of a bull elephant in MUST. She knew that Tarzan had not

exaggerated. She knew that the devil in the cunning, cruel brain of the great beast might send it hither and

thither hunting through the forest for those who escaped its first charge, or the beast might pass on without

"I cannot love you, La," said Tarzan in a low voice. "I do not know why, for you are very beautiful. I could

not go back and live in OparI who have the whole broad jungle for my range. No, I cannot love you but I

cannot see you die beneath the goring tusks of mad Tantor. Cut my bonds before it is too late. Already he is

A little spiral of curling smoke rose from one corner of the pyrethe flames licked upward, crackling. La

stood there like a beautiful statue of despair gazing at Tarzan and at the spreading flames. In a moment they

would reach out and grasp him. From the tangled forest came the sound of cracking limbs and crashing

trunksTantor was coming down upon them, a huge Juggernaut of the jungle. The priests were becoming

uneasy. They cast apprehensive glances in the direction of the approaching elephant and then back at La.

"Fly!" she commanded them and then she stooped and cut the bonds securing her prisoner's feet and hands. In

an instant Tarzan was upon the ground. The priests screamed out their rage and disappointment. He with the

torch took a menacing step toward La and the apeman. "Traitor!" He shrieked at the woman. "For this you

too shall die!" Raising his bludgeon he rushed upon the High Priestess; but Tarzan was there before her.

Leaping in to close quarters the apeman seized the upraised weapon and wrenched it from the hands of the

frenzied fanatic and then the priest closed upon him with tooth and nail. Seizing the stocky, stunted body in

his mighty hands Tarzan raised the creature high above his head, hurling him at his fellows who were now

gathered ready to bear down upon their erstwhile captive. La stood proudly with ready knife behind the

apeman. No faint sign of fear marked her perfect browonly haughty disdain for her priests and admiration

Suddenly upon this scene burst the mad bulla huge tusker, his little eyes inflamed with insane rage. The

priests stood for an instant paralyzed with terror; but Tarzan turned and gathering La in his arms raced for the

nearest tree. Tantor bore down upon him trumpeting shrilly. La clung with both white arms about the

apeman's neck. She felt him leap into the air and marveled at his strength and his ability as, burdened with

her weight, he swung nimbly into the lower branches of a large tree and quickly bore her upward beyond

Momentarily baffled here, the huge elephant wheeled and bore down upon the hapless priests who had now

scattered, terrorstricken, in every direction. The nearest he gored and threw high among the branches of a

tree. One he seized in the coils of his trunk and broke upon a huge bole, dropping the mangled pulp to charge,

trumpeting, after another. Two he trampled beneath his huge feet and by then the others had disappeared into

the jungle. Now Tantor turned his attention once more to Tarzan for one of the symptoms of madness is a

revulsion of affectionobjects of sane love become the objects of insane hatred. Peculiar in the unwritten

annals of the jungle was the proverbial love that had existed between the apeman and the tribe of Tantor. No

elephant in all the jungle would harm the Tarmanganithe whiteape; but with the madness of MUST upon

Back to the tree where La and Tarzan perched came Tantor, the elephant. He reared up with his forefeet

against the bole and reached high toward them with his long trunk; but Tarzan had foreseen this and

clambered beyond the bull's longest reach. Failure but tended to further enrage the mad creature. He bellowed

and trumpeted and screamed until the earth shook to the mighty volume of his noise. He put his head against

the tree and pushed and the tree bent before his mighty strength; yet still it held.

The actions of Tarzan were peculiar in the extreme. Had Numa, or Sabor, or Sheeta, or any other beast of the

jungle been seeking to destroy him, the apeman would have danced about hurling missiles and invectives at

his assailant. He would have insulted and taunted them, reviling in the jungle Billingsgate he knew so well;

but now he sat silent out of Tantor's reach and upon his handsome face was an expression of deep sorrow and

pity, for of all the jungle folk Tarzan loved Tantor the best. Could he have slain him he would not have

thought of doing so. His one idea was to escape, for he knew that with the passing of the MUST Tantor

would be sane again and that once more he might stretch at full length upon that mighty back and make

Finding that the tree would not fall to his pushing, Tantor was but enraged the more. He looked up at the two

perched high above him, his redrimmed eyes blazing with insane hatred, and then he wound his trunk about

the bole of the tree, spread his giant feet wide apart and tugged to uproot the jungle giant. A huge creature

was Tantor, an enormous bull in the full prime of all his stupendous strength. Mightily he strove until

presently, to Tarzan's consternation, the great tree gave slowly at the roots. The ground rose in little mounds

and ridges about the base of the bole, the tree tiltedin another moment it would be uprooted and fall.

The apeman whirled La to his back and just as the tree inclined slowly in its first movement out of the

perpendicular, before the sudden rush of its final collapse, he swung to the branches of a lesser neighbor. It

was a long and perilous leap. La closed her eyes and shuddered; but when she opened them again she found

herself safe and Tarzan whirling onward through the forest. Behind them the uprooted tree crashed heavily to

the ground, carrying with it the lesser trees in its path and then Tantor, realizing that his prey had escaped

him, set up once more his hideous trumpeting and followed at a rapid charge upon their trail.

At first La closed her eyes and clung to Tarzan in terror, though she made no outcry; but presently she gained

sufficient courage to look about her, to look down at the ground beneath and even to keep her eyes open

during the wide, perilous swings from tree to tree, and then there came over her a sense of safety because of

her confidence in the perfect physical creature in whose strength and nerve and agility her fate lay. Once she

raised her eyes to the burning sun and murmured a prayer of thanks to her pagan god that she had not been

permitted to destroy this godlike man, and her long lashes were wet with tears. A strange anomaly was La of

Opara creature of circumstance torn by conflicting emotions. Now the cruel and bloodthirsty creature of a

heartless god and again a melting woman filled with compassion and tenderness. Sometimes the incarnation

of jealousy and revenge and sometimes a sobbing maiden, generous and forgiving; at once a virgin and a

She pressed her cheek close to Tarzan's shoulder. Slowly she turned her head until her hot lips were pressed

against his flesh. She loved him and would gladly have died for him; yet within an hour she had been ready to

A hapless priest seeking shelter in the jungle chanced to show himself to enraged Tantor. The great beast

turned to one side, bore down upon the crooked, little man, snuffed him out and then, diverted from his

course, blundered away toward the south. In a few minutes even the noise of his trumpeting was lost in the

Tarzan dropped to the ground and La slipped to her feet from his back. "Call your people together," said

"They will not kill you," contradicted the apeman. "No one will kill you while Tarzan of the Apes is here.

La raised her voice in a weird, flutelike call that carried far into the jungle on every side. From near and far

came answering shouts in the barking tones of the Oparian priests: "We come! We come!" Again and again,

La repeated her summons until singly and in pairs the greater portion of her following approached and halted

a short distance away from the High Priestess and her savior. They came with scowling brows and

"Your La is safe," said the apeman. "Had she slain me she would now herself be dead and many more of

you; but she spared me that I might save her. Go your way with her back to Opar, and Tarzan will go his way

into the jungle. Let there be peace always between Tarzan and La. What is your answer?"

The priests grumbled and shook their heads. They spoke together and La and Tarzan could see that they were

not favorably inclined toward the proposition. They did not wish to take La back and they did wish to

complete the sacrifice of Tarzan to the Flaming God. At last the apeman became impatient.

"You will obey the commands of your queen," he said, "and go back to Opar with her or Tarzan of the Apes

will call together the other creatures of the jungle and slay you all. La saved me that I might save you and her.

I have served you better alive than I could have dead. If you are not all fools you will let me go my way in

peace and you will return to Opar with La. I know not where the sacred knife is; but you can fashion another.

Had I not taken it from La you would have slain me and now your god must be glad that I took it since I have

saved his priestess from lovemad Tantor. Will you go back to Opar with La, promising that no harm shall

The priests gathered together in a little knot arguing and discussing. They pounded upon their breasts with

their fists; they raised their hands and eyes to their fiery god; they growled and barked among themselves

until it became evident to Tarzan that one of their number was preventing the acceptance of his proposal. This

was the High Priest whose heart was filled with jealous rage because La openly acknowledged her love for

the stranger, when by the worldly customs of their cult she should have belonged to him. Seemingly there

was to be no solution of the problem until another priest stepped forth and, raising his hand, addressed La.

"Cadj, the High Priest," he announced, "would sacrifice you both to the Flaming God; but all of us except

"You are many against one," spoke up Tarzan. "Why should you not have your will? Go your way with La to

The priests of Opar welcomed this suggestion with loud cries of approval. To them it appeared nothing short

of divine inspiration. The influence of ages of unquestioning obedience to high priests had made it seem

impossible to them to question his authority; but when they realized that they could force him to their will

They rushed forward and seized Cadj. They talked in loud menacing tones into his ear. They threatened him

with bludgeon and knife until at last he acquiesced in their demands, though sullenly, and then Tarzan

"Priest," he said, "La goes back to her temple under the protection of her priests and the threat of Tarzan of

the Apes that whoever harms her shall die. Tarzan will go again to Opar before the next rains and if harm has

"Protect her," cried Tarzan to the other Oparians. "Protect her so that when Tarzan comes again he will find

"La will be there to greet thee," exclaimed the High Priestess, "and La will wait, longing, always longing,

"Who knows?" asked the apeman as he swung quickly into the trees and raced off toward the east.

For a moment La stood looking after him, then her head drooped, a sigh escaped her lips and like an old

Through the trees raced Tarzan of the Apes until the darkness of night had settled upon the jungle, then he lay

down and slept, with no thought beyond the morrow and with even La but the shadow of a memory within

But a few marches to the north Lady Greystoke looked forward to the day when her mighty lord and master

should discover the crime of Achmet Zek, and be speeding to rescue and avenge, and even as she pictured the

coming of John Clayton, the object of her thoughts squatted almost naked, beside a fallen log, beneath which

Two days elapsed following the theft of the jewels before Tarzan gave them a thought. Then, as they chanced

to enter his mind, he conceived a desire to play with them again, and, having nothing better to do than satisfy

the first whim which possessed him, he rose and started across the plain from the forest in which he had spent

Though no mark showed where the gems had been buried, and though the spot resembled the balance of an

unbroken stretch several miles in length, where the reeds terminated at the edge of the meadowland, yet the

apeman moved with unerring precision directly to the place where he had hid his treasure.

With his hunting knife he upturned the loose earth, beneath which the pouch should be; but, though he

excavated to a greater distance than the depth of the original hole there was no sign of pouch or jewels.

Tarzan's brow clouded as he discovered that he had been despoiled. Little or no reasoning was required to

convince him of the identity of the guilty party, and with the same celerity that had marked his decision to

Though the spoor was two days old, and practically obliterated in many places, Tarzan followed it with

comparative ease. A white man could not have followed it twenty paces twelve hours after it had been made,

a black man would have lost it within the first mile; but Tarzan of the Apes had been forced in childhood to

We may note the garlic and whisky on the breath of a fellow strap hanger, or the cheap perfume emanating

from the person of the wondrous lady sitting in front of us, and deplore the fact of our sensitive noses; but, as

a matter of fact, we cannot smell at all, our olfactory organs are practically atrophied, by comparison with the

Where a foot is placed an effluvium remains for a considerable time. It is beyond the range of our

sensibilities; but to a creature of the lower orders, especially to the hunters and the hunted, as interesting and

Nor was Tarzan dependent alone upon his sense of smell. Vision and hearing had been brought to a

marvelous state of development by the necessities of his early life, where survival itself depended almost

daily upon the exercise of the keenest vigilance and the constant use of all his faculties.

And so he followed the old trail of the Belgian through the forest and toward the north; but because of the age

of the trail he was constrained to a far from rapid progress. The man he followed was two days ahead of him

when Tarzan took up the pursuit, and each day he gained upon the apeman. The latter, however, felt not the

slightest doubt as to the outcome. Some day he would overhaul his quarryhe could bide his time in peace

until that day dawned. Doggedly he followed the faint spoor, pausing by day only to kill and eat, and at night

Occasionally he passed parties of savage warriors; but these he gave a wide berth, for he was hunting with a

These parties were of the collecting hordes of the Waziri and their allies which Basuli had scattered his

messengers broadcast to summon. They were marching to a common rendezvous in preparation for an assault

upon the stronghold of Achmet Zek; but to Tarzan they were enemieshe retained no conscious memory of

It was night when he halted outside the palisaded village of the Arab raider. Perched in the branches of a

great tree he gazed down upon the life within the enclosure. To this place had the spoor led him. His quarry

must be within; but how was he to find him among so many huts? Tarzan, although cognizant of his mighty

powers, realized also his limitations. He knew that he could not successfully cope with great numbers in open

battle. He must resort to the stealth and trickery of the wild beast, if he were to succeed.

Sitting in the safety of his tree, munching upon the leg bone of Horta, the boar, Tarzan waited a favorable

opportunity to enter the village. For awhile he gnawed at the bulging, round ends of the large bone,

splintering off small pieces between his strong jaws, and sucking at the delicious marrow within; but all the

time he cast repeated glances into the village. He saw whiterobed figures, and halfnaked blacks; but not

Patiently he waited until the streets were deserted by all save the sentries at the gates, then he dropped lightly

to the ground, circled to the opposite side of the village and approached the palisade.

At his side hung a long, rawhide ropea natural and more dependable evolution from the grass rope of his

childhood. Loosening this, he spread the noose upon the ground behind him, and with a quick movement of

his wrist tossed the coils over one of the sharpened projections of the summit of the palisade.

Drawing the noose taut, he tested the solidity of its hold. Satisfied, the apeman ran nimbly up the vertical

wall, aided by the rope which he clutched in both hands. Once at the top it required but a moment to gather

the dangling rope once more into its coils, make it fast again at his waist, take a quick glance downward

within the palisade, and, assured that no one lurked directly beneath him, drop softly to the ground.

Now he was within the village. Before him stretched a series of tents and native huts. The business of

exploring each of them would be fraught with danger; but danger was only a natural factor of each day's

lifeit never appalled Tarzan. The chances appealed to himthe chances of life and death, with his

It was not necessary that he enter each habitation through a door, a window or an open chink, his nose told

him whether or not his prey lay within. For some time he found one disappointment following upon the heels

of another in quick succession. No spoor of the Belgian was discernible. But at last he came to a tent where

the smell of the thief was strong. Tarzan listened, his ear close to the canvas at the rear, but no sound came

At last he cut one of the pin ropes, raised the bottom of the canvas, and intruded his head within the interior.

All was quiet and dark. Tarzan crawled cautiously withinthe scent of the Belgian was strong; but it was not

live scent. Even before he had examined the interior minutely, Tarzan knew that no one was within it.

In one corner he found a pile of blankets and clothing scattered about; but no pouch of pretty pebbles. A

careful examination of the balance of the tent revealed nothing more, at least nothing to indicate the presence

of the jewels; but at the side where the blankets and clothing lay, the apeman discovered that the tent wall

had been loosened at the bottom, and presently he sensed that the Belgian had recently passed out of the tent

Tarzan was not long in following the way that his prey had fled. The spoor led always in the shadow and at

the rear of the huts and tents of the villageit was quite evident to Tarzan that the Belgian had gone alone

and secretly upon his mission. Evidently he feared the inhabitants of the village, or at least his work had been

At the back of a native hut the spoor led through a small hole recently cut in the brush wall and into the dark

interior beyond. Fearlessly, Tarzan followed the trail. On hands and knees, he crawled through the small

aperture. Within the hut his nostrils were assailed by many odors; but clear and distinct among them was one

that half aroused a latent memory of the pastit was the faint and delicate odor of a woman. With the

cognizance of it there rose in the breast of the apeman a strange uneasinessthe result of an irresistible

force which he was destined to become acquainted with anewthe instinct which draws the male to his

In the same hut was the scent spoor of the Belgian, too, and as both these assailed the nostrils of the

apeman, mingling one with the other, a jealous rage leaped and burned within him, though his memory held

before the mirror of recollection no image of the she to which he had attached his desire.

Like the tent he had investigated, the hut, too, was empty, and after satisfying himself that his stolen pouch

was secreted nowhere within, he left, as he had entered, by the hole in the rear wall.

Here he took up the spoor of the Belgian, followed it across the clearing, over the palisade, and out into the

After Werper had arranged the dummy in his bed, and sneaked out into the darkness of the village beneath

the rear wall of his tent, he had gone directly to the hut in which Jane Clayton was held captive.

Before the doorway squatted a black sentry. Werper approached him boldly, spoke a few words in his ear,

handed him a package of tobacco, and passed into the hut. The black grinned and winked as the European

The Belgian, being one of Achmet Zek's principal lieutenants, might naturally go where he wished within or

without the village, and so the sentry had not questioned his right to enter the hut with the white, woman

Within, Werper called in French and in a low whisper: "Lady Greystoke! It is I, M. Frecoult. Where are

you?" But there was no response. Hastily the man felt around the interior, groping blindly through the

Werper's astonishment surpassed words. He was on the point of stepping without to question the sentry, when

his eyes, becoming accustomed to the dark, discovered a blotch of lesser blackness near the base of the rear

wall of the hut. Examination revealed the fact that the blotch was an opening cut in the wall. It was large

enough to permit the passage of his body, and assured as he was that Lady Greystoke had passed out through

the aperture in an attempt to escape the village, he lost no time in availing himself of the same avenue; but

His own life depended upon the chance of his eluding, or outdistancing Achmet Zek, when that worthy

should have discovered that he had escaped. His original plan had contemplated connivance in the escape of

Lady Greystoke for two very good and sufficient reasons. The first was that by saving her he would win the

gratitude of the English, and thus lessen the chance of his extradition should his identity and his crime against

The second reason was based upon the fact that only one direction of escape was safely open to him. He

could not travel to the west because of the Belgian possessions which lay between him and the Atlantic. The

south was closed to him by the feared presence of the savage apeman he had robbed. To the north lay the

friends and allies of Achmet Zek. Only toward the east, through British East Africa, lay reasonable assurance

Accompanied by a titled Englishwoman whom he had rescued from a frightful fate, and his identity vouched

for by her as that of a Frenchman by the name of Frecoult, he had looked forward, and not without reason, to

the active assistance of the British from the moment that he came in contact with their first outpost.

But now that Lady Greystoke had disappeared, though he still looked toward the east for hope, his chances

were lessened, and another, subsidiary design completely dashed. From the moment that he had first laid eyes

upon Jane Clayton he had nursed within his breast a secret passion for the beautiful American wife of the

English lord, and when Achmet Zek's discovery of the jewels had necessitated flight, the Belgian had

dreamed, in his planning, of a future in which he might convince Lady Greystoke that her husband was dead,

At that part of the village farthest from the gates, Werper discovered that two or three long poles, taken from

a nearby pile which had been collected for the construction of huts, had been leaned against the top of the

Rightly, he inferred that thus had Lady Greystoke found the means to scale the wall, nor did he lose even a

moment in following her lead. Once in the jungle he struck out directly eastward.

