Part 22 (1/2)

Tarzan slough the thin skin of his artificial civilization, and sink happy and contented into the deep sleep of the wild beast that has fed to repletion Yet a woman's ”yes” would have bound hiht of this savage existence repulsive

Tarzan slept late into the following forenoon, for he had been very tired froht and day upon the ocean, and the jungle jaunt that had brought into play muscles that he had scarce used for nearly two years When he awoke he ran to the brook first to drink Then he took a plunge into the sea, swi about for a quarter of an hour Afterward he returned to his cabin, and breakfasted off the flesh of Horta This done, he buried the balance of the carcass in the soft earth outside the cabin, for his evening meal

Once le This tih had you asked him his own opinion he could have nale which he considered far the superiors in nobility of the men he hunted Today Tarzan was in quest of weapons He wondered if the woe after the punitive expedition from the French cruiser had e for D'Arnot's supposed death He hoped that he should find warriors there, for he knew not how long a quest he should have to e deserted

The ape-h the forest, and about noon cae, but to his disappointrown the plantain fields and that the thatched huts had fallen in decay There was no sign ofthe ruins for half an hour, hoping that he otten weapon, but his search ithout fruit, and so he took up his quest onceup the stream, which flowed from a southeasterly direction He knew that near fresh water he would be most likely to find another settlement

As he traveled he hunted as he had hunted with his ape people in the past, as Kala had taught his to find soh into the trees to rob a bird's nest, or pouncing upon a tiny rodent with the quickness of a cat

There were other things that he ate, too, but the less detailed the account of an ape's diet, the better--and Tarzan was again an ape, the saht him to be, and that he had been for the first twenty years of his life

Occasionally he sht even at theplacid and immaculate within the precincts of his select Parisian club--just as Tarzan had sat but a few h turned suddenly to stone as the gentle breeze carried to his trained nostrils the scent of soht he slept far inland froiant tree, swaying a hundred feet above the ground He had eaten heartily again--this time from the flesh of Bara, the deer, who had fallen prey to his quick noose

Early the nextthe course of the stream For three days he continued his quest, until he had cole in which he never before had been

Occasionally upon the higher ground the forest was h the trees he could see ranges of round Here, in the open spaces, were new game--countless antelope and vast herds of zebra

Tarzan was entranced--he wouldof the fourth day his nostrils were suddenly surprised by a faint new scent It was the scent ofway off

The ape-man thrilled with pleasure Every sense was on the alert as with crafty stealth he h the trees, up-wind, in the direction of his prey Presently he cale

Tarzan followed close above his quarry, waiting for a clearer space in which to hurl his rope As he stalked the unconscious hts born of the refining influences of civilization, and of its cruelties It came to hi without soht It was true that Tarzan wished this man's weapons and ornaments, but was it necessary to take his life to obtain thenant beca human life needlessly; and thus it happened that while he was trying to decide just what to do, they had co, at the far side of which lay a palisaded village of beehive huts

As the warrior elile grasses in his wake--it was Nu the black er his attitude toward his erstwhile prey altered completely--noas a fellow man threatened by a coe--there was little tih the probable results of any And then a nus happened, al fro black--Tarzan cried out in warning--and the black turned just in tirass rope, the noosed end of which had fallen cleanly about his neck

The ape-man had acted so quickly that he had been unable to prepare hiht upon the rope, and so it was that though the rope stopped the beast before his hty talons could fasten themselves in the flesh of the black, the strain overbalanced Tarzan, who caround not six paces fro Numa turned upon this new enemy, and, defenseless as he was, Tarzan of the Apes was nearer to death that instant than he ever before had been It was the black who saved him The warrior realized in an instant that he owed his life to this strange white man, and he also saw that only a s that had been so near to his own flesh

With the quickness of thought his spear arm flew back, and then shot forith all the force of the sinewyebon hide True to itsNuroin to beneath the left shoulder With a hideous screaain upon the black A dozen paces he had gone when Tarzan's rope brought hiain upon the ape-man, only to feel the painful prick of a barbed arrow as it sank half its length in his quivering flesh Again he stopped, and by this tireat tree with his rope, and rinned, but Tarzan knew that Nuhty teeth had found and parted the slender cord that held him It was ahis long knife froned the warrior to continue to shoot arrows into the great beast while he attempted to close in upon him with the knife; so as one tantalized upon one side, the other sneaked cautiously in upon the other Numa was furious He raised his voice in a perfect frenzy of shrieks, growls, and hideous s in futile attempt to reach first one and then the other of his torile ape-man saw his chance, and rushed in upon the beast's left side behind the iant ar blade sank once, true as a die, into the fierce heart Then Tarzan arose, and the black man and the white looked into each other's eyes across the body of their kill--and the black n of peace and friendshi+p, and Tarzan of the Apes answered in kind

Chapter 15

Froe

The noise of their battle with Nues froe, and a moment after the lion's death the twoand jabbering--a thousand questions that drowned each ventured reply