A few miles south of him, Jane Clayton lay panting among the branches of a tree in which she had taken

Her escape from the village had been much easier than she had anticipated. The knife which she had used to

cut her way through the brush wall of the hut to freedom she had found sticking in the wall of her prison,

To cross the rear of the village, keeping always in the densest shadows, had required but a few moments, and

the fortunate circumstance of the discovery of the hut poles lying so near the palisade had solved for her the

For an hour she had followed the old game trail toward the south, until there fell upon her trained hearing the

stealthy padding of a stalking beast behind her. The nearest tree gave her instant sanctuary, for she was too

wise in the ways of the jungle to chance her safety for a moment after discovering that she was being hunted.

Werper, with better success, traveled slowly onward until dawn, when, to his chagrin, he discovered a

mounted Arab upon his trail. It was one of Achmet Zek's minions, many of whom were scattered in all

Jane Clayton's escape had not yet been discovered when Achmet Zek and his searchers set forth to overhaul

Werper. The only man who had seen the Belgian after his departure from his tent was the black sentry before

the doorway of Lady Greystoke's prison hut, and he had been silenced by the discovery of the dead body of

The bribe taker naturally inferred that Werper had slain his fellow and dared not admit that he had permitted

him to enter the hut, fearing as he did, the anger of Achmet Zek. So, as chance directed that he should be the

one to discover the body of the sentry when the first alarm had been given following Achmet Zek's discovery

that Werper had outwitted him, the crafty black had dragged the dead body to the interior of a nearby tent,

and himself resumed his station before the doorway of the hut in which he still believed the woman to be.

With the discovery of the Arab close behind him, the Belgian hid in the foliage of a leafy bush. Here the trail

ran straight for a considerable distance, and down the shady forest aisle, beneath the overarching branches of

Nearer and nearer he came. Werper crouched closer to the ground behind the leaves of his hiding place.

Across the trail a vine moved. Werper's eyes instantly centered upon the spot. There was no wind to stir the

foliage in the depths of the jungle. Again the vine moved. In the mind of the Belgian only the presence of a

The man's eyes bored steadily into the screen of leaves upon the opposite side of the trail. Gradually a form

took shape beyond thema tawny form, grim and terrible, with yellowgreen eyes glaring fearsomely across

Werper could have screamed in fright, but up the trail was coming the messenger of another death, equally

sure and no less terrible. He remained silent, almost paralyzed by fear. The Arab approached. Across the trail

from Werper the lion crouched for the spring, when suddenly his attention was attracted toward the

The Belgian saw the massive head turn in the direction of the raider and his heart all but ceased its beating as

he awaited the result of this interruption. At a walk the horseman approached. Would the nervous animal he

rode take fright at the odor of the carnivore, and, bolting, leave Werper still to the mercies of the king of

But he seemed unmindful of the near presence of the great cat. On he came, his neck arched, champing at the

bit between his teeth. The Belgian turned his eyes again toward the lion. The beast's whole attention now

seemed riveted upon the horseman. They were abreast the lion now, and still the brute did not spring. Could

he be but waiting for them to pass before returning his attention to the original prey? Werper shuddered and

half rose. At the same instant the lion sprang from his place of concealment, full upon the mounted man. The

horse, with a shrill neigh of terror, shrank sideways almost upon the Belgian, the lion dragged the helpless

Arab from his saddle, and the horse leaped back into the trail and fled away toward the west.

But he did not flee alone. As the frightened beast had pressed in upon him, Werper had not been slow to note

the quickly emptied saddle and the opportunity it presented. Scarcely had the lion dragged the Arab down

from one side, than the Belgian, seizing the pommel of the saddle and the horse's mane, leaped upon the

A half hour later a naked giant, swinging easily through the lower branches of the trees, paused, and with

raised head, and dilating nostrils sniffed the morning air. The smell of blood fell strong upon his senses, and

mingled with it was the scent of Numa, the lion. The giant cocked his head upon one side and listened.

From a short distance up the trail came the unmistakable noises of the greedy feeding of a lion. The

crunching of bones, the gulping of great pieces, the contented growling, all attested the nearness of the king at

Tarzan approached the spot, still keeping to the branches of the trees. He made no effort to conceal his

approach, and presently he had evidence that Numa had heard him, from the ominous, rumbling warning that

Halting upon a low branch just above the lion Tarzan looked down upon the grisly scene. Could this

unrecognizable thing be the man he had been trailing? The apeman wondered. From time to time he had

descended to the trail and verified his judgment by the evidence of his scent that the Belgian had followed

Now he proceeded beyond the lion and his feast, again descended and examined the ground with his nose.

There was no scent spoor here of the man he had been trailing. Tarzan returned to the tree. With keen eyes he

searched the ground about the mutilated corpse for a sign of the missing pouch of pretty pebbles; but naught

He scolded Numa and tried to drive the great beast away; but only angry growls rewarded his efforts. He tore

small branches from a nearby limb and hurled them at his ancient enemy. Numa looked up with bared fangs,

Then Tarzan fitted an arrow to his bow, and drawing the slim shaft far back let drive with all the force of the

tough wood that only he could bend. As the arrow sank deeply into his side, Numa leaped to his feet with a

roar of mingled rage and pain. He leaped futilely at the grinning apeman, tore at the protruding end of the

shaft, and then, springing into the trail, paced back and forth beneath his tormentor. Again Tarzan loosed a

swift bolt. This time the missile, aimed with care, lodged in the lion's spine. The great creature halted in its

Tarzan dropped to the trail, ran quickly to the beast's side, and drove his spear deep into the fierce heart, then

after recovering his arrows turned his attention to the mutilated remains of the animal's prey in the nearby

The face was gone. The Arab garments aroused no doubt as to the man's identity, since he had trailed him

into the Arab camp and out again, where he might easily have acquired the apparel. So sure was Tarzan that

the body was that of he who had robbed him that he made no effort to verify his deductions by scent among

the conglomerate odors of the great carnivore and the fresh blood of the victim.

He confined his attentions to a careful search for the pouch, but nowhere upon or about the corpse was any

sign of the missing article or its contents. The apeman was disappointedpossibly not so much because of

the loss of the colored pebbles as with Numa for robbing him of the pleasures of revenge.

Wondering what could have become of his possessions, the apeman turned slowly back along the trail in the

direction from which he had come. In his mind he revolved a plan to enter and search the Arab camp, after

darkness had again fallen. Taking to the trees, he moved directly south in search of prey, that he might satisfy

his hunger before midday, and then lie up for the afternoon in some spot far from the camp, where he might

Scarcely had he quitted the trail when a tall, black warrior, moving at a dogged trot, passed toward the east. It

was Mugambi, searching for his mistress. He continued along the trail, halting to examine the body of the

dead lion. An expression of puzzlement crossed his features as he bent to search for the wounds which had

caused the death of the jungle lord. Tarzan had removed his arrows, but to Mugambi the proof of death was

as strong as though both the lighter missiles and the spear still protruded from the carcass.

The black looked furtively about him. The body was still warm, and from this fact he reasoned that the killer

was close at hand, yet no sign of living man appeared. Mugambi shook his head, and continued along the

All day he traveled, stopping occasionally to call aloud the single word, "Lady," in the hope that at last she

might hear and respond; but in the end his loyal devotion brought him to disaster.

From the northeast, for several months, Abdul Mourak, in command of a detachment of Abyssinian soldiers,

had been assiduously searching for the Arab raider, Achmet Zek, who, six months previously, had affronted

the majesty of Abdul Mourak's emperor by conducting a slave raid within the boundaries of Menelek's

And now it happened that Abdul Mourak had halted for a short rest at noon upon this very day and along the

It was shortly after the soldiers had dismounted that the Belgian, unaware of their presence, rode his tired

mount almost into their midst, before he had discovered them. Instantly he was surrounded, and a volley of

questions hurled at him, as he was pulled from his horse and led toward the presence of the commander.

Falling back upon his European nationality, Werper assured Abdul Mourak that he was a Frenchman, hunting

in Africa, and that he had been attacked by strangers, his safari killed or scattered, and himself escaping only

From a chance remark of the Abyssinian, Werper discovered the purpose of the expedition, and when he

realized that these men were the enemies of Achmet Zek, he took heart, and immediately blamed his

Lest, however, he might again fall into the hands of the raider, he discouraged Abdul Mourak in the further

prosecution of his pursuit, assuring the Abyssinian that Achmet Zek commanded a large and dangerous force,

Convinced that it would take a long time to overhaul the raider, and that the chances of engagement made the

outcome extremely questionable, Mourak, none too unwillingly, abandoned his plan and gave the necessary

orders for his command to pitch camp where they were, preparatory to taking up the return march toward

It was late in the afternoon that the attention of the camp was attracted toward the west by the sound of a

powerful voice calling a single word, repeated several times: "Lady! Lady! Lady!"

True to their instincts of precaution, a number of Abyssinians, acting under orders from Abdul Mourak,

A half hour later they returned, dragging Mugambi among them. The first person the big black's eyes fell

upon as he was hustled into the presence of the Abyssinian officer, was M. Jules Frecoult, the Frenchman

who had been the guest of his master and whom he last had seen entering the village of Achmet Zek under

Between the disasters that had befallen his master and his master's house, and the Frenchman, Mugambi saw

a sinister relationship, which kept him from recalling to Werper's attention the identity which the latter

Pleading that he was but a harmless hunter from a tribe farther south, Mugambi begged to be allowed to go

upon his way; but Abdul Mourak, admiring the warrior's splendid physique, decided to take him back to Adis

Abeba and present him to Menelek. A few moments later Mugambi and Werper were marched away under

guard, and the Belgian learned for the first time, that he too was a prisoner rather than a guest. In vain he

protested against such treatment, until a strapping soldier struck him across the mouth and threatened to shoot

Mugambi took the matter less to heart, for he had not the slightest doubt but that during the course of the

journey he would find ample opportunity to elude the vigilance of his guards and make good his escape. With

this idea always uppermost in his mind, he courted the good opinion of the Abyssinians, asked them many

questions about their emperor and their country, and evinced a growing desire to reach their destination, that

he might enjoy all the good things which they assured him the city of Adis Abeba contained. Thus he

disarmed their suspicions, and each day found a slight relaxation of their watchfulness over him.

By taking advantage of the fact that he and Werper always were kept together, Mugambi sought to learn what

the other knew of the whereabouts of Tarzan, or the authorship of the raid upon the bungalow, as well as the

fate of Lady Greystoke; but as he was confined to the accidents of conversation for this information, not

daring to acquaint Werper with his true identity, and as Werper was equally anxious to conceal from the

world his part in the destruction of his host's home and happiness, Mugambi learned nothingat least in this

The party had camped early in the afternoon of a sultry day, upon the banks of a clear and beautiful stream.

The bottom of the river was gravelly, there was no indication of crocodiles, those menaces to promiscuous

bathing in the rivers of certain portions of the dark continent, and so the Abyssinians took advantage of the

As Werper, who, with Mugambi, had been given permission to enter the water, removed his clothing, the

black noted the care with which he unfastened something which circled his waist, and which he took off with

his shirt, keeping the latter always around and concealing the object of his suspicious solicitude.

It was this very carefulness which attracted the black's attention to the thing, arousing a natural curiosity in

the warrior's mind, and so it chanced that when the Belgian, in the nervousness of overcaution, fumbled the

hidden article and dropped it, Mugambi saw it as it fell upon the ground, spilling a portion of its contents on

Now Mugambi had been to London with his master. He was not the unsophisticated savage that his apparel

proclaimed him. He had mingled with the cosmopolitan hordes of the greatest city in the world; he had

visited museums and inspected shop windows; and, besides, he was a shrewd and intelligent man.

The instant that the jewels of Opar rolled, scintillating, before his astonished eyes, he recognized them for

what they were; but he recognized something else, too, that interested him far more deeply than the value of

the stones. A thousand times he had seen the leathern pouch which dangled at his master's side, when Tarzan

of the Apes had, in a spirit of play and adventure, elected to return for a few hours to the primitive manners

and customs of his boyhood, and surrounded by his naked warriors hunt the lion and the leopard, the buffalo

Werper saw that Mugambi had seen the pouch and the stones. Hastily he gathered up the precious gems and

returned them to their container, while Mugambi, assuming an air of indifference, strolled down to the river

The following morning Abdul Mourak was enraged and chagrined to discover that this huge, black prisoner

had escaped during the night, while Werper was terrified for the same reason, until his trembling fingers

discovered the pouch still in its place beneath his shirt, and within it the hard outlines of its contents.

Achmet Zek with two of his followers had circled far to the south to intercept the flight of his deserting

lieutenant, Werper. Others had spread out in various directions, so that a vast circle had been formed by them

Achmet and the two with him halted for a short rest just before noon. They squatted beneath the trees upon

the southern edge of a clearing. The chief of the raiders was in ill humor. To have been outwitted by an

unbeliever was bad enough; but to have, at the same time, lost the jewels upon which he had set his

avaricious heart was altogether too muchAllah must, indeed be angry with his servant.

Well, he still had the woman. She would bring a fair price in the north, and there was, too, the buried treasure

A slight noise in the jungle upon the opposite side of the clearing brought Achmet Zek to immediate and alert

attention. He gathered his rifle in readiness for instant use, at the same time motioning his followers to silence

and concealment. Crouching behind the bushes the three waited, their eyes fastened upon the far side of the

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

Achmet Zek caught his breath with a muttered exclamation of incredulity and an imprecation. The woman

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

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

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.

A sudden crashing of the bushes at the point from which Jane Clayton had emerged into the clearing brought

her to a sudden stop and attracted the attention of the Arabs and the watcher in the tree to the same point.

The woman wheeled about to see what new danger menaced her from behind, and as she did so a great,

anthropoid ape waddled into view. Behind him came another and another; but Lady Greystoke did not wait to

With a smothered scream she rushed toward the opposite jungle, and as she reached the bushes there, Achmet

Zek and his two henchmen rose up and seized her. At the same instant a naked, brown giant dropped from the

Turning toward the astonished apes he gave voice to a short volley of low gutturals, and without waiting to

Achmet Zek was dragging Jane Clayton toward his tethered horse. His two men were hastily unfastening all

three mounts. The woman, struggling to escape the Arab, turned and saw the apeman running toward her. A

Behind Tarzan came the great apes, wondering, but obedient to his summons. The Arabs saw that they would

not have time to mount and make their escape before the beasts and the man were upon them. Achmet Zek

recognized the latter as the redoubtable enemy of such as he, and he saw, too, in the circumstance an

Calling to his men to follow his example he raised his rifle and leveled it upon the charging giant. His

followers, acting with no less alacrity than himself, fired almost simultaneously, and with the reports of the

rifles, Tarzan of the Apes and two of his hairy henchmen pitched forward among the jungle grasses.

The noise of the rifle shots brought the balance of the apes to a wondering pause, and, taking advantage of

their momentary distraction, Achmet Zek and his fellows leaped to their horses' backs and galloped away

Back to the village they rode, and once again Lady Greystoke found herself incarcerated in the filthy, little

hut from which she had thought to have escaped for good. But this time she was not only guarded by an

Singly and in twos the searchers who had ridden out with Achmet Zek upon the trail of the Belgian, returned

empty handed. With the report of each the raider's rage and chagrin increased, until he was in such a transport

of ferocious anger that none dared approach him. Threatening and cursing, Achmet Zek paced up and down

the floor of his silken tent; but his temper served him naughtWerper was gone and with him the fortune in

scintillating gems which had aroused the cupidity of his chief and placed the sentence of death upon the head

With the escape of the Arabs the great apes had turned their attention to their fallen comrades. One was dead,

but another and the great white ape still breathed. The hairy monsters gathered about these two, grumbling

Tarzan was the first to regain consciousness. Sitting up, he looked about him. Blood was flowing from a

wound in his shoulder. The shock had thrown him down and dazed him; but he was far from dead. Rising

slowly to his feet he let his eyes wander toward the spot where last he had seen the she, who had aroused

"The Tarmangani took her away," replied one of the apes. "Who are you who speak the language of the

"I am Tarzan," replied the apeman; "mighty hunter, greatest of fighters. When I roar, the jungle is silent and

trembles with terror. I am Tarzan of the Apes. I have been away; but now I have come back to my people."

"Yes," spoke up an old ape, "he is Tarzan. I know him. It is well that he has come back. Now we shall have

The other apes came closer and sniffed at the apeman. Tarzan stood very still, his fangs half bared, and his

muscles tense and ready for action; but there was none there to question his right to be with them, and

presently, the inspection satisfactorily concluded, the apes again returned their attention to the other survivor.

He too was but slightly wounded, a bullet, grazing his skull, having stunned him, so that when he regained

The apes told Tarzan that they had been traveling toward the east when the scent spoor of the she had

attracted them and they had stalked her. Now they wished to continue upon their interrupted march; but

Tarzan preferred to follow the Arabs and take the woman from them. After a considerable argument it was

decided that they should first hunt toward the east for a few days and then return and search for the Arabs,

and as time is of little moment to the ape folk, Tarzan acceded to their demands, he, himself, having reverted

Another circumstance which decided him to postpone pursuit of the Arabs was the painfulness of his wound.

It would be better to wait until that had healed before he pitted himself again against the guns of the

And so, as Jane Clayton was pushed into her prison hut and her hands and feet securely bound, her natural

protector roamed off toward the east in company with a score of hairy monsters, with whom he rubbed

shoulders as familiarly as a few months before he had mingled with his immaculate fellowmembers of one

But all the time there lurked in the back of his injured brain a troublesome conviction that he had no business

where he wasthat he should be, for some unaccountable reason, elsewhere and among another sort of

creature. Also, there was the compelling urge to be upon the scent of the Arabs, undertaking the rescue of the

woman who had appealed so strongly to his savage sentiments; though the thoughtword which naturally

occurred to him in the contemplation of the venture, was "capture," rather than "rescue."

To him she was as any other jungle she, and he had set his heart upon her as his mate. For an instant, as he

had approached closer to her in the clearing where the Arabs had seized her, the subtle aroma which had first

aroused his desires in the hut that had imprisoned her had fallen upon his nostrils, and told him that he had

found the creature for whom he had developed so sudden and inexplicable a passion.

The matter of the pouch of jewels also occupied his thoughts to some extent, so that he found a double urge

for his return to the camp of the raiders. He would obtain possession of both his pretty pebbles and the she.

Then he would return to the great apes with his new mate and his baubles, and leading his hairy companions

into a far wilderness beyond the ken of man, live out his life, hunting and battling among the lower orders

He spoke to his fellowapes upon the matter, in an attempt to persuade them to accompany him; but all

except Taglat and Chulk refused. The latter was young and strong, endowed with a greater intelligence than

his fellows, and therefore the possessor of better developed powers of imagination. To him the expedition

savored of adventure, and so appealed, strongly. With Taglat there was another incentivea secret and

sinister incentive, which, had Tarzan of the Apes had knowledge of it, would have sent him at the other's

Taglat was no longer young; but he was still a formidable beast, mightily muscled, cruel, and, because of his

greater experience, crafty and cunning. Too, he was of giant proportions, the very weight of his huge bulk

serving ofttimes to discount in his favor the superior agility of a younger antagonist.

He was of a morose and sullen disposition that marked him even among his frowning fellows, where such

characteristics are the rule rather than the exception, and, though Tarzan did not guess it, he hated the

apeman with a ferocity that he was able to hide only because the dominant spirit of the nobler creature had

inspired within him a species of dread which was as powerful as it was inexplicable to him.

These two, then, were to be Tarzan's companions upon his return to the village of Achmet Zek. As they set

off, the balance of the tribe vouchsafed them but a parting stare, and then resumed the serious business of

Tarzan found difficulty in keeping the minds of his fellows set upon the purpose of their adventure, for the

mind of an ape lacks the power of longsustained concentration. To set out upon a long journey, with a

definite destination in view, is one thing, to remember that purpose and keep it uppermost in one's mind

continually is quite another. There are so many things to distract one's attention along the way.

Chulk was, at first, for rushing rapidly ahead as though the village of the raiders lay but an hour's march

before them instead of several days; but within a few minutes a fallen tree attracted his attention with its

suggestion of rich and succulent forage beneath, and when Tarzan, missing him, returned in search, he found

Chulk squatting beside the rotting bole, from beneath which he was assiduously engaged in digging out the

grubs and beetles, whose kind form a considerable proportion of the diet of the apes.

Unless Tarzan desired to fight there was nothing to do but wait until Chulk had exhausted the storehouse, and

this he did, only to discover that Taglat was now missing. After a considerable search, he found that worthy

gentleman contemplating the sufferings of an injured rodent he had pounced upon. He would sit in apparent

indifference, gazing in another direction, while the crippled creature, wriggled slowly and painfully away

from him, and then, just as his victim felt assured of escape, he would reach out a giant palm and slam it

down upon the fugitive. Again and again he repeated this operation, until, tiring of the sport, he ended the

Such were the exasperating causes of delay which retarded Tarzan's return journey toward the village of

Achmet Zek; but the apeman was patient, for in his mind was a plan which necessitated the presence of

It was not always an easy thing to maintain in the vacillating minds of the anthropoids a sustained interest in

their venture. Chulk was wearying of the continued marching and the infrequency and short duration of the

rests. He would gladly have abandoned this search for adventure had not Tarzan continually filled his mind

with alluring pictures of the great stores of food which were to be found in the village of Tarmangani.

Taglat nursed his secret purpose to better advantage than might have been expected of an ape, yet there were

times when he, too, would have abandoned the adventure had not Tarzan cajoled him on.

It was midafternoon of a sultry, tropical day when the keen senses of the three warned them of the proximity

of the Arab camp. Stealthily they approached, keeping to the dense tangle of growing things which made

First came the giant apeman, his smooth, brown skin glistening with the sweat of exertion in the close, hot

confines of the jungle. Behind him crept Chulk and Taglat, grotesque and shaggy caricatures of their godlike

Silently they made their way to the edge of the clearing which surrounded the palisade, and here they

clambered into the lower branches of a large tree overlooking the village occupied by the enemy, the better to

A horseman, white burnoosed, rode out through the gateway of the village. Tarzan, whispering to Chulk and

Taglat to remain where they were, swung, monkeylike, through the trees in the direction of the trail the

Arab was riding. From one jungle giant to the next he sped with the rapidity of a squirrel and the silence of a

The Arab rode slowly onward, unconscious of the danger hovering in the trees behind him. The apeman

made a slight detour and increased his speed until he had reached a point upon the trail in advance of the

horseman. Here he halted upon a leafy bough which overhung the narrow, jungle trail. On came the victim,

humming a wild air of the great desert land of the north. Above him poised the savage brute that was today

bent upon the destruction of a human lifethe same creature who a few months before, had occupied his

seat in the House of Lords at London, a respected and distinguished member of that august body.

The Arab passed beneath the overhanging bough, there was a slight rustling of the leaves above, the horse

snorted and plunged as a brownskinned creature dropped upon its rump. A pair of mighty arms encircled the

Ten minutes later the apeman, carrying the outer garments of an Arab bundled beneath an arm, rejoined his

companions. He exhibited his trophies to them, explaining in low gutturals the details of his exploit. Chulk

and Taglat fingered the fabrics, smelled of them, and, placing them to their ears, tried to listen to them.

Then Tarzan led them back through the jungle to the trail, where the three hid themselves and waited. Nor

had they long to wait before two of Achmet Zek's blacks, clothed in habiliments similar to their master's,

One moment they were laughing and talking togetherthe next they lay stretched in death upon the trail,

three mighty engines of destruction bending over them. Tarzan removed their outer garments as he had

removed those of his first victim, and again retired with Chulk and Taglat to the greater seclusion of the tree

Here the apeman arranged the garments upon his shaggy fellows and himself, until, at a distance, it might

have appeared that three whiterobed Arabs squatted silently among the branches of the forest.

Until dark they remained where they were, for from his point of vantage, Tarzan could view the enclosure

within the palisade. He marked the position of the hut in which he had first discovered the scent spoor of the

she he sought. He saw the two sentries standing before its doorway, and he located the habitation of Achmet

Zek, where something told him he would most likely find the missing pouch and pebbles.

Chulk and Taglat were, at first, greatly interested in their wonderful raiment. They fingered the fabric,

smelled of it, and regarded each other intently with every mark of satisfaction and pride. Chulk, a humorist in

his way, stretched forth a long and hairy arm, and grasping the hood of Taglat's burnoose pulled it down over

The older ape, pessimistic by nature, recognized no such thing as humor. Creatures laid their paws upon him

for but two thingsto search for fleas and to attack. The pulling of the Tarmanganiscented thing about his

head and eyes could not be for the performance of the former act; therefore it must be the latter. He was

With a snarl he was at the other's throat, not even waiting to lift the woolen veil which obscured his vision.

Tarzan leaped upon the two, and swaying and toppling upon their insecure perch the three great beasts tussled

and snapped at one another until the apeman finally succeeded in separating the enraged anthropoids.

An apology is unknown to these savage progenitors of man, and explanation a laborious and usually futile

process, Tarzan bridged the dangerous gulf by distracting their attention from their altercation to a

consideration of their plans for the immediate future. Accustomed to frequent arguments in which more hair

than blood is wasted, the apes speedily forget such trivial encounters, and presently Chulk and Taglat were

again squatting in close proximity to each other and peaceful repose, awaiting the moment when the apeman

It was long after darkness had fallen, that Tarzan led his companions from their hiding place in the tree to the

Gathering the skirts of his burnoose, beneath one arm, that his legs might have free action, the apeman took

a short running start, and scrambled to the top of the barrier. Fearing lest the apes should rend their garments

to shreds in a similar attempt, he had directed them to wait below for him, and himself securely perched upon

the summit of the palisade he unslung his spear and lowered one end of it to Chulk.

The ape seized it, and while Tarzan held tightly to the upper end, the anthropoid climbed quickly up the shaft

until with one paw he grasped the top of the wall. To scramble then to Tarzan's side was the work of but an

instant. In like manner Taglat was conducted to their sides, and a moment later the three dropped silently

Tarzan led them first to the rear of the hut in which Jane Clayton was confined, where, through the roughly

repaired aperture in the wall, he sought with his sensitive nostrils for proof that the she he had come for was

Chulk and Taglat, their hairy faces pressed close to that of the patrician, sniffed with him. Each caught the

scent spoor of the woman within, and each reacted according to his temperament and his habits of thought.

It left Chulk indifferent. The she was for Tarzanall that he desired was to bury his snout in the foodstuffs

of the Tarmangani. He had come to eat his fill without laborTarzan had told him that that should be his

But Taglat's wicked, bloodshot eyes, narrowed to the realization of the nearing fulfillment of his carefully

nursed plan. It is true that sometimes during the several days that had elapsed since they had set out upon

their expedition it had been difficult for Taglat to hold his idea uppermost in his mind, and on several

occasions he had completely forgotten it, until Tarzan, by a chance word, had recalled it to him, but, for an

Now, he licked his chops, and he made a sickening, sucking noise with his flabby lips as he drew in his

Satisfied that the she was where he had hoped to find her, Tarzan led his apes toward the tent of Achmet Zek.

A passing Arab and two slaves saw them, but the night was dark and the white burnooses hid the hairy limbs

of the apes and the giant figure of their leader, so that the three, by squatting down as though in conversation,

were passed by, unsuspected. To the rear of the tent they made their way. Within, Achmet Zek conversed

Lieutenant Albert Werper, terrified by contemplation of the fate which might await him at Adis Abeba, cast

about for some scheme of escape, but after the black Mugambi had eluded their vigilance the Abyssinians

For some time Werper entertained the idea of bribing Abdul Mourak with a portion of the contents of the

pouch; but fearing that the man would demand all the gems as the price of liberty, the Belgian, influenced by

It was then that there dawned upon him the possibility of the success of a different course which would still

leave him in possession of the jewels, while at the same time satisfying the greed of the Abyssinian with the

And so it was that a day or so after Mugambi had disappeared, Werper asked for an audience with Abdul

Mourak. As the Belgian entered the presence of his captor the scowl upon the features of the latter boded ill

for any hope which Werper might entertain, still he fortified himself by recalling the common weakness of

mankind, which permits the most inflexible of natures to bend to the consuming desire for wealth.

The Abyssinian sneered. "And you disturbed me thus to tell me what any fool might know," he said.

Abdul Mourak laughed loudly. "Pay for it?" he cried. "What withthe rags that you have upon your back?

Or, perhaps you are concealing beneath your coat a thousand pounds of ivory. Get out! You are a fool. Do not

But Werper persisted. His liberty and perhaps his life depended upon his success.

"Listen to me," he pleaded. "If I can give you as much gold as ten men may carry will you promise that I

"As much gold as ten men may carry!" repeated Abdul Mourak. "You are crazy. Where have you so much

"I know where it is hid," said Werper. "Promise, and I will lead you to itif ten loads is enough?"

Abdul Mourak had ceased to laugh. He was eyeing the Belgian intently. The fellow seemed sane

enoughyet ten loads of gold! It was preposterous. The Abyssinian thought in silence for a moment.

"And if we do not find it where you say it is, do you realize what your punishment will be?"

"If it is not there I will forfeit my life," replied the Belgian. "I know it is there, for I saw it buried with my

own eyes. And morethere are not only ten loads, but as many as fifty men may carry. It is all yours if you

"Very well," said the Abyssinian, "I promise, and even if there be but five loads you shall have your freedom;

Abdul Mourak nodded, and the Belgian returned to his guards. The following day the Abyssinian soldiers

were surprised to receive an order which turned their faces from the northeast to the south. And so it

happened that upon the very night that Tarzan and the two apes entered the village of the raiders, the

While Werper dreamed of freedom and the unmolested enjoyment of the fortune in his stolen pouch, and

Abdul Mourak lay awake in greedy contemplation of the fifty loads of gold which lay but a few days 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

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

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

Through the opening stepped the apeman, 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 possiblethe hitherto detested act of selfdestruction.

Creeping silently toward the sentries, a whiteburnoosed figure approached the shadows at one end of the

hut. The meager intellect of the creature denied it the advantage it might have taken of its disguise. Where it

could have walked boldly to the very sides of the sentries, it chose rather to sneak upon them, unseen, from

It came to the corner of the hut and peered around. The sentries were but a few paces away; but the ape did

not dare expose himself, even for an instant, to those feared and hated thundersticks which the Tarmangani

Taglat wished that there was a tree nearby from the overhanging branches of which he might spring upon

his unsuspecting prey; but, though there was no tree, the idea gave birth to a plan. The eaves of the hut were

just above the heads of the sentriesfrom them he could leap upon the Tarmangani, unseen. A quick snap of

those mighty jaws would dispose of one of them before the other realized that they were attacked, and the

second would fall an easy prey to the strength, agility and ferocity of a second quick charge.

Taglat withdrew a few paces to the rear of the hut, gathered himself for the effort, ran quickly forward and

leaped high into the air. He struck the roof directly above the rear wall of the hut, and the structure, reinforced

by the wall beneath, held his enormous weight for an instant, then he moved forward a step, the roof sagged,

The sentries, hearing the crashing of the roof poles, leaped to their feet and rushed into the hut. Jane Clayton

tried to roll aside as the great form lit upon the floor so close to her that one foot pinned her clothing to the

The ape, feeling the movement beside him, reached down and gathered the girl in the hollow of one mighty

arm. The burnoose covered the hairy body so that Jane Clayton believed that a human arm supported her, and

from the extremity of hopelessness a great hope sprang into her breast that at last she was in the keeping of a

The two sentries were now within the hut, but hesitating because of doubt as to the nature of the cause of the

disturbance. Their eyes, not yet accustomed to the darkness of the interior, told them nothing, nor did they

Seeing that they stood without advancing, and realizing that, handicapped as he was by the weight of the she,

he could put up but a poor battle, Taglat elected to risk a sudden break for liberty. Lowering his head, he

charged straight for the two sentries who blocked the doorway. The impact of his mighty shoulders bowled

them over upon their backs, and before they could scramble to their feet, the ape was gone, darting in the

The speed and strength of her rescuer filled Jane Clayton with wonder. Could it be that Tarzan had survived

the bullet of the Arab? Who else in all the jungle could bear the weight of a grown woman as lightly as he

who held her? She spoke his name; but there was no response. Still she did not give up hope.

At the palisade the beast did not even hesitate. A single mighty leap carried it to the top, where it poised but

for an instant before dropping to the ground upon the opposite side. Now the girl was almost positive that she

was safe in the arms of her husband, and when the ape took to the trees and bore her swiftly into the jungle,

In a little moonlit glade, a mile or so from the camp of the raiders, her rescuer halted and dropped her to the

ground. His roughness surprised her, but still she had no doubts. Again she called him by name, and at the

same instant the ape, fretting under the restraints of the unaccustomed garments of the Tarmangani, tore the

burnoose from him, revealing to the eyes of the horrorstruck woman the hideous face and hairy form of a

With a piteous wail of terror, Jane Clayton swooned, while, from the concealment of a nearby bush, Numa,

Tarzan, entering the tent of Achmet Zek, searched the interior thoroughly. He tore the bed to pieces and

scattered the contents of box and bag about the floor. He investigated whatever his eyes discovered, nor did

those keen organs overlook a single article within the habitation of the raider chief; but no pouch or pretty

Satisfied at last that his belongings were not in the possession of Achmet Zek, unless they were on the person

of the chief himself, Tarzan decided to secure the person of the she before further prosecuting his search for

Motioning for Chulk to follow him, he passed out of the tent by the same way that he had entered it, and

walking boldly through the village, made directly for the hut where Jane Clayton had been imprisoned.

He noted with surprise the absence of Taglat, whom he had expected to find awaiting him outside the tent of

Achmet Zek; but, accustomed as he was to the unreliability of apes, he gave no serious attention to the

present defection of his surly companion. So long as Taglat did not cause interference with his plans, Tarzan

As he approached the hut, the apeman noticed that a crowd had collected about the entrance. He could see

that the men who composed it were much excited, and fearing lest Chulk's disguise should prove inadequate

to the concealment of his true identity in the face of so many observers, he commanded the ape to betake

As Chulk waddled off, keeping to the shadows, Tarzan advanced boldly toward the excited group before the

doorway of the hut. He mingled with the blacks and the Arabs in an endeavor to learn the cause of the

commotion, in his interest forgetting that he alone of the assemblage carried a spear, a bow and arrows, and

Shouldering his way through the crowd he approached the doorway, and had almost reached it when one of

the Arabs laid a hand upon his shoulder, crying: "Who is this?" at the same time snatching back the hood

Tarzan of the Apes in all his savage life had never been accustomed to pause in argument with an antagonist.

The primitive instinct of selfpreservation acknowledges many arts and wiles; but argument is not one of

them, nor did he now waste precious time in an attempt to convince the raiders that he was not a wolf in

sheep's clothing. Instead he had his unmasker by the throat ere the man's words had scarce quitted his lips,

and hurling him from side to side brushed away those who would have swarmed upon him.

Using the Arab as a weapon, Tarzan forced his way quickly to the doorway, and a moment later was within

the hut. A hasty examination revealed the fact that it was empty, and his sense of smell discovered, too, the

scent spoor of Taglat, the ape. Tarzan uttered a low, ominous growl. Those who were pressing forward at the

doorway to seize him, fell back as the savage notes of the bestial challenge smote upon their ears. They

looked at one another in surprise and consternation. A man had entered the hut alone, and yet with their own

ears they had heard the voice of a wild beast within. What could it mean? Had a lion or a leopard sought

Tarzan's quick eyes discovered the opening in the roof, through which Taglat had fallen. He guessed that the

ape had either come or gone by way of the break, and while the Arabs hesitated without, he sprang, catlike,

for the opening, grasped the top of the wall and clambered out upon the roof, dropping instantly to the ground

When the Arabs finally mustered courage to enter the hut, after firing several volleys through the walls, they

found the interior deserted. At the same time Tarzan, at the far end of the village, sought for Chulk; but the

Robbed of his she, deserted by his companions, and as much in ignorance as ever as to the whereabouts of his

pouch and pebbles, it was an angry Tarzan who climbed the palisade and vanished into the darkness of the

For the present he must give up the search for his pouch, since it would be paramount to selfdestruction to

enter the Arab camp now while all its inhabitants were aroused and upon the alert.

In his escape from the village, the apeman had lost the spoor of the fleeing Taglat, and now he circled

Chulk had remained at his post until the cries and shots of the Arabs had filled his simple soul with terror, for

above all things the ape folk fear the thundersticks of the Tarmangani; then he had clambered nimbly over

the palisade, tearing his burnoose in the effort, and fled into the depths of the jungle, grumbling and scolding

Tarzan, roaming the jungle in search of the trail of Taglat and the she, traveled swiftly. In a little moonlit

glade ahead of him the great ape was bending over the prostrate form of the woman Tarzan sought. The beast

was tearing at the bonds that confined her ankles and wrists, pulling and gnawing upon the cords.

The course the apeman was taking would carry him but a short distance to the right of them, and though he

could not have seen them the wind was bearing down from them to him, carrying their scent spoor strongly

A moment more and Jane Clayton's safety might have been assured, even though Numa, the lion, was already

gathering himself in preparation for a charge; but Fate, already all too cruel, now outdid herselfthe wind

veered suddenly for a few moments, the scent spoor that would have led the apeman to the girl's side was

wafted in the opposite direction; Tarzan passed within fifty yards of the tragedy that was being enacted in the

It was morning before Tarzan could bring himself to a realization of the possibility of failure of his quest, and

even then he would only admit that success was but delayed. He would eat and sleep, and then set forth again.

The jungle was wide; but wide too were the experience and cunning of Tarzan. Taglat might travel far; but

Tarzan would find him in the end, though he had to search every tree in the mighty forest.

Soliloquizing thus, the apeman followed the spoor of Bara, the deer, the unfortunate upon which he had

decided to satisfy his hunger. For half an hour the trail led the apeman toward the east along a wellmarked

game path, when suddenly, to the stalker's astonishment, the quarry broke into sight, racing madly back along

Tarzan, who had been following along the trail, leaped so quickly to the concealing verdure at the side that

the deer was still unaware of the presence of an enemy in this direction, and while the animal was still some

distance away, the apeman swung into the lower branches of the tree which overhung the trail. There he

What had frightened the deer into so frantic a retreat, Tarzan did not knowNuma, the lion, perhaps, or

Sheeta, the panther; but whatsoever it was mattered little to Tarzan of the Apeshe was ready and willing to

defend his kill against any other denizen of the jungle. If he were unable to do it by means of physical

prowess, he had at his command another and a greater powerhis shrewd intelligence.

And so, on came the running deer, straight into the jaws of death. The apeman turned so that his back was

toward the approaching animal. He poised with bent knees upon the gently swaying limb above the trail,

In a moment the victim flashed beneath the limb and at the same instant the apeman above sprang out and

down upon its back. The weight of the man's body carried the deer to the ground. It stumbled forward once in

a futile effort to rise, and then mighty muscles dragged its head far back, gave the neck a vicious wrench, and

Quick had been the killing, and equally quick were the apeman's subsequent actions, for who might know

what manner of killer pursued Bara, or how close at hand he might be? Scarce had the neck of the victim

snapped than the carcass was hanging over one of Tarzan's broad shoulders, and an instant later the apeman

was perched once more among the lower branches of a tree above the trail, his keen, gray eyes scanning the

Nor was it long before the cause of Bara's fright became evident to Tarzan, for presently came the

unmistakable sounds of approaching horsemen. Dragging his kill after him the apeman ascended to the

middle terrace, and settling himself comfortably in the crotch of a tree where he could still view the trail

beneath, cut a juicy steak from the deer's loin, and burying his strong, white teeth in the hot flesh proceeded

Nor did he neglect the trail beneath while he satisfied his hunger. His sharp eyes saw the muzzle of the

leading horse as it came into view around a bend in the tortuous trail, and one by one they scrutinized the

Among them came one whom Tarzan recognized, but so schooled was the apeman in the control of his

emotions that no slightest change of expression, much less any hysterical demonstration that might have

Beneath him, as unconscious of his presence as were the Abyssinians before and behind him, rode Albert

Werper, while the apeman scrutinized the Belgian for some sign of the pouch which he had stolen.

As the Abyssinians rode toward the south, a giant figure hovered ever upon their traila huge, almost naked

white man, who carried the bloody carcass of a deer upon his shoulders, for Tarzan knew that he might not

have another opportunity to hunt for some time if he were to follow the Belgian.

To endeavor to snatch him from the midst of the armed horsemen, not even Tarzan would attempt other than

in the last extremity, for the way of the wild is the way of caution and cunning, unless they be aroused to

So the Abyssinians and the Belgian marched southward and Tarzan of the Apes swung silently after them

A two days' march brought them to a level plain beyond which lay mountainsa plain which Tarzan

remembered and which aroused within him vague half memories and strange longings. Out upon the plain the

horsemen rode, and at a safe distance behind them crept the apeman, taking advantage of such cover as the

Beside a charred pile of timbers the Abyssinians halted, and Tarzan, sneaking close and concealing himself in

nearby shrubbery, watched them in wonderment. He saw them digging up the earth, and he wondered if they

had hidden meat there in the past and now had come for it. Then he recalled how he had buried his pretty

pebbles, and the suggestion that had caused him to do it. They were digging for the things the blacks had

Presently he saw them uncover a dirty, yellow object, and he witnessed the joy of Werper and of Abdul

Mourak as the grimy object was exposed to view. One by one they unearthed many similar pieces, all of the

same uniform, dirty yellow, until a pile of them lay upon the ground, a pile which Abdul Mourak fondled and

Something stirred in the apeman's mind as he looked long upon the golden ingots. Where had he seen such

before? What were they? Why did these Tarmangani covet them so greatly? To whom did they belong?

He recalled the black men who had buried them. The things must be theirs. Werper was stealing them as he

had stolen Tarzan's pouch of pebbles. The apeman's eyes blazed in anger. He would like to find the black

men and lead them against these thieves. He wondered where their village might be.

As all these things ran through the active mind, a party of men moved out of the forest at the edge of the plain

Abdul Mourak, always watchful, was the first to see them, but already they were halfway across the open. He

called to his men to mount and hold themselves in readiness, for in the heart of Africa who may know

Werper, swinging into his saddle, fastened his eyes upon the newcomers, then, white and trembling he turned

It must have been at about the same instant that Achmet Zek discovered the pile of yellow ingots and realized

the actuality of what he had already feared since first his eyes had alighted upon the party beside the ruins of

the Englishman's bungalow. Someone had forestalled himanother had come for the treasure ahead of him.

The Arab was crazed by rage. Recently everything had gone against him. He had lost the jewels, the Belgian,

and for the second time he had lost the Englishwoman. Now some one had come to rob him of this treasure

which he had thought as safe from disturbance here as though it never had been mined.

He cared not whom the thieves might be. They would not give up the gold without a battle, of that he was

certain, and with a wild whoop and a command to his followers, Achmet Zek put spurs to his horse and

dashed down upon the Abyssinians, and after him, waving their long guns above their heads, yelling and

The men of Abdul Mourak met them with a volley which emptied a few saddles, and then the raiders were

among them, and sword, pistol and musket, each was doing its most hideous and bloody work.

Achmet Zek, spying Werper at the first charge, bore down upon the Belgian, and the latter, terrified by

contemplation of the fate he deserved, turned his horse's head and dashed madly away in an effort to escape.

Shouting to a lieutenant to take command, and urging him upon pain of death to dispatch the Abyssinians and

bring the gold back to his camp, Achmet Zek set off across the plain in pursuit of the Belgian, his wicked

nature unable to forego the pleasures of revenge, even at the risk of sacrificing the treasure.

As the pursued and the pursuer raced madly toward the distant forest the battle behind them raged with

bloody savageness. No quarter was asked or given by either the ferocious Abyssinians or the murderous

From the concealment of the shrubbery Tarzan watched the sanguinary conflict which so effectually

surrounded him that he found no loophole through which he might escape to follow Werper and the Arab

The Abyssinians were formed in a circle which included Tarzan's position, and around and into them

galloped the yelling raiders, now darting away, now charging in to deliver thrusts and cuts with their curved

Numerically the men of Achmet Zek were superior, and slowly but surely the soldiers of Menelek were being

exterminated. To Tarzan the result was immaterial. He watched with but a single purposeto escape the ring

When he had first discovered Werper upon the trail where he had slain Bara, he had thought that his eyes

must be playing him false, so certain had he been that the thief had been slain and devoured by Numa; but

after following the detachment for two days, with his keen eyes always upon the Belgian, he no longer

doubted the identity of the man, though he was put to it to explain the identity of the mutilated corpse he had

As he crouched in hiding among the unkempt shrubbery which so short a while since had been the delight

and pride of the wife he no longer recalled, an Arab and an Abyssinian wheeled their mounts close to his

Step by step the Arab beat back his adversary until the latter's horse all but trod upon the apeman, and then a

vicious cut clove the black warrior's skull, and the corpse toppled backward almost upon Tarzan.

As the Abyssinian tumbled from his saddle the possibility of escape which was represented by the riderless

horse electrified the apeman to instant action. Before the frightened beast could gather himself for flight a

naked giant was astride his back. A strong hand had grasped his bridle rein, and the surprised Arab

But this enemy wielded no sword, and his spear and bow remained upon his back. The Arab, recovered from

his first surprise, dashed in with raised sword to annihilate this presumptuous stranger. He aimed a mighty

blow at the apeman's head, a blow which swung harmlessly through thin air as Tarzan ducked from its path,

and then the Arab felt the other's horse brushing his leg, a great arm shot out and encircled his waist, and

before he could recover himself he was dragged from his saddle, and forming a shield for his antagonist was

Just beyond them he was tossed aside upon the ground, and the last he saw of his strange foeman the latter

was galloping off across the plain in the direction of the forest at its farther edge.

For another hour the battle raged nor did it cease until the last of the Abyssinians lay dead upon the ground,

or had galloped off toward the north in flight. But a handful of men escaped, among them Abdul Mourak.

The victorious raiders collected about the pile of golden ingots which the Abyssinians had uncovered, and

there awaited the return of their leader. Their exultation was slightly tempered by the glimpse they had had of

the strange apparition of the naked white man galloping away upon the horse of one of their foemen and

carrying a companion who was now among them expatiating upon the superhuman strength of the apeman.

None of them there but was familiar with the name and fame of Tarzan of the Apes, and the fact that they had

recognized the white giant as the ferocious enemy of the wrongdoers of the jungle, added to their terror, for

Naturally superstitious, they fully believed that they had seen the disembodied spirit of the dead man, and

now they cast fearful glances about them in expectation of the ghost's early return to the scene of the ruin

they had inflicted upon him during their recent raid upon his home, and discussed in affrighted whispers the

probable nature of the vengeance which the spirit would inflict upon them should he return to find them in

As they conversed their terror grew, while from the concealment of the reeds along the river below them a

small party of naked, black warriors watched their every move. From the heights beyond the river these black

men had heard the noise of the conflict, and creeping warily down to the stream had forded it and advanced

through the reeds until they were in a position to watch every move of the combatants.

For a half hour the raiders awaited Achmet Zek's return, their fear of the earlier return of the ghost of Tarzan

constantly undermining their loyalty to and fear of their chief. Finally one among them voiced the desires of

all when he announced that he intended riding forth toward the forest in search of Achmet Zek. Instantly

"The gold will be safe here," cried one. "We have killed the Abyssinians and there are no others to carry it

And a moment later, amidst a cloud of dust, the raiders were galloping madly across the plain, and out from

the concealment of the reeds along the river, crept a party of black warriors toward the spot where the golden

Werper had still been in advance of Achmet Zek when he reached the forest; but the latter, better mounted,

was gaining upon him. Riding with the reckless courage of desperation the Belgian urged his mount to

greater speed even within the narrow confines of the winding, game trail that the beast was following.

Behind him he could hear the voice of Achmet Zek crying to him to halt; but Werper only dug the spurs

deeper into the bleeding sides of his panting mount. Two hundred yards within the forest a broken branch lay

across the trail. It was a small thing that a horse might ordinarily take in his natural stride without noticing its

presence; but Werper's horse was jaded, his feet were heavy with weariness, and as the branch caught

between his front legs he stumbled, was unable to recover himself, and went down, sprawling in the trail.

Werper, going over his head, rolled a few yards farther on, scrambled to his feet and ran back. Seizing the

reins he tugged to drag the beast to his feet; but the animal would not or could not rise, and as the Belgian

Instantly the Belgian ceased his efforts with the dying animal at his feet, and seizing his rifle, dropped behind

His bullet, going low, struck Achmet Zek's horse in the breast, bringing him down a hundred yards from

The Arab, who had gone down with his mount, was standing astride him, and seeing the Belgian's strategic

position behind his fallen horse, lost no time in taking up a similar one behind his own.

And there the two lay, alternately firing at and cursing each other, while from behind the Arab, Tarzan of the

Apes approached to the edge of the forest. Here he heard the occasional shots of the duelists, and choosing

the safer and swifter avenue of the forest branches to the uncertain transportation afforded by a halfbroken

Keeping to one side of the trail, the apeman came presently to a point where he could look down in

comparative safety upon the fighters. First one and then the other would partially raise himself above his

breastwork of horseflesh, fire his weapon and immediately drop flat behind his shelter, where he would

Werper had but little ammunition, having been hastily armed by Abdul Mourak from the body of one of the

first of the Abyssinians who had fallen in the fight about the pile of ingots, and now he realized that soon he

would have used his last bullet, and be at the mercy of the Araba mercy with which he was well

Facing both death and despoilment of his treasure, the Belgian cast about for some plan of escape, and the

only one that appealed to him as containing even a remote possibility of success hinged upon the chance of

Werper had fired all but a single cartridge, when, during a lull in the fighting, he called aloud to his opponent.

"Achmet Zek," he cried, "Allah alone knows which one of us may leave our bones to rot where he lies upon

this trail today if we keep up our foolish battle. You wish the contents of the pouch I wear about my waist,

and I wish my life and my liberty even more than I do the jewels. Let us each, then, take that which he most

desires and go our separate ways in peace. I will lay the pouch upon the carcass of my horse, where you may

see it, and you, in turn, will lay your gun upon your horse, with butt toward me. Then I will go away, leaving

the pouch to you, and you will let me go in safety. I want only my life, and my freedom."

The Arab thought in silence for a moment. Then he spoke. His reply was influenced by the fact that he had

"Go your way, then," he growled, "leaving the pouch in plain sight behind you. See, I lay my gun thus, with

Werper removed the pouch from about his waist. Sorrowfully and affectionately he let his fingers press the

hard outlines of the contents. Ah, if he could extract a little handful of the precious stones! But Achmet Zek

was standing now, his eagle eyes commanding a plain view of the Belgian and his every act.

Regretfully Werper laid the pouch, its contents undisturbed, upon the body of his horse, rose, and taking his

rifle with him, backed slowly down the trail until a turn hid him from the view of the watchful Arab.

Even then Achmet Zek did not advance, fearful as he was of some such treachery as he himself might have

been guilty of under like circumstances; nor were his suspicions groundless, for the Belgian, no sooner had he

passed out of the range of the Arab's vision, halted behind the bole of a tree, where he still commanded an

unobstructed view of his dead horse and the pouch, and raising his rifle covered the spot where the other's

But Achmet Zek was no fool to expose himself to the blackened honor of a thief and a murderer. Taking his

long gun with him, he left the trail, entering the rank and tangled vegetation which walled it, and crawling

slowly forward on hands and knees he paralleled the trail; but never for an instant was his body exposed to

Thus Achmet Zek advanced until he had come opposite the dead horse of his enemy. The pouch lay there in

full view, while a short distance along the trail, Werper waited in growing impatience and nervousness,

Presently he saw the muzzle of a rifle appear suddenly and mysteriously a few inches above the pouch, and

before he could realize the cunning trick that the Arab had played upon him the sight of the weapon was

adroitly hooked into the rawhide thong which formed the carrying strap of the pouch, and the latter was

Not for an instant had the raider exposed a square inch of his body, and Werper dared not fire his one

Chuckling to himself, Achmet Zek withdrew a few paces farther into the jungle, for he was as positive that

Werper was waiting nearby for a chance to pot him as though his eyes had penetrated the jungle trees to the

figure of the hiding Belgian, fingering his rifle behind the bole of the buttressed giant.

Werper did not dare advancehis cupidity would not permit him to depart, and so he stood there, his rifle

ready in his hands, his eyes watching the trail before him with catlike intensity.

But there was another who had seen the pouch and recognized it, who did advance with Achmet Zek,

hovering above him, as silent and as sure as death itself, and as the Arab, finding a little spot less overgrown

with bushes than he had yet encountered, prepared to gloat his eyes upon the contents of the pouch, Tarzan

Wetting his thin lips with his tongue, Achmet Zek loosened the tie strings which closed the mouth of the

pouch, and cupping one clawlike hand poured forth a portion of the contents into his palm.

A single look he took at the stones lying in his hand. His eyes narrowed, a curse broke from his lips, and he

hurled the small objects upon the ground, disdainfully. Quickly he emptied the balance of the contents until

he had scanned each separate stone, and as he dumped them all upon the ground and stamped upon them his

rage grew until the muscles of his face worked in demonlike fury, and his fingers clenched until his nails bit

Above, Tarzan watched in wonderment. He had been curious to discover what all the powwow about his

pouch had meant. He wanted to see what the Arab would do after the other had gone away, leaving the pouch

behind him, and, having satisfied his curiosity, he would then have pounced upon Achmet Zek and taken the

He saw the Arab now throw aside the empty pouch, and grasping his long gun by the barrel, clublike, sneak

As the man disappeared from his view, Tarzan dropped to the ground and commenced gathering up the

spilled contents of the pouch, and the moment that he obtained his first near view of the scattered pebbles he

understood the rage of the Arab, for instead of the glittering and scintillating gems which had first caught and

held the attention of the apeman, the pouch now contained but a collection of ordinary river pebbles.

Mugambi, after his successful break for liberty, had fallen upon hard times. His way had led him through a

country with which he was unfamiliar, a jungle country in which he could find no water, and but little food,

so that after several days of wandering he found himself so reduced in strength that he could barely drag

It was with growing difficulty that he found the strength necessary to construct a shelter by night wherein he

might be reasonably safe from the large carnivora, and by day he still further exhausted his strength in

A few stagnant pools at considerable distances apart saved him from death by thirst; but his was a pitiable

state when finally he stumbled by accident upon a large river in a country where fruit was abundant, and

small game which he might bag by means of a combination of stealth, cunning, and a crude knobstick which

Realizing that he still had a long march ahead of him before he could reach even the outskirts of the Waziri

country, Mugambi wisely decided to remain where he was until he had recuperated his strength and health. A

few days' rest would accomplish wonders for him, he knew, and he could ill afford to sacrifice his chances

And so it was that he constructed a substantial thorn boma, and rigged a thatched shelter within it, where he

might sleep by night in security, and from which he sallied forth by day to hunt the flesh which alone could

One day, as he hunted, a pair of savage eyes discovered him from the concealment of the branches of a great

tree beneath which the black warrior passed. Bloodshot, wicked eyes they were, set in a fierce and hairy face.

They watched Mugambi make his little kill of a small rodent, and they followed him as he returned to his hut,

The creature was Chulk, and he looked down upon the unconscious man more in curiosity than in hate. The

wearing of the Arab burnoose which Tarzan had placed upon his person had aroused in the mind of the

anthropoid a desire for similar mimicry of the Tarmangani. The burnoose, though, had obstructed his

movements and proven such a nuisance that the ape had long since torn it from him and thrown it away.

Now, however, he saw a Gomangani arrayed in less cumbersome apparela loin cloth, a few copper

ornaments and a feather headdress. These were more in line with Chulk's desires than a flowing robe which

was constantly getting between one's legs, and catching upon every limb and bush along the leafy trail.

Chulk eyed the pouch, which, suspended over Mugambi's shoulder, swung beside his black hip. This took his

fancy, for it was ornamented with feathers and a fringe, and so the ape hung about Mugambi's boma, waiting

an opportunity to seize either by stealth or might some object of the black's apparel.

Nor was it long before the opportunity came. Feeling safe within his thorny enclosure, Mugambi was wont to

stretch himself in the shade of his shelter during the heat of the day, and sleep in peaceful security until the

Watching from above, Chulk saw the black warrior stretched thus in the unconsciousness of sleep one sultry

afternoon. Creeping out upon an overhanging branch the anthropoid dropped to the ground within the boma.

He approached the sleeper upon padded feet which gave forth no sound, and with an uncanny woodcraft that

Pausing beside the man, the ape bent over and examined his belongings. Great as was the strength of Chulk

there lay in the back of his little brain a something which deterred him from arousing the man to combata

sense that is inherent in all the lower orders, a strange fear of man, that rules even the most powerful of the

To remove Mugambi's loin cloth without awakening him would be impossible, and the only detachable things

were the knobstick and the pouch, which had fallen from the black's shoulder as he rolled in sleep.

Seizing these two articles, as better than nothing at all, Chulk retreated with haste, and every indication of

nervous terror, to the safety of the tree from which he had dropped, and, still haunted by that indefinable

terror which the close proximity of man awakened in his breast, fled precipitately through the jungle.

Aroused by attack, or supported by the presence of another of his kind, Chulk could have braved the presence

of a score of human beings, but aloneah, that was a different matteralone, and unenraged.

It was some time after Mugambi awoke that he missed the pouch. Instantly he was all excitement. What

could have become of it? It had been at his side when he lay down to sleepof that he was certain, for had

he not pushed it from beneath him when its bulging bulk, pressing against his ribs, caused him discomfort?

Mugambi's savage imagination was filled with visions of the spirits of departed friends and enemies, for only

to the machinations of such as these could he attribute the disappearance of his pouch and knobstick in the

first excitement of the discovery of their loss; but later and more careful investigation, such as his woodcraft

made possible, revealed indisputable evidence of a more material explanation than his excited fancy and

In the trampled turf beside him was the faint impress of huge, manlike feet. Mugambi raised his brows as the

truth dawned upon him. Hastily leaving the boma he searched in all directions about the enclosure for some

farther sign of the telltale spoor. He climbed trees and sought for evidence of the direction of the thief's

flight; but the faint signs left by a wary ape who elects to travel through the trees eluded the woodcraft of

Mugambi. Tarzan might have followed them; but no ordinary mortal could perceive them, or perceiving,

The black, now strengthened and refreshed by his rest, felt ready to set out again for Waziri, and finding

himself another knobstick, turned his back upon the river and plunged into the mazes of the jungle.

As Taglat struggled with the bonds which secured the ankles and wrists of his captive, the great lion that eyed

the two from behind a nearby clump of bushes wormed closer to his intended prey.

The ape's back was toward the lion. He did not see the broad head, fringed by its rough mane, protruding

through the leafy wall. He could not know that the powerful hind paws were gathering close beneath the

tawny belly preparatory to a sudden spring, and his first intimation of impending danger was the thunderous

Scarce pausing for a backward glance, Taglat abandoned the unconscious woman and fled in the opposite

direction from the horrid sound which had broken in so unexpected and terrifying a manner upon his startled

ears; but the warning had come too late to save him, and the lion, in his second bound, alighted full upon the

As the great bull went down there was awakened in him to the full all the cunning, all the ferocity, all the

physical prowess which obey the mightiest of the fundamental laws of nature, the law of selfpreservation,

and turning upon his back he closed with the carnivore in a death struggle so fearless and abandoned, that for

Seizing the lion by the mane, Taglat buried his yellowed fangs deep in the monster's throat, growling

hideously through the muffled gag of blood and hair. Mixed with the ape's voice the lion's roars of rage and

pain reverberated through the jungle, till the lesser creatures of the wild, startled from their peaceful pursuits,

Rolling over and over upon the turf the two battled with demoniac fury, until the colossal cat, by doubling his

hind paws far up beneath his belly sank his talons deep into Taglat's chest, then, ripping downward with all

his strength, Numa accomplished his design, and the disemboweled anthropoid, with a last spasmodic

Scrambling to his feet, Numa looked about quickly in all directions, as though seeking to detect the possible

presence of other foes; but only the still and unconscious form of the girl, lying a few paces from him met his

gaze, and with an angry growl he placed a forepaw upon the body of his kill and raising his head gave voice

For another moment he stood with fierce eyes roving to and fro about the clearing. At last they halted for a

second time upon the girl. A low growl rumbled from the lion's throat. His lower jaw rose and fell, and the

Like two yellowgreen augurs, wide and unblinking, the terrible eyes remained fixed upon Jane Clayton. The

erect and majestic pose of the great frame shrank suddenly into a sinister crouch as, slowly and gently as one

Beneficent Fate maintained her in happy unconsciousness of the dread presence sneaking stealthily upon her.

She did not know when the lion paused at her side. She did not hear the sniffing of his nostrils as he smelled

about her. She did not feel the heat of the fetid breath upon her face, nor the dripping of the saliva from the

Finally the lion lifted a forepaw and turned the body of the girl half over, then he stood again eyeing her as

though still undetermined whether life was extinct or not. Some noise or odor from the nearby jungle

attracted his attention for a moment. His eyes did not again return to Jane Clayton, and presently he left her,

walked over to the remains of Taglat, and crouching down upon his kill with his back toward the girl,

It was upon this scene that Jane Clayton at last opened her eyes. Inured to danger, she maintained her

selfpossession in the face of the startling surprise which her newfound consciousness revealed to her. She

neither cried out nor moved a muscle, until she had taken in every detail of the scene which lay within the

She saw that the lion had killed the ape, and that he was devouring his prey less than fifty feet from where she

lay; but what could she do? Her hands and feet were bound. She must wait then, in what patience she could

command, until Numa had eaten and digested the ape, when, without doubt, he would return to feast upon

her, unless, in the meantime, the dread hyenas should discover her, or some other of the numerous prowling

As she lay tormented by these frightful thoughts, she suddenly became conscious that the bonds at her wrists

and ankles no longer hurt her, and then of the fact that her hands were separated, one lying upon either side of

Wonderingly she moved a hand. What miracle had been performed? It was not bound! Stealthily and

noiselessly she moved her other limbs, only to discover that she was free. She could not know how the thing

had happened, that Taglat, gnawing upon them for sinister purposes of his own, had cut them through but an

For a moment Jane Clayton was overwhelmed with joy and thanksgiving; but only for a moment. What good

was her newfound liberty in the face of the frightful beast crouching so close beside her? If she could have

had this chance under different conditions, how happily she would have taken advantage of it; but now it was

The nearest tree was a hundred feet away, the lion less than fifty. To rise and attempt to reach the safety of

those tantalizing branches would be but to invite instant destruction, for Numa would doubtless be too jealous

of this future meal to permit it to escape with ease. And yet, too, there was another possibilitya chance

His belly already partially filled, he might watch with indifference the departure of the girl; yet could she

afford to chance so improbable a contingency? She doubted it. Upon the other hand she was no more minded

to allow this frail opportunity for life to entirely elude her without taking or attempting to take some

She watched the lion narrowly. He could not see her without turning his head more than halfway around. She

would attempt a ruse. Silently she rolled over in the direction of the nearest tree, and away from the lion, until

she lay again in the same position in which Numa had left her, but a few feet farther from him.

Here she lay breathless watching the lion; but the beast gave no indication that he had heard aught to arouse

his suspicions. Again she rolled over, gaining a few more feet and again she lay in rigid contemplation of the

During what seemed hours to her tense nerves, Jane Clayton continued these tactics, and still the lion fed on

in apparent unconsciousness that his second prey was escaping him. Already the girl was but a few paces

from the treea moment more and she would be close enough to chance springing to her feet, throwing

caution aside and making a sudden, bold dash for safety. She was halfway over in her turn, her face away

from the lion, when he suddenly turned his great head and fastened his eyes upon her. He saw her roll over

upon her side away from him, and then her eyes were turned again toward him, and the cold sweat broke

from the girl's every pore as she realized that with life almost within her grasp, death had found her out.

For a long time neither the girl nor the lion moved. The beast lay motionless, his head turned upon his

shoulders and his glaring eyes fixed upon the rigid victim, now nearly fifty yards away. The girl stared back

The strain upon her nerves was becoming so unbearable that she could scarcely restrain a growing desire to

scream, when Numa deliberately turned back to the business of feeding; but his backlayed ears attested a

Realizing that she could not again turn without attracting his immediate and perhaps fatal attention, Jane

Clayton resolved to risk all in one last attempt to reach the tree and clamber to the lower branches.

Gathering herself stealthily for the effort, she leaped suddenly to her feet, but almost simultaneously the lion

sprang up, wheeled and with widedistended jaws and terrific roars, charged swiftly down upon her.

Those who have spent lifetimes hunting the big game of Africa will tell you that scarcely any other creature

in the world attains the speed of a charging lion. For the short distance that the great cat can maintain it, it

resembles nothing more closely than the onrushing of a giant locomotive under full speed, and so, though the

distance that Jane Clayton must cover was relatively small, the terrific speed of the lion rendered her hopes of

Yet fear can work wonders, and though the upward spring of the lion as he neared the tree into which she was

scrambling brought his talons in contact with her boots she eluded his raking grasp, and as he hurtled against

the bole of her sanctuary, the girl drew herself into the safety of the branches above his reach.

For some time the lion paced, growling and moaning, beneath the tree in which Jane Clayton crouched,

panting and trembling. The girl was a prey to the nervous reaction from the frightful ordeal through which

she had so recently passed, and in her overwrought state it seemed that never again should she dare descend

to the ground among the fearsome dangers which infested the broad stretch of jungle that she knew must lie

It was almost dark before the lion finally quit the clearing, and even had his place beside the remnants of the

mangled ape not been immediately usurped by a pack of hyenas, Jane Clayton would scarcely have dared

venture from her refuge in the face of impending night, and so she composed herself as best she could for the

long and tiresome wait, until daylight might offer some means of escape from the dread vicinity in which she

Tired nature at last overcame even her fears, and she dropped into a deep slumber, cradled in a comparatively

safe, though rather uncomfortable, position against the bole of the tree, and supported by two large branches

The sun was high in the heavens when she at last awoke, and beneath her was no sign either of Numa or the

hyenas. Only the cleanpicked bones of the ape, scattered about the ground, attested the fact of what had

Both hunger and thirst assailed her now, and realizing that she must descend or die of starvation, she at last

summoned courage to undertake the ordeal of continuing her journey through the jungle.

Descending from the tree, she set out in a southerly direction, toward the point where she believed the plains

of Waziri lay, and though she knew that only ruin and desolation marked the spot where once her happy

home had stood, she hoped that by coming to the broad plain she might eventually reach one of the numerous

Waziri villages that were scattered over the surrounding country, or chance upon a roving band of these

The day was half spent when there broke unexpectedly upon her startled ears the sound of a rifle shot not far

ahead of her. As she paused to listen, this first shot was followed by another and another and another. What

could it mean? The first explanation which sprung to her mind attributed the firing to an encounter between

the Arab raiders and a party of Waziri; but as she did not know upon which side victory might rest, or

whether she were behind friend or foe, she dared not advance nearer on the chance of revealing herself to an

After listening for several minutes she became convinced that no more than two or three rifles were engaged

in the fight, since nothing approximating the sound of a volley reached her ears; but still she hesitated to

approach, and at last, determining to take no chance, she climbed into the concealing foliage of a tree beside

the trail she had been following and there fearfully awaited whatever might reveal itself.

As the firing became less rapid she caught the sound of men's voices, though she could distinguish no words,

and at last the reports of the guns ceased, and she heard two men calling to each other in loud tones. Then

there was a long silence which was finally broken by the stealthy padding of footfalls on the trail ahead of

her, and in another moment a man appeared in view backing toward her, a rifle ready in his hands, and his

Almost instantly Jane Clayton recognized the man as M. Jules Frecoult, who so recently had been a guest in

her home. She was upon the point of calling to him in glad relief when she saw him leap quickly to one side

and hide himself in the thick verdure at the trail's side. It was evident that he was being followed by an

enemy, and so Jane Clayton kept silent, lest she distract Frecoult's attention, or guide his foe to his hiding

Scarcely had Frecoult hidden himself than the figure of a whiterobed Arab crept silently along the trail in

pursuit. From her hiding place, Jane Clayton could see both men plainly. She recognized Achmet Zek as the

leader of the band of ruffians who had raided her home and made her a prisoner, and as she saw Frecoult, the

supposed friend and ally, raise his gun and take careful aim at the Arab, her heart stood still and every power

Achmet Zek paused in the middle of the trail. His keen eyes scanned every bush and tree within the radius of

his vision. His tall figure presented a perfect target to the perfidious assassin. There was a sharp report, and a

little puff of smoke arose from the bush that hid the Belgian, as Achmet Zek stumbled forward and pitched,

As Werper stepped back into the trail, he was startled by the sound of a glad cry from above him, and as he

wheeled about to discover the author of this unexpected interruption, he saw Jane Clayton drop lightly from a

nearby tree and run forward with outstretched hands to congratulate him upon his victory.

Though her clothes were torn and her hair disheveled, Albert Werper realized that he never before had looked

upon such a vision of loveliness as that which Lady Greystoke presented in the relief and joy which she felt

in coming so unexpectedly upon a friend and rescuer when hope had seemed so far away.

If the Belgian had entertained any doubts as to the woman's knowledge of his part in the perfidious attack

upon her home and herself, it was quickly dissipated by the genuine friendliness of her greeting. She told him

quickly of all that had befallen her since he had departed from her home, and as she spoke of the death of her

"I am shocked," said Werper, in wellsimulated sympathy; "but I am not surprised. That devil there," and he

pointed toward the body of Achmet Zek, "has terrorized the entire country. Your Waziri are either

exterminated, or have been driven out of their country, far to the south. The men of Achmet Zek occupy the

plain about your former homethere is neither sanctuary nor escape in that direction. Our only hope lies in

traveling northward as rapidly as we may, of coming to the camp of the raiders before the knowledge of

Achmet Zek's death reaches those who were left there, and of obtaining, through some ruse, an escort toward

"I think that the thing can be accomplished, for I was a guest of the raider's before I knew the nature of the

man, and those at the camp are not aware that I turned against him when I discovered his villainy.

"Come! We will make all possible haste to reach the camp before those who accompanied Achmet Zek upon

his last raid have found his body and carried the news of his death to the cutthroats who remained behind. It

is our only hope, Lady Greystoke, and you must place your entire faith in me if I am to succeed. Wait for me

here a moment while I take from the Arab's body the wallet that he stole from me," and Werper stepped

quickly to the dead man's side, and, kneeling, sought with quick fingers the pouch of jewels. To his

consternation, there was no sign of them in the garments of Achmet Zek. Rising, he walked back along the

trail, searching for some trace of the missing pouch or its contents; but he found nothing, even though he

searched carefully the vicinity of his dead horse, and for a few paces into the jungle on either side. Puzzled,

disappointed and angry, he at last returned to the girl. "The wallet is gone," he explained, crisply, "and I dare

not delay longer in search of it. We must reach the camp before the returning raiders."

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

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

"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 opened the gates to him permitted their surprise to show clearly in their expressions.

That the discredited and hunted lieutenant should be thus returning fearlessly of his own volition, seemed to

disarm them quite as effectually as his manner toward Lady Greystoke had deceived her.

The sentries at the gate returned Werper's salutations, and viewed with astonishment the prisoner whom he

Immediately the Belgian sought the Arab who had been left in charge of the camp during Achmet Zek's

absence, and again his boldness disarmed suspicion and won the acceptance of his false explanation of his

return. The fact that he had brought back with him the woman prisoner who had escaped, added strength to

his claims, and Mohammed Beyd soon found himself fraternizing goodnaturedly with the very man whom

he would have slain without compunction had he discovered him alone in the jungle a half hour before.

Jane Clayton was again confined to the prison hut she had formerly occupied, but as she realized that this was

but a part of the deception which she and Frecoult were playing upon the credulous raiders, it was with quite

a different sensation that she again entered the vile and filthy interior, from that which she had previously

Once more she was bound and sentries placed before the door of her prison; but before Werper left her he

whispered words of cheer into her ear. Then he left, and made his way back to the tent of Mohammed Beyd.

He had been wondering how long it would be before the raiders who had ridden out with Achmet Zek would

return with the murdered body of their chief, and the more he thought upon the matter the greater his fears

What, even, if he got away from the camp in safety before any returned with the true story of his guilt of

what value would this advantage be other than to protract for a few days his mental torture and his life? These

hard riders, familiar with every trail and bypath, would get him long before he could hope to reach the coast.

As these thoughts passed through his mind he entered the tent where Mohammed Beyd sat crosslegged upon

"Never was he safer from the sins and dangers of mortality," replied the Belgian.

"It is well," said Mohammed Beyd, blowing a little puff of blue smoke straight out before him.

"And if he were dead?" asked the Belgian, determined to lead up to the truth, and attempt to bribe

The Arab's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward, his gaze boring straight into the eyes of the Belgian.

"I have been thinking much, Werper, since you returned so unexpectedly to the camp of the man whom you

had deceived, and who sought you with death in his heart. I have been with Achmet Zek for many yearshis

own mother never knew him so well as I. He never forgives much less would he again trust a man who had

"I have thought much, as I said, and the result of my thinking has assured me that Achmet Zek is deadfor

otherwise you would never have dared return to his camp, unless you be either a braver man or a bigger fool

than I have imagined. And, if this evidence of my judgment is not sufficient, I have but just now received

from your own lips even more confirmatory witnessfor did you not say that Achmet Zek was never more

"Achmet Zek is deadyou need not deny it. I was not his mother, or his mistress, so do not fear that my

wailings shall disturb you. Tell me why you have come back here. Tell me what you want, and, Werper, if

you still possess the jewels of which Achmet Zek told me, there is no reason why you and I should not ride

north together and divide the ransom of the white woman and the contents of the pouch you wear about your

The evil eyes narrowed, a vicious, thinlipped smile tortured the villainous face, as Mohammed Beyd

Werper was both relieved and disturbed by the Arab's attitude. The complacency with which he accepted the

death of his chief lifted a considerable burden of apprehension from the shoulders of Achmet Zek's assassin;

but his demand for a share of the jewels boded ill for Werper when Mohammed Beyd should have learned

To acknowledge that he had lost the jewels might be to arouse the wrath or suspicion of the Arab to such an

extent as would jeopardize his newfound chances of escape. His one hope seemed, then, to lie in fostering

Mohammed Beyd's belief that the jewels were still in his possession, and depend upon the accidents of the

Could he contrive to tent with the Arab upon the march north, he might find opportunity in plenty to remove

this menace to his life and libertyit was worth trying, and, further, there seemed no other way out of his

"Yes," he said, "Achmet Zek is dead. He fell in battle with a company of Abyssinian cavalry that held me

captive. During the fighting I escaped; but I doubt if any of Achmet Zek's men live, and the gold they sought

is in the possession of the Abyssinians. Even now they are doubtless marching on this camp, for they were

sent by Menelek to punish Achmet Zek and his followers for a raid upon an Abyssinian village. There are

many of them, and if we do not make haste to escape we shall all suffer the same fate as Achmet Zek."

Mohammed Beyd listened in silence. How much of the unbeliever's story he might safely believe he did not

know; but as it afforded him an excuse for deserting the village and making for the north he was not inclined

"And if I ride north with you," he asked, "half the jewels and half the ransom of the woman shall be mine?"

"Good," said Mohammed Beyd. "I go now to give the order for the breaking of camp early on the morrow,"

"Wait," he said, "let us determine how many shall accompany us. It is not well that we be burdened by the

women and children, for then indeed we might be overtaken by the Abyssinians. It would be far better to

select a small guard of your bravest men, and leave word behind that we are riding WEST. Then, when the

Abyssinians come they will be put upon the wrong trail should they have it in their hearts to pursue us, and if

they do not they will at least ride north with less rapidity than as though they thought that we were ahead of

"The serpent is less wise than thou, Werper," said Mohammed Beyd with a smile. "It shall be done as you

say. Twenty men shall accompany us, and we shall ride WESTwhen we leave the village."

Early the next morning Jane Clayton, after an almost sleepless night, was aroused by the sound of voices

outside her prison, and a moment later, M. Frecoult, and two Arabs entered. The latter unbound her ankles

and lifted her to her feet. Then her wrists were loosed, she was given a handful of dry bread, and led out into

She looked questioningly at Frecoult, and at a moment that the Arab's attention was attracted in another

direction the man leaned toward her and whispered that all was working out as he had planned. Thus assured,

the young woman felt a renewal of the hope which the long and miserable night of bondage had almost

Shortly after, she was lifted to the back of a horse, and surrounded by Arabs, was escorted through the

gateway of the village and off into the jungle toward the west. Half an hour later the party turned north, and

M. Frecoult spoke with her but seldom, and she understood that in carrying out his deception he must

maintain the semblance of her captor, rather than protector, and so she suspected nothing though she saw the

friendly relations which seemed to exist between the European and the Arab leader of the band.

If Werper succeeded in keeping himself from conversation with the young woman, he failed signally to expel

her from his thoughts. A hundred times a day he found his eyes wandering in her direction and feasting

themselves upon her charms of face and figure. Each hour his infatuation for her grew, until his desire to

If either the girl or Mohammed Beyd could have guessed what passed in the mind of the man which each

thought a friend and ally, the apparent harmony of the little company would have been rudely disturbed.

Werper had not succeeded in arranging to tent with Mohammed Beyd, and so he revolved many plans for the

assassination of the Arab that would have been greatly simplified had he been permitted to share the other's

Upon the second day out Mohammed Beyd reined his horse to the side of the animal on which the captive

was mounted. It was, apparently, the first notice which the Arab had taken of the girl; but many times during

these two days had his cunning eyes peered greedily from beneath the hood of his burnoose to gloat upon the

Nor was this hidden infatuation of any recent origin. He had conceived it when first the wife of the

Englishman had fallen into the hands of Achmet Zek; but while that austere chieftain lived, Mohammed Beyd

Now, though, it was differentonly a despised dog of a Christian stood between himself and possession of

the girl. How easy it would be to slay the unbeliever, and take unto himself both the woman and the jewels!

With the latter in his possession, the ransom which might be obtained for the captive would form no great

inducement to her relinquishment in the face of the pleasures of sole ownership of her. Yes, he would kill

He turned his eyes upon her as she rode along at his side. How beautiful she was! His fingers opened and

closedskinny, brown talons itching to feel the soft flesh of the victim in their remorseless clutch.

The girl drew herself up to her full height, and turned her head away; but she did not reply. She feared lest

her knowledge of the ruse that M. Frecoult was playing upon the Arab might cause her to betray herself

"You can escape this fate," continued the Arab; "Mohammed Beyd will save you," and he reached out a

brown hand and seized the fingers of her right hand in a grasp so sudden and so fierce that this brutal passion

was revealed as clearly in the act as though his lips had confessed it in words. Jane Clayton wrenched herself

Mohammed Beyd drew back with a scowl. His thin, upper lip curled upward, revealing his smooth, white

"M. Frecoult?" he jeered. "There is no such person. The man's name is Werper. He is a liar, a thief, and a

murderer. He killed his captain in the Congo country and fled to the protection of Achmet Zek. He led

Achmet Zek to the plunder of your home. He followed your husband, and planned to steal his gold from him.

He has told me that you think him your protector, and he has played upon this to win your confidence that it

might be easier to carry you north and sell you into some black sultan's harem. Mohammed Beyd is your only

hope," and with this assertion to provide the captive with food for thought, the Arab spurred forward toward

Jane Clayton could not know how much of Mohammed Beyd's indictment might be true, or how much false;

but at least it had the effect of dampening her hopes and causing her to review with suspicion every past act

of the man upon whom she had been looking as her sole protector in the midst of a world of enemies and

On the march a separate tent had been provided for the captive, and at night it was pitched between those of

Mohammed Beyd and Werper. A sentry was posted at the front and another at the back, and with these

precautions it had not been thought necessary to confine the prisoner to bonds. The evening following her

interview with Mohammed Beyd, Jane Clayton sat for some time at the opening of her tent watching the

rough activities of the camp. She had eaten the meal that had been brought her by Mohammed Beyd's Negro

slavea meal of cassava cakes and a nondescript stew in which a newkilled monkey, a couple of squirrels

and the remains of a zebra, slain the previous day, were impartially and unsavorily combined; but the

onetime Baltimore belle had long since submerged in the stern battle for existence, an estheticism which

As the girl's eyes wandered across the trampled jungle clearing, already squalid from the presence of man,

she no longer apprehended either the nearer objects of the foreground, the uncouth men laughing or

quarreling among themselves, or the jungle beyond, which circumscribed the extreme range of her material

vision. Her gaze passed through all these, unseeing, to center itself upon a distant bungalow and scenes of

happy security which brought to her eyes tears of mingled joy and sorrow. She saw a tall, broadshouldered

man riding in from distant fields; she saw herself waiting to greet him with an armful of freshcut roses from

the bushes which flanked the little rustic gate before her. All this was gone, vanished into the past, wiped out

by the torches and bullets and hatred of these hideous and degenerate men. With a stifled sob, and a little

shudder, Jane Clayton turned back into her tent and sought the pile of unclean blankets which were her bed.

Throwing herself face downward upon them she sobbed forth her misery until kindly sleep brought her, at

And while she slept a figure stole from the tent that stood to the right of hers. It approached the sentry before

the doorway and whispered a few words in the man's ear. The latter nodded, and strode off through the

darkness in the direction of his own blankets. The figure passed to the rear of Jane Clayton's tent and spoke

again to the sentry there, and this man also left, following in the trail of the first.

Then he who had sent them away stole silently to the tent flap and untying the fastenings entered with the

Sleepless upon his blankets, Albert Werper let his evil mind dwell upon the charms of the woman in the

nearby tent. He had noted Mohammed Beyd's sudden interest in the girl, and judging the man by his own

standards, had guessed at the basis of the Arab's sudden change of attitude toward the prisoner.

And as he let his imaginings run riot they aroused within him a bestial jealousy of Mohammed Beyd, and a

great fear that the other might encompass his base designs upon the defenseless girl. By a strange process of

reasoning, Werper, whose designs were identical with the Arab's, pictured himself as Jane Clayton's

protector, and presently convinced himself that the attentions which might seem hideous to her if proffered by

Her husband was dead, and Werper fancied that he could replace in the girl's heart the position which had

been vacated by the act of the grim reaper. He could offer Jane Clayton marriagea thing which Mohammed

Beyd would not offer, and which the girl would spurn from him with as deep disgust as she would his unholy

It was not long before the Belgian had succeeded in convincing himself that the captive not only had every

reason for having conceived sentiments of love for him; but that she had by various feminine methods

And then a sudden resolution possessed him. He threw the blankets from him and rose to his feet. Pulling on

his boots and buckling his cartridge belt and revolver about his hips he stepped to the flap of his tent and

looked out. There was no sentry before the entrance to the prisoner's tent! What could it mean? Fate was

Stepping outside he passed to the rear of the girl's tent. There was no sentry there, either! And now, boldly, he

Dimly the moonlight illumined the interior. Across the tent a figure bent above the blankets of a bed. There

was a whispered word, and another figure rose from the blankets to a sitting position. Slowly Albert Werper's

eyes were becoming accustomed to the half darkness of the tent. He saw that the figure leaning over the bed

was that of a man, and he guessed at the truth of the nocturnal visitor's identity.

A sullen, jealous rage enveloped him. He took a step in the direction of the two. He heard a frightened cry

break from the girl's lips as she recognized the features of the man above her, and he saw Mohammed Beyd

Cheated passion cast a red blur before the eyes of the Belgian. No! The man should not have her. She was for

Quickly he ran across the tent and threw himself upon the back of Mohammed Beyd. The latter, though

surprised by this sudden and unexpected attack, was not one to give up without a battle. The Belgian's fingers

were feeling for his throat, but the Arab tore them away, and rising wheeled upon his adversary. As they

faced each other Werper struck the Arab a heavy blow in the face, sending him staggering backward. If he

had followed up his advantage he would have had Mohammed Beyd at his mercy in another moment; but

instead he tugged at his revolver to draw it from its holster, and Fate ordained that at that particular moment

Before he could disengage it, Mohammed Beyd had recovered himself and was dashing upon him. Again

Werper struck the other in the face, and the Arab returned the blow. Striking at each other and ceaselessly

attempting to clinch, the two battled about the small interior of the tent, while the girl, wideeyed in terror

Again and again Werper struggled to draw his weapon. Mohammed Beyd, anticipating no such opposition to

his base desires, had come to the tent unarmed, except for a long knife which he now drew as he stood

"Dog of a Christian," he whispered, "look upon this knife in the hands of Mohammed Beyd! Look well,

unbeliever, for it is the last thing in life that you shall see or feel. With it Mohammed Beyd will cut out your

black heart. If you have a God pray to him now in a minute more you shall be dead," and with that he

Werper was still dragging futilely at his weapon. The Arab was almost upon him. In desperation the

European waited until Mohammed Beyd was all but against him, then he threw himself to one side to the

The trick succeeded. Mohammed Beyd, carried on by the momentum of his charge, stumbled over the

projecting obstacle and crashed to the ground. Instantly he was up again and wheeling to renew the battle; but

Werper was on foot ahead of him, and now his revolver, loosened from its holster, flashed in his hand.

The Arab dove headfirst to grapple with him, there was a sharp report, a lurid gleam of flame in the darkness,

and Mohammed Beyd rolled over and over upon the floor to come to a final rest beside the bed of the woman

Almost immediately following the report came the sound of excited voices in the camp without. Men were

calling back and forth to one another asking the meaning of the shot. Werper could hear them running hither

Jane Clayton had risen to her feet as the Arab died, and now she came forward with outstretched hands

"How can I ever thank you, my friend?" she asked. "And to think that only today I had almost believed the

infamous story which this beast told me of your perfidy and of your past. Forgive me, M. Frecoult. I might

have known that a white man and a gentleman could be naught else than the protector of a woman of his own

Werper's hands dropped limply at his sides. He stood looking at the girl; but he could find no words to reply

Outside, the Arabs were searching for the author of the disturbing shot. The two sentries who had been

relieved and sent to their blankets by Mohammed Beyd were the first to suggest going to the tent of the

prisoner. It occurred to them that possibly the woman had successfully defended herself against their leader.

Werper heard the men approaching. To be apprehended as the slayer of Mohammed Beyd would be

equivalent to a sentence of immediate death. The fierce and brutal raiders would tear to pieces a Christian

who had dared spill the blood of their leader. He must find some excuse to delay the finding of Mohammed

Returning his revolver to its holster, he walked quickly to the entrance of the tent. Parting the flaps he stepped

out and confronted the men, who were rapidly approaching. Somehow he found within him the necessary

bravado to force a smile to his lips, as he held up his hand to bar their farther progress.

"The woman resisted," he said, "and Mohammed Beyd was forced to shoot her. She is not deadonly

slightly wounded. You may go back to your blankets. Mohammed Beyd and I will look after the prisoner;"

then he turned and reentered the tent, and the raiders, satisfied by this explanation, gladly returned to their

As he again faced Jane Clayton, Werper found himself animated by quite different intentions than those

which had lured him from his blankets but a few minutes before. The excitement of his encounter with

Mohammed Beyd, as well as the dangers which he now faced at the hands of the raiders when morning must

inevitably reveal the truth of what had occurred in the tent of the prisoner that night, had naturally cooled the

But another and stronger force was exerting itself in the girl's favor. However low a man may sink, honor and

chivalry, has he ever possessed them, are never entirely eradicated from his character, and though Albert

Werper had long since ceased to evidence the slightest claim to either the one or the other, the spontaneous

acknowledgment of them which the girl's speech had presumed had reawakened them both within him.

For the first time he realized the almost hopeless and frightful position of the fair captive, and the depths of

ignominy to which he had sunk, that had made it possible for him, a wellborn, European gentleman, to have

entertained even for a moment the part that he had taken in the ruin of her home, happiness, and herself.

Too much of baseness already lay at the threshold of his conscience for him ever to hope entirely to redeem

himself; but in the first, sudden burst of contrition the man conceived an honest intention to undo, in so far as

lay within his power, the evil that his criminal avarice had brought upon this sweet and unoffending woman.

As he stood apparently listening to the retreating footstepsJane Clayton approached him.

"What are we to do now?" she asked. "Morning will bring discovery of this," and she pointed to the still body

"I have a plan," he cried. "It will require nerve and courage on your part; but you have already shown that you

"I can endure anything," she replied with a brave smile, "that may offer us even a slight chance for escape."

"You must simulate death," he explained, "while I carry you from the camp. I will explain to the sentries that

Mohammed Beyd has ordered me to take your body into the jungle. This seemingly unnecessary act I shall

explain upon the grounds that Mohammed Beyd had conceived a violent passion for you and that he so

regretted the act by which he had become your slayer that he could not endure the silent reproach of your

"Are you quite mad?" she asked. "Do you imagine that the sentries will credit any such ridiculous tale?"

"You do not know them," he replied. "Beneath their rough exteriors, despite their calloused and criminal

natures, there exists in each a welldefined strain of romantic emotionalismyou will find it among such as

these throughout the world. It is romance which lures men to lead wild lives of outlawry and crime. The ruse

"I shall hide you in the jungle," continued the Belgian, "coming for you alone and with two horses in the

"But how will you explain Mohammed Beyd's death?" she asked. "It will be discovered before ever you can

"I shall not explain it," replied Werper. "Mohammed Beyd shall explain it himselfwe must leave that to

"But wait, I must get you a weapon and ammunition," and Werper walked quickly from the tent.

Very shortly he returned with an extra revolver and ammunition belt strapped about his waist.

"Then come and throw yourself limply across my left shoulder," and Werper knelt to receive her.

"There," he said, as he rose to his feet. "Now, let your arms, your legs and your head hang limply. Remember

A moment later the man walked out into the camp, the body of the woman across his shoulder.

A thorn boma had been thrown up about the camp, to discourage the bolder of the hungry carnivora. A couple

of sentries paced to and fro in the light of a fire which they kept burning brightly. The nearer of these looked

"This is the body of the woman," he explained. "Mohammed Beyd has asked me to take it into the jungle, for

he cannot bear to look upon the face of her whom he loved, and whom necessity compelled him to slay. He

suffers greatlyhe is inconsolable. It was with difficulty that I prevented him taking his own life."

Across the speaker's shoulder, limp and frightened, the girl waited for the Arab's reply. He would laugh at

this preposterous story; of that she was sure. In an instant he would unmask the deception that M. Frecoult

was attempting to practice upon him, and they would both be lost. She tried to plan how best she might aid

her wouldbe rescuer in the fight which must most certainly follow within a moment or two.

"Are you going alone, or do you wish me to awaken someone to accompany you?" he asked, and his tone

denoted not the least surprise that Mohammed Beyd had suddenly discovered such remarkably sensitive

"I shall go alone," replied Werper, and he passed on and out through the narrow opening in the boma, by

A moment later he had entered among the boles of the trees with his burden, and when safely hidden from the

sentry's view lowered the girl to her feet, with a low, "shsh," when she would have spoken.

Then he led her a little farther into the forest, halted beneath a large tree with spreading branches, buckled a

cartridge belt and revolver about her waist, and assisted her to clamber into the lower branches.

"Tomorrow," he whispered, "as soon as I can elude them, I will return for you. Be brave, Lady

"Thank you," she replied in a low tone. "You have been very kind, and very brave."

Werper did not reply, and the darkness of the night hid the scarlet flush of shame which swept upward across

his face. Quickly he turned and made his way back to camp. The sentry, from his post, saw him enter his own

tent; but he did not see him crawl under the canvas at the rear and sneak cautiously to the tent which the

Raising the lower edge of the rear wall, Werper crept within and approached the corpse. Without an instant's

hesitation he seized the dead wrists and dragged the body upon its back to the point where he had just

entered. On hands and knees he backed out as he had come in, drawing the corpse after him. Once outside the

Belgian crept to the side of the tent and surveyed as much of the camp as lay within his visionno one was

Returning to the body, he lifted it to his shoulder, and risking all on a quick sally, ran swiftly across the

narrow opening which separated the prisoner's tent from that of the dead man. Behind the silken wall he

halted and lowered his burden to the ground, and there he remained motionless for several minutes, listening.

Satisfied, at last, that no one had seen him, he stooped and raised the bottom of the tent wall, backed in and

dragged the thing that had been Mohammed Beyd after him. To the sleeping rugs of the dead raider he drew

the corpse, then he fumbled about in the darkness until he had found Mohammed Beyd's revolver. With the

weapon in his hand he returned to the side of the dead man, kneeled beside the bedding, and inserted his right

hand with the weapon beneath the rugs, piled a number of thicknesses of the closely woven fabric over and

about the revolver with his left hand. Then he pulled the trigger, and at the same time he coughed.

The muffled report could not have been heard above the sound of his cough by one directly outside the tent.

Werper was satisfied. A grim smile touched his lips as he withdrew the weapon from the rugs and placed it

carefully in the right hand of the dead man, fixing three of the fingers around the grip and the index finger

A moment longer he tarried to rearrange the disordered rugs, and then he left as he had entered, fastening

Going to the tent of the prisoner he removed there also the evidence that someone might have come or gone

beneath the rear wall. Then he returned to his own tent, entered, fastened down the canvas, and crawled into

The following morning he was awakened by the excited voice of Mohammed Beyd's slave calling to him at

"Quick! Quick!" cried the black in a frightened tone. "Come! Mohammed Beyd is dead in his tentdead by

Werper sat up quickly in his blankets at the first alarm, a startled expression upon his countenance; but at the

last words of the black a sigh of relief escaped his lips and a slight smile replaced the tense lines upon his

"I come," he called to the slave, and drawing on his boots, rose and went out of his tent.

Excited Arabs and blacks were running from all parts of the camp toward the silken tent of Mohammed Beyd,

and when Werper entered he found a number of the raiders crowded about the corpse, now cold and stiff.

Shouldering his way among them, the Belgian halted beside the dead body of the raider. He looked down in

"Who has done this thing?" he cried. His tone was both menacing and accusing. "Who has murdered

"Mohammed Beyd was not murdered," they cried. "He died by his own hand. This, and Allah, are our

For a time Werper pretended to be skeptical; but at last permitted himself to be convinced that Mohammed

Beyd had indeed killed himself in remorse for the death of the white woman he had, all unknown to his

Werper himself wrapped the blankets of the dead man about the corpse, taking care to fold inward the

scorched and bullettorn fabric that had muffled the report of the weapon he had fired the night before. Then

six husky blacks carried the body out into the clearing where the camp stood, and deposited it in a shallow

grave. As the loose earth fell upon the silent form beneath the telltale blankets, Albert Werper heaved

another sigh of reliefhis plan had worked out even better than he had dared hope.

With Achmet Zek and Mohammed Beyd both dead, the raiders were without a leader, and after a brief

conference they decided to return into the north on visits to the various tribes to which they belonged,

Werper, after learning the direction they intended taking, announced that for his part, he was going east to the

coast, and as they knew of nothing he possessed which any of them coveted, they signified their willingness

As they rode off, he sat his horse in the center of the clearing watching them disappear one by one into the

jungle, and thanked his God that he had at last escaped their villainous clutches.

When he could no longer hear any sound of them, he turned to the right and rode into the forest toward the

tree where he had hidden Lady Greystoke, and drawing rein beneath it, called up in a gay and hopeful voice a

There was no reply, and though his eyes searched the thick foliage above him, he could see no sign of the

girl. Dismounting, he quickly climbed into the tree, where he could obtain a view of all its branches. The tree

was emptyJane Clayton had vanished during the silent watches of the jungle night.

As Tarzan let the pebbles from the recovered pouch run through his fingers, his thoughts returned to the pile

of yellow ingots about which the Arabs and the Abyssinians had waged their relentless battle.

What was there in common between that pile of dirty metal and the beautiful, sparkling pebbles that had

formerly been in his pouch? What was the metal? From whence had it come? What was that tantalizing

halfconviction which seemed to demand the recognition of his memory that the yellow pile for which these

men had fought and died had been intimately connected with his pastthat it had been his?

What had been his past? He shook his head. Vaguely the memory of his apish childhood passed slowly in

review then came a strangely tangled mass of faces, figures and events which seemed to have no relation

to Tarzan of the Apes, and yet which were, even in their fragmentary form, familiar.

Slowly and painfully, recollection was attempting to reassert itself, the hurt brain was mending, as the cause

of its recent failure to function was being slowly absorbed or removed by the healing processes of perfect

The people who now passed before his mind's eye for the first time in weeks wore familiar faces; but yet he

could neither place them in the niches they had once filled in his past life, nor call them by name. One was a

fair she, and it was her face which most often moved through the tangled recollections of his convalescing

brain. Who was she? What had she been to Tarzan of the Apes? He seemed to see her about the very spot

upon which the pile of gold had been unearthed by the Abyssinians; but the surroundings were vastly

There was a buildingthere were many buildingsand there were hedges, fences, and flowers. Tarzan

puckered his brow in puzzled study of the wonderful problem. For an instant he seemed to grasp the whole of

a true explanation, and then, just as success was within his grasp, the picture faded into a jungle scene where

a naked, white youth danced in company with a band of hairy, primordial apethings.

Tarzan shook his head and sighed. Why was it that he could not recollect? At least he was sure that in some

way the pile of gold, the place where it lay, the subtle aroma of the elusive she he had been pursuing, the

memory figure of the white woman, and he himself, were inextricably connected by the ties of a forgotten

If the woman belonged there, what better place to search or await her than the very spot which his broken

recollections seemed to assign to her? It was worth trying. Tarzan slipped the thong of the empty pouch over

At the outskirts of the forest he met the Arabs returning in search of Achmet Zek. Hiding, he let them pass,

and then resumed his way toward the charred ruins of the home he had been almost upon the point of

His journey across the plain was interrupted by the discovery of a small herd of antelope in a little swale,

where the cover and the wind were well combined to make stalking easy. A fat yearling rewarded a half hour

of stealthy creeping and a sudden, savage rush, and it was late in the afternoon when the apeman settled

himself upon his haunches beside his kill to enjoy the fruits of his skill, his cunning, and his prowess.

His hunger satisfied, thirst next claimed his attention. The river lured him by the shortest path toward its

refreshing waters, and when he had drunk, night already had fallen and he was some half mile or more down

stream from the point where he had seen the pile of yellow ingots, and where he hoped to meet the memory

To the jungle bred, time is usually a matter of small moment, and haste, except when engendered by terror,

by rage, or by hunger, is distasteful. Today was gone. Therefore tomorrow, of which there was an infinite

procession, would answer admirably for Tarzan's further quest. And, besides, the apeman was tired and

A tree afforded him the safety, seclusion and comforts of a wellappointed bedchamber, and to the chorus of

the hunters and the hunted of the wild river bank he soon dropped off into deep slumber.

Morning found him both hungry and thirsty again, and dropping from his tree he made his way to the

drinking place at the river's edge. There he found Numa, the lion, ahead of him. The big fellow was lapping

the water greedily, and at the approach of Tarzan along the trail in his rear, he raised his head, and turning his

gaze backward across his maned shoulders glared at the intruder. A low growl of warning rumbled from his

throat; but Tarzan, guessing that the beast had but just quitted his kill and was well filled, merely made a

slight detour and continued to the river, where he stopped a few yards above the tawny cat, and dropping

upon his hands and knees plunged his face into the cool water. For a moment the lion continued to eye the

man; then he resumed his drinking, and man and beast quenched their thirst side by side each apparently

Numa was the first to finish. Raising his head, he gazed across the river for a few minutes with that stony

fixity of attention which is a characteristic of his kind. But for the ruffling of his black mane to the touch of

the passing breeze he might have been wrought from golden bronze, so motionless, so statuesque his pose.

A deep sigh from the cavernous lungs dispelled the illusion. The mighty head swung slowly around until the

yellow eyes rested upon the man. The bristled lip curved upward, exposing yellow fangs. Another warning

growl vibrated the heavy jowls, and the king of beasts turned majestically about and paced slowly up the trail

Tarzan of the Apes drank on, but from the corners of his gray eyes he watched the great brute's every move

until he had disappeared from view, and, after, his keen ears marked the movements of the carnivore.

A plunge in the river was followed by a scant breakfast of eggs which chance discovered to him, and then he

set off up river toward the ruins of the bungalow where the golden ingots had marked the center of

And when he came upon the spot, great was his surprise and consternation, for the yellow metal had

disappeared. The earth, trampled by the feet of horses and men, gave no clew. It was as though the ingots had

The apeman was at a loss to know where to turn or what next to do. There was no sign of any spoor which

might denote that the she had been here. The metal was gone, and if there was any connection between the

she and the metal it seemed useless to wait for her now that the latter had been removed elsewhere.

Everything seemed to elude himthe pretty pebbles, the yellow metal, the she, his memory. Tarzan was

disgusted. He would go back into the jungle and look for Chulk, and so he turned his steps once more toward

the forest. He moved rapidly, swinging across the plain in a long, easy trot, and at the edge of the forest,

His direction was aimlesshe merely raced on and on through the jungle, the joy of unfettered action his

principal urge, with the hope of stumbling upon some clew to Chulk or the she, a secondary incentive.

For two days he roamed about, killing, eating, drinking and sleeping wherever inclination and the means to

indulge it occurred simultaneously. It was upon the morning of the third day that the scent spoor of horse and

man were wafted faintly to his nostrils. Instantly he altered his course to glide silently through the branches in

It was not long before he came upon a solitary horseman riding toward the east. Instantly his eyes confirmed

what his nose had previously suspectedthe rider was he who had stolen his pretty pebbles. The light of

rage flared suddenly in the gray eyes as the apeman dropped lower among the branches until he moved

There was a quick leap, and the Belgian felt a heavy body hurtle onto the rump of his terrorstricken mount.

The horse, snorting, leaped forward. Giant arms encircled the rider, and in the twinkling of an eye he was

dragged from his saddle to find himself lying in the narrow trail with a naked, white giant kneeling upon his

Recognition came to Werper with the first glance at his captor's face, and a pallor of fear overspread his

features. Strong fingers were at his throat, fingers of steel. He tried to cry out, to plead for his life; but the

"The pretty pebbles?" cried the man upon his breast. "What did you with the pretty pebbleswith Tarzan's

The fingers relaxed to permit a reply. For some time Werper could only choke and coughat last he

"Achmet Zek, the Arab, stole them from me," he cried; "he made me give up the pouch and the pebbles."

"I saw all that," replied Tarzan; "but the pebbles in the pouch were not the pebbles of Tarzanthey were

only such pebbles as fill the bottoms of the rivers, and the shelving banks beside them. Even the Arab would

not have them, for he threw them away in anger when he had looked upon them. It is my pretty pebbles that I

"I do not know, I do not know," cried Werper. "I gave them to Achmet Zek or he would have killed me. A

few minutes later he followed me along the trail to slay me, although he had promised to molest me no

further, and I shot and killed him; but the pouch was not upon his person and though I searched about the

"I found it, I tell you," growled Tarzan, "and I also found the pebbles which Achmet Zek had thrown away in

disgust. They were not Tarzan's pebbles. You have hidden them! Tell me where they are or I will kill you,"

and the brown fingers of the apeman closed a little tighter upon the throat of his victim.

Werper struggled to free himself. "My God, Lord Greystoke," he managed to scream, "would you commit

The fingers at his throat relaxed, a puzzled, faraway expression softened the gray eyes.

"Lord Greystoke!" repeated the apeman. "Lord Greystoke! Who is Lord Greystoke? Where have I heard that

"Why man, you are Lord Greystoke," cried the Belgian. "You were injured by a falling rock when the

earthquake shattered the passage to the underground chamber to which you and your black Waziri had come

to fetch golden ingots back to your bungalow. The blow shattered your memory. You are John Clayton, Lord

"John Clayton, Lord Greystoke!" repeated Tarzan. Then for a moment he was silent. Presently his hand went

falteringly to his forehead, an expression of wonderment filled his eyesof wonderment and sudden

understanding. The forgotten name had reawakened the returning memory that had been struggling to reassert

itself. The apeman relinquished his grasp upon the throat of the Belgian, and leaped to his feet.

"God!" he cried, and then, "Jane!" Suddenly he turned toward Werper. "My wife?" he asked. "What has

become of her? The farm is in ruins. You know. You have had something to do with all this. You followed

me to Opar, you stole the jewels which I thought but pretty pebbles. You are a crook! Do not try to tell me

Tarzan turned in astonishment to see a tall man in uniform standing in the trail a few paces from him. Back of

"He is a murderer, Monsieur," continued the officer. "I have followed him for a long time to take him back to

Werper was upon his feet now, gazing, white and trembling, at the fate which had overtaken him even in the

fastness of the labyrinthine jungle. Instinctively he turned to flee; but Tarzan of the Apes reached out a strong

"Wait!" said the apeman to his captive. "This gentleman wishes you, and so do I. When I am through with

The Belgian officer eyed the almost naked, white giant with curiosity. He noted the strange contrast of

primitive weapons and apparel, and the easy, fluent French which the man spoke. The former denoted the

lowest, the latter the highest type of culture. He could not quite determine the social status of this strange

creature; but he knew that he did not relish the easy assurance with which the fellow presumed to dictate

"Pardon me," he said, stepping forward and placing his hand on Werper's other shoulder; "but this gentleman

The officer turned and beckoned to the soldiers standing in the trail behind him. A company of uniformed

blacks stepped quickly forward and pushing past the three, surrounded the apeman and his captive.

"Both the law and the power to enforce it are upon my side," announced the officer. "Let us have no trouble.

If you have a grievance against this man you may return with me and enter your charge regularly before an

"Your legal rights are not above suspicion, my friend," replied Tarzan, "and your power to enforce your

commands are only apparentnot real. You have presumed to enter British territory with an armed force.

Where is your authority for this invasion? Where are the extradition papers which warrant the arrest of this

man? And what assurance have you that I cannot bring an armed force about you that will prevent your return

The Belgian lost his temper. "I have no disposition to argue with a naked savage," he cried. "Unless you wish

Werper raised his lips close to Tarzan's ear. "Keep me from them, and I can show you the very spot where I

saw your wife last night," he whispered. "She cannot be far from here at this very minute."

The soldiers, following the signal from their sergeant, closed in to seize Werper. Tarzan grabbed the Belgian

about the waist, and bearing him beneath his arm as he might have borne a sack of flour, leaped forward in an

attempt to break through the cordon. His right fist caught the nearest soldier upon the jaw and sent him

hurtling backward upon his fellows. Clubbed rifles were torn from the hands of those who barred his way,

and right and left the black soldiers stumbled aside in the face of the apeman's savage break for liberty.

So completely did the blacks surround the two that they dared not fire for fear of hitting one of their own

number, and Tarzan was already through them and upon the point of dodging into the concealing mazes of

the jungle when one who had sneaked upon him from behind struck him a heavy blow upon the head with a

In an instant the apeman was down and a dozen black soldiers were upon his back. When he regained

consciousness he found himself securely bound, as was Werper also. The Belgian officer, success having

crowned his efforts, was in good humor, and inclined to chaff his prisoners about the ease with which they

had been captured; but from Tarzan of the Apes he elicited no response. Werper, however, was voluble in his

protests. He explained that Tarzan was an English lord; but the officer only laughed at the assertion, and

As soon as Tarzan regained his senses and it was found that he was not seriously injured, the prisoners were

hastened into line and the return march toward the Congo Free State boundary commenced.

Toward evening the column halted beside a stream, made camp and prepared the evening meal. From the

thick foliage of the nearby jungle a pair of fierce eyes watched the activities of the uniformed blacks with

silent intensity and curiosity. From beneath beetling brows the creature saw the boma constructed, the fires

Tarzan and Werper had been lying bound behind a small pile of knapsacks from the time that the company

had halted; but with the preparation of the meal completed, their guard ordered them to rise and come

forward to one of the fires where their hands would be unfettered that they might eat.

As the giant apeman rose, a startled expression of recognition entered the eyes of the watcher in the jungle,

and a low guttural broke from the savage lips. Instantly Tarzan was alert, but the answering growl died upon

his lips, suppressed by the fear that it might arouse the suspicions of the soldiers.

"I am going to speak to you in a loud voice and in a tongue which you do not understand. Appear to listen

intently to what I say, and occasionally mumble something as though replying in the same languageour

Werper nodded in assent and understanding, and immediately there broke from the lips of his companion a

strange jargon which might have been compared with equal propriety to the barking and growling of a dog

The nearer soldiers looked in surprise at the apeman. Some of them laughed, while others drew away in

evident superstitious fear. The officer approached the prisoners while Tarzan was still jabbering, and halted

behind them, listening in perplexed interest. When Werper mumbled some ridiculous jargon in reply his

curiosity broke bounds, and he stepped forward, demanding to know what language it was that they spoke.

Tarzan had gauged the measure of the man's culture from the nature and quality of his conversation during

the march, and he rested the success of his reply upon the estimate he had made.

"Oh, I thought it was Greek," replied the officer; "but it has been so many years since I studied it that I was

not sure. In future, however, I will thank you to speak in a language which I am more familiar with."

Werper turned his head to hide a grin, whispering to Tarzan: "It was Greek to him all rightand to me, too."

But one of the black soldiers mumbled in a low voice to a companion: "I have heard those sounds

beforeonce at night when I was lost in the jungle, I heard the hairy men of the trees talking among

themselves, and their words were like the words of this white man. I wish that we had not found him. He is

not a man at allhe is a bad spirit, and we shall have bad luck if we do not let him go," and the fellow rolled

His companion laughed nervously, and moved away, to repeat the conversation, with variations and

exaggerations, to others of the black soldiery, so that it was not long before a frightful tale of black magic and

sudden death was woven about the giant prisoner, and had gone the rounds of the camp.

And deep in the gloomy jungle amidst the darkening shadows of the falling night a hairy, manlike creature

To Jane Clayton, waiting in the tree where Werper had placed her, it seemed that the long night would never

end, yet end it did at last, and within an hour of the coming of dawn her spirits leaped with renewed hope at

The flowing burnoose, with its loose hood, hid both the face and the figure of the rider; but that it was M.

Frecoult the girl well knew, since he had been garbed as an Arab, and he alone might be expected to seek her

That which she saw relieved the strain of the long night vigil; but there was much that she did not see. She

did not see the black face beneath the white hood, nor the file of ebon horsemen beyond the trail's bend riding

slowly in the wake of their leader. These things she did not see at first, and so she leaned downward toward

At the first word the man looked up, reining in in surprise, and as she saw the black face of Abdul Mourak,

the Abyssinian, she shrank back in terror among the branches; but it was too late. The man had seen her, and

now he called to her to descend. At first she refused; but when a dozen black cavalrymen drew up behind

their leader, and at Abdul Mourak's command one of them started to climb the tree after her she realized that

resistance was futile, and came slowly down to stand upon the ground before this new captor and plead her

Angered by recent defeat, and by the loss of the gold, the jewels, and his prisoners, Abdul Mourak was in no

mood to be influenced by any appeal to those softer sentiments to which, as a matter of fact, he was almost a

He looked for degradation and possible death in punishment for his failures and his misfortunes when he

should have returned to his native land and made his report to Menelek; but an acceptable gift might temper

the wrath of the emperor, and surely this fair flower of another race should be gratefully received by the black

When Jane Clayton had concluded her appeal, Abdul Mourak replied briefly that he would promise her

protection; but that he must take her to his emperor. The girl did not need ask him why, and once again hope

died within her breast. Resignedly she permitted herself to be lifted to a seat behind one of the troopers, and

again, under new masters, her journey was resumed toward what she now began to believe was her inevitable

Abdul Mourak, bereft of his guides by the battle he had waged against the raiders, and himself unfamiliar

with the country, had wandered far from the trail he should have followed, and as a result had made but little

progress toward the north since the beginning of his flight. Today he was beating toward the west in the hope

of coming upon a village where he might obtain guides; but night found him still as far from a realization of

It was a dispirited company which went into camp, waterless and hungry, in the dense jungle. Attracted by

the horses, lions roared about the boma, and to their hideous din was added the shrill neighs of the

terrorstricken beasts they hunted. There was little sleep for man or beast, and the sentries were doubled that

there might be enough on duty both to guard against the sudden charge of an overbold, or overhungry lion,

and to keep the fire blazing which was an even more effectual barrier against them than the thorny boma.

It was well past midnight, and as yet Jane Clayton, notwithstanding that she had passed a sleepless night the

night before, had scarcely more than dozed. A sense of impending danger seemed to hang like a black pall

over the camp. The veteran troopers of the black emperor were nervous and ill at ease. Abdul Mourak left his

blankets a dozen times to pace restlessly back and forth between the tethered horses and the crackling fire.

The girl could see his great frame silhouetted against the lurid glare of the flames, and she guessed from the

The roaring of the lions rose in sudden fury until the earth trembled to the hideous chorus. The horses shrilled

their neighs of terror as they lay back upon their halter ropes in their mad endeavors to break loose. A

trooper, braver than his fellows, leaped among the kicking, plunging, fearmaddened beasts in a futile

attempt to quiet them. A lion, large, and fierce, and courageous, leaped almost to the boma, full in the bright

light from the fire. A sentry raised his piece and fired, and the little leaden pellet unstoppered the vials of hell

The shot ploughed a deep and painful furrow in the lion's side, arousing all the bestial fury of the little brain;

Unwounded, the boma and the flames might have turned him back; but now the pain and the rage wiped

caution from his mind, and with a loud, and angry roar he topped the barrier with an easy leap and was

What had been pandemonium before became now an indescribable tumult of hideous sound. The stricken

horse upon which the lion leaped shrieked out its terror and its agony. Several about it broke their tethers and

plunged madly about the camp. Men leaped from their blankets and with guns ready ran toward the picket

line, and then from the jungle beyond the boma a dozen lions, emboldened by the example of their fellow

Singly and in twos and threes they leaped the boma, until the little enclosure was filled with cursing men and

screaming horses battling for their lives with the greeneyed devils of the jungle.

With the charge of the first lion, Jane Clayton had scrambled to her feet, and now she stood horrorstruck at

the scene of savage slaughter that swirled and eddied about her. Once a bolting horse knocked her down, and

a moment later a lion, leaping in pursuit of another terrorstricken animal, brushed her so closely that she

Amidst the cracking of the rifles and the growls of the carnivora rose the death screams of stricken men and

horses as they were dragged down by the bloodmad cats. The leaping carnivora and the plunging horses,

prevented any concerted action by the Abyssiniansit was every man for himselfand in the melee, the

defenseless woman was either forgotten or ignored by her black captors. A score of times was her life

menaced by charging lions, by plunging horses, or by the wildly fired bullets of the frightened troopers, yet

there was no chance of escape, for now with the fiendish cunning of their kind, the tawny hunters

commenced to circle about their prey, hemming them within a ring of mighty, yellow fangs, and sharp, long

talons. Again and again an individual lion would dash suddenly among the frightened men and horses, and

occasionally a horse, goaded to frenzy by pain or terror, succeeded in racing safely through the circling lions,

leaping the boma, and escaping into the jungle; but for the men and the woman no such escape was possible.

A horse, struck by a stray bullet, fell beside Jane Clayton, a lion leaped across the expiring beast full upon the

breast of a black trooper just beyond. The man clubbed his rifle and struck futilely at the broad head, and then

Shrieking out his terror, the soldier clawed with puny fingers at the shaggy breast in vain endeavor to push

away the grinning jaws. The lion lowered his head, the gaping fangs closed with a single sickening crunch

upon the feardistorted face, and turning strode back across the body of the dead horse dragging his limp and

Wideeyed the girl stood watching. She saw the carnivore step upon the corpse, stumblingly, as the grisly

thing swung between its forepaws, and her eyes remained fixed in fascination while the beast passed within a

The interference of the body seemed to enrage the lion. He shook the inanimate clay venomously. He

growled and roared hideously at the dead, insensate thing, and then he dropped it and raised his head to look

about in search of some living victim upon which to wreak his ill temper. His yellow eyes fastened

themselves balefully upon the figure of the girl, the bristling lips raised, disclosing the grinning fangs. A

terrific roar broke from the savage throat, and the great beast crouched to spring upon this new and helpless

Quiet had fallen early upon the camp where Tarzan and Werper lay securely bound. Two nervous sentries

paced their beats, their eyes rolling often toward the impenetrable shadows of the gloomy jungle. The others

slept or tried to sleepall but the apeman. Silently and powerfully he strained at the bonds which fettered

The muscles knotted beneath the smooth, brown skin of his arms and shoulders, the veins stood out upon his

temples from the force of his exertionsa strand parted, another and another, and one hand was free. Then

from the jungle came a low guttural, and the apeman became suddenly a silent, rigid statue, with ears and

Again came the uncanny sound from the thick verdure beyond the camp. A sentry halted abruptly, straining

his eyes into the gloom. The kinky wool upon his head stiffened and raised. He called to his comrade in a

Again was the weird sound repeated, followed almost immediately by a similar and answering sound from

the camp. The sentries drew close together, watching the black spot from which the voice seemed to come.

Trees overhung the boma at this point which was upon the opposite side of the camp from them. They dared

not approach. Their terror even prevented them from arousing their fellowsthey could only stand in frozen

fear and watch for the fearsome apparition they momentarily expected to see leap from the jungle.

Nor had they long to wait. A dim, bulky form dropped lightly from the branches of a tree into the camp. At

sight of it one of the sentries recovered command of his muscles and his voice. Screaming loudly to awaken

the sleeping camp, he leaped toward the flickering watch fire and threw a mass of brush upon it.

The white officer and the black soldiers sprang from their blankets. The flames leaped high upon the

rejuvenated fire, lighting the entire camp, and the awakened men shrank back in superstitious terror from the

A dozen huge and hairy forms loomed large beneath the trees at the far side of the enclosure. The white giant,

one hand freed, had struggled to his knees and was calling to the frightful, nocturnal visitors in a hideous

Werper had managed to sit up. He, too, saw the savage faces of the approaching anthropoids and scarcely

Growling, the great apes leaped forward toward Tarzan and Werper. Chulk led them. The Belgian officer

called to his men to fire upon the intruders; but the Negroes held back, filled as they were with superstitious

terror of the hairy treemen, and with the conviction that the white giant who could thus summon the beasts of

Drawing his own weapon, the officer fired, and Tarzan fearing the effect of the noise upon his really timid

A couple of the apes turned and fled at the sound of the firearm; but Chulk and a half dozen others waddled

rapidly forward, and, following the apeman's directions, seized both him and Werper and bore them off

By dint of threats, reproaches and profanity the Belgian officer succeeded in persuading his trembling

command to fire a volley after the retreating apes. A ragged, straggling volley it was, but at least one of its

bullets found a mark, for as the jungle closed about the hairy rescuers, Chulk, who bore Werper across one

In an instant he was up again; but the Belgian guessed from his unsteady gait that he was hard hit. He lagged

far behind the others, and it was several minutes after they had halted at Tarzan's command before he came

slowly up to them, reeling from side to side, and at last falling again beneath the weight of his burden and the

As Chulk went down he dropped Werper, so that the latter fell face downward with the body of the ape lying

half across him. In this position the Belgian felt something resting against his hands, which were still bound

Mechanically the man's fingers felt of the object resting almost in their graspit was a soft pouch, filled with

small, hard particles. Werper gasped in wonderment as recognition filtered through the incredulity of his

Feverishly he strove to remove the pouch from the ape and transfer it to his own possession; but the restricted

radius to which his bonds held his hands prevented this, though he did succeed in tucking the pouch with its

Tarzan, sitting at a short distance, was busy with the remaining knots of the cords which bound him.

Presently he flung aside the last of them and rose to his feet. Approaching Werper he knelt beside him. For a

"Quite dead," he announced. "It is too badhe was a splendid creature," and then he turned to the work of

"I can do the rest," said the Belgian. "I have a small pocketknife which they overlooked when they searched

me," and in this way he succeeded in ridding himself of the apeman's attentions that he might find and open

his little knife and cut the thong which fastened the pouch about Chulk's shoulder, and transfer it from his

Once again had avarice claimed him. Forgotten were the good intentions which the confidence of Jane

Clayton in his honor had awakened. What she had done, the little pouch had undone. How it had come upon

the person of the great ape, Werper could not imagine, unless it had been that the anthropoid had witnessed

his fight with Achmet Zek, seen the Arab with the pouch and taken it away from him; but that this pouch

contained the jewels of Opar, Werper was positive, and that was all that interested him greatly.

"Now," said the apeman, "keep your promise to me. Lead me to the spot where you last saw my wife."

It was slow work pushing through the jungle in the dead of night behind the slowmoving Belgian. The

apeman chafed at the delay, but the European could not swing through the trees as could his more agile and

muscular companions, and so the speed of all was limited to that of the slowest.

The apes trailed out behind the two white men for a matter of a few miles; but presently their interest lagged,

the foremost of them halted in a little glade and the others stopped at his side. There they sat peering from

beneath their shaggy brows at the figures of the two men forging steadily ahead, until the latter disappeared in

the leafy trail beyond the clearing. Then an ape sought a comfortable couch beneath a tree, and one by one

the others followed his example, so that Werper and Tarzan continued their journey alone; nor was the latter

The two had gone but a short distance beyond the glade where the apes had deserted them, when the roaring

of distant lions fell upon their ears. The apeman paid no attention to the familiar sounds until the crack of a

rifle came faintly from the same direction, and when this was followed by the shrill neighing of horses, and

an almost continuous fusillade of shots intermingled with increased and savage roaring of a large troop of

"Someone is having trouble over there," he said, turning toward Werper. "I'll have to go to themthey may

"Your wife might be among them," suggested the Belgian, for since he had again come into possession of the

pouch he had become fearful and suspicious of the apeman, and in his mind had constantly revolved many

plans for eluding this giant Englishman, who was at once his savior and his captor.

"God!" he cried, "she might be, and the lions are attacking themthey are in the camp. I can tell from the

screams of the horsesand there! that was the cry of a man in his death agonies. Stay here manI will

come back for you. I must go first to them," and swinging into a tree the lithe figure swung rapidly off into

For a moment Werper stood where the apeman had left him. Then a cunning smile crossed his lips. "Stay

here?" he asked himself. "Stay here and wait until you return to find and take these jewels from me? Not I,

my friend, not I," and turning abruptly eastward Albert Werper passed through the foliage of a hanging vine

As Tarzan of the Apes hurtled through the trees the discordant sounds of the battle between the Abyssinians

and the lions smote more and more distinctly upon his sensitive ears, redoubling his assurance that the plight

At last the glare of the camp fire shone plainly through the intervening trees, and a moment later the giant

figure of the apeman paused upon an overhanging bough to look down upon the bloody scene of carnage

His quick eye took in the whole scene with a single comprehending glance and stopped upon the figure of a

The carnivore was crouching to spring as Tarzan discovered the tragic tableau. Numa was almost beneath the

branch upon which the apeman stood, naked and unarmed. There was not even an instant's hesitation upon

the part of the latterit was as though he had not even paused in his swift progress through the trees, so

lightninglike his survey and comprehension of the scene below himso instantaneous his consequent

So hopeless had seemed her situation to her that Jane Clayton but stood in lethargic apathy awaiting the

impact of the huge body that would hurl her to the groundawaiting the momentary agony that cruel talons

and grisly fangs may inflict before the coming of the merciful oblivion which would end her sorrow and her

What use to attempt escape? As well face the hideous end as to be dragged down from behind in futile flight.

She did not even close her eyes to shut out the frightful aspect of that snarling face, and so it was that as she

saw the lion preparing to charge she saw, too, a bronzed and mighty figure leap from an overhanging tree at

Wide went her eyes in wonder and incredulity, as she beheld this seeming apparition risen from the dead. The

lion was forgottenher own perileverything save the wondrous miracle of this strange recrudescence.

With parted lips, with palms tight pressed against her heaving bosom, the girl leaned forward, largeeyed,

She saw the sinewy form leap to the shoulder of the lion, hurtling against the leaping beast like a huge,

animate battering ram. She saw the carnivore brushed aside as he was almost upon her, and in the instant she

realized that no substanceless wraith could thus turn the charge of a maddened lion with brute force greater

Tarzan, her Tarzan, lived! A cry of unspeakable gladness broke from her lips, only to die in terror as she saw

the utter defenselessness of her mate, and realized that the lion had recovered himself and was turning upon

At the apeman's feet lay the discarded rifle of the dead Abyssinian whose mutilated corpse sprawled where

Numa had abandoned it. The quick glance which had swept the ground for some weapon of defense

discovered it, and as the lion reared upon his hind legs to seize the rash manthing who had dared interpose

its puny strength between Numa and his prey, the heavy stock whirred through the air and splintered upon the

Not as an ordinary mortal might strike a blow did Tarzan of the Apes strike; but with the maddened frenzy of

a wild beast backed by the steel thews which his wild, arboreal boyhood had bequeathed him. When the blow

ended the splintered stock was driven through the splintered skull into the savage brain, and the heavy iron

In the instant that the lion sank, lifeless, to the ground, Jane Clayton threw herself into the eager arms of her

husband. For a brief instant he strained her dear form to his breast, and then a glance about him awakened the

Upon every hand the lions were still leaping upon new victims. Fearmaddened horses still menaced them

with their erratic bolting from one side of the enclosure to the other. Bullets from the guns of the defenders

To remain was to court death. Tarzan seized Jane Clayton and lifted her to a broad shoulder. The blacks who

had witnessed his advent looked on in amazement as they saw the naked giant leap easily into the branches of

the tree from whence he had dropped so uncannily upon the scene, and vanish as he had come, bearing away

They were too well occupied in selfdefense to attempt to halt him, nor could they have done so other than

by the wasting of a precious bullet which might be needed the next instant to turn the charge of a savage foe.

And so, unmolested, Tarzan passed from the camp of the Abyssinians, from which the din of conflict

followed him deep into the jungle until distance gradually obliterated it entirely.

Back to the spot where he had left Werper went the apeman, joy in his heart now, where fear and sorrow

had so recently reigned; and in his mind a determination to forgive the Belgian and aid him in making good

his escape. But when he came to the place, Werper was gone, and though Tarzan called aloud many times he

received no reply. Convinced that the man had purposely eluded him for reasons of his own, John Clayton

felt that he was under no obligations to expose his wife to further danger and discomfort in the prosecution of

"He has acknowledged his guilt by his flight, Jane," he said. "We will let him go to lie in the bed that he has

Straight as homing pigeons, the two made their way toward the ruin and desolation that had once been the

center of their happy lives, and which was soon to be restored by the willing black hands of laughing

laborers, made happy again by the return of the master and mistress whom they had mourned as dead.

Past the village of Achmet Zek their way led them, and there they found but the charred remains of the

palisade and the native huts, still smoking, as mute evidence of the wrath and vengeance of a powerful

"They cannot be far ahead of us," said Tarzan, "Basuli and the others. The gold is gone and the jewels of

Opar, Jane; but we have each other and the Waziriand we have love and loyalty and friendship. And what

"If only poor Mugambi lived," she replied, "and those other brave fellows who sacrificed their lives in vain

In the silence of mingled joy and sorrow they passed along through the familiar jungle, and as the afternoon

was waning there came faintly to the ears of the apeman the murmuring cadence of distant voices.

"We are nearing the Waziri, Jane," he said. "I can hear them ahead of us. They are going into camp for the

A half hour later the two came upon a horde of ebon warriors which Basuli had collected for his war of

vengeance upon the raiders. With them were the captured women of the tribe whom they had found in the

village of Achmet Zek, and tall, even among the giant Waziri, loomed a familiar black form at the side of

Basuli. It was Mugambi, whom Jane had thought dead amidst the charred ruins of the bungalow.

Ah, such a reunion! Long into the night the dancing and the singing and the laughter awoke the echoes of the

somber wood. Again and again were the stories of their various adventures retold. Again and once again they

fought their battles with savage beast and savage man, and dawn was already breaking when Basuli, for the

fortieth time, narrated how he and a handful of his warriors had watched the battle for the golden ingots

which the Abyssinians of Abdul Mourak had waged against the Arab raiders of Achmet Zek, and how, when

the victors had ridden away they had sneaked out of the river reeds and stolen away with the precious ingots

Pieced out from the fragments of their various experiences with the Belgian the truth concerning the malign

activities of Albert Werper became apparent. Only Lady Greystoke found aught to praise in the conduct of

the man, and it was difficult even for her to reconcile his many heinous acts with this one evidence of

"Deep in the soul of every man," said Tarzan, "must lurk the germ of righteousness. It was your own virtue,

Jane, rather even than your helplessness which awakened for an instant the latent decency of this degraded

man. In that one act he retrieved himself, and when he is called to face his Maker may it outweigh in the

Months had passed. The labor of the Waziri and the gold of Opar had rebuilt and refurnished the wasted

homestead of the Greystokes. Once more the simple life of the great African farm went on as it had before the

coming of the Belgian and the Arab. Forgotten were the sorrows and dangers of yesterday.

For the first time in months Lord Greystoke felt that he might indulge in a holiday, and so a great hunt was

organized that the faithful laborers might feast in celebration of the completion of their work.

In itself the hunt was a success, and ten days after its inauguration, a wellladen safari took up its return

march toward the Waziri plain. Lord and Lady Greystoke with Basuli and Mugambi rode together at the head

of the column, laughing and talking together in that easy familiarity which common interests and mutual

Jane Clayton's horse shied suddenly at an object half hidden in the long grasses of an open space in the

jungle. Tarzan's keen eyes sought quickly for an explanation of the animal's action.

"What have we here?" he cried, swinging from his saddle, and a moment later the four were grouped about a

Tarzan stooped and lifted a leathern pouch from the grisly relics of a man. The hard outlines of the contents

"The jewels of Opar!" he cried, holding the pouch aloft, "and," pointing to the bones at his feet, "all that

Mugambi laughed. "Look within, Bwana," he cried, "and you will see what are the jewels of Oparyou will

"Because," replied Mugambi, "I filled the Belgian's pouch with river gravel before I escaped the camp of the

Abyssinians whose prisoners we were. I left the Belgian only worthless stones, while I brought away with me

the jewels he had stolen from you. That they were afterward stolen from me while I slept in the jungle is my

shame and my disgrace; but at least the Belgian lost themopen his pouch and you will see."

Tarzan untied the thong which held the mouth of the leathern bag closed, and permitted the contents to trickle

slowly forth into his open palm. Mugambi's eyes went wide at the sight, and the others uttered exclamations

of surprise and incredulity, for from the rusty and weatherworn pouch ran a stream of brilliant, scintillating

"Poor devil!" said the apeman, as he swung back into his saddle. "Even in death he has made restitution