Part 23 (1/2)

”Waziri, our chief, was there,” replied Busuli ”He was a very young man then, but he accoht Tarzan asked Waziri about it, and Waziri, as now an oldmarch, but that the as not difficult to follow He remembered it well

”For ten days we followed this river which runs beside our village Up toward its source we traveled until on the tenth day we ca far up upon the side of a loftyour river is born The next day we crossed over the top of the mountain, and upon the other side we careat forest Forbanks of the rivulet that had now becoreater river, into which it ehty valley

”Then we followed this large river toward its source, hoping to co from the time we had crossed the ain to another range of reat river, that had noindled to a tiny rivulet, until we came to a little cave near the mountain-top In this cave was the mother of the river

”I reht, and that it was very cold, for the h The next day we decided to ascend to the top of the mountains, and see what the country upon the other side looked like, and if it seemed no better than that which we had so far traversed ould return to our village and tell them that they had already found the best place in all the world to live

”And so we clambered up the face of the rocky cliffs until we reached the summit, and there from a flat mountain-top , not far beneath us, a shallow valley, very narrow; and upon the far side of it was a great village of stone, much of which had fallen and crumbled into decay”

The balance of Waziri's story was practically the sao there and see this strange city,” said Tarzan, ”and get some of their yellowmarch,” replied Waziri, ”and I am an old man, but if you ait until the rainy season is over and the rivers have gone doill take soo with you”

And Tarzan had to be contented with that arrangeh to have set off the next --he was as impatient as a child Really Tarzan of the Apes was but a child, or a pri in a way

The next day but one a se froe herd of elephant soood view of the herd, which they described as nureat rown bulls whose ivory would be worth having

The balance of the day and evening was filled with preparation for a great hunt--spears were overhauled, quivers were replenished, boere restrung; and all the while the village witch doctor passed through the busy throngs disposing of various charned to protect the possessor froood fortune in the morrow's hunt

At dawn the hunters were off There were fifty sleek, black warriors, and in theirforest God, strode Tarzan of the Apes, his brown skin contrasting oddly with the ebony of his companions Except for color he was one of them His ornauage--he laughed and joked with them, and leaped and shouted in the brief wild dance that preceded their departure froes Nor, had he questioned himself, is it to be doubted that he would have admitted that he was far more closely allied to these people and their life than to the Parisian friends whose ways, apelike, he had successfully mimicked for a few short rin of a white teeth as he pictured the immaculate Frenchman's expression could he by some means see Tarzan as he was thateradicated froery ”How quickly have I fallen!” thought Tarzan; but in his heart he did not consider it a fall--rather, he pitied the poor creatures of Paris, penned up like prisoners in their silly clothes, and watched by police that was not entirely artificial and tiresoht them close to the vicinity in which the elephants had been seen the previous day Fro for the spoor of the great beasts At length they found the well- which the herd had passed not le file they followed it for about half an hour It was Tarzan who first raised his hand in signal that the quarry was at hand--his sensitive nose had warned him that the elephants were not far ahead of them

The blacks were skeptical when he told them how he knew

”Come with ility of a squirrel he sprang into a tree and ran nimbly to the top One of the blacks followed more slowly and carefully When he had reached a lofty limb beside the ape-man the latter pointed to the south, and there, soe black backs swaying back and forth above the top of the lofty jungle grasses He pointed the direction to the watchers below, indicating with his fingers the number of beasts he could count

Immediately the hunters started toward the elephants The black in the tree hastened down, but Tarzan stalked, after his own fashi+on, along the leafy way of the middle terrace

It is no child's play to hunt wild elephants with the crude weapons of primitive man Tarzan knew that few native tribes ever atteave hi to think of himself as a member of the little coh the trees he saw the warriors below creeping in a half circle upon the still unsuspecting elephants

Finally they ithin sight of the great beasts Now they singled out two large tuskers, and at a signal the fifty round where they had lain concealed, and hurled their heavy war spears at the two le miss; twenty-five spears were eiant animals One never moved from the spot where it stood when the avalanche of spears struck it, for two, perfectly aied forward upon its knees, rolling to the ground without a struggle

The other, standing nearly head-on toward the hunters, had not proved so good a reat heart For a e and pain, casting about with its little eyes for the author of its hurt The blacks had faded into the jungle before the weak eyes of the ht the sound of their retreat, and, a of underbrush and branches, he charged in the direction of the noise

It so happened that chance sent hi so rapidly that it was as though the black were standing still instead of racing at full speed to escape the certain death which pursued him Tarzan had witnessed the entire performance from the branches of a nearby tree, and now that he saw his friend's peril he raced toward the infuriated beast with loud cries, hoping to distract him

But it had been as well had he saved his breath, for the brute was deaf and blind to all else save the particular object of his rage that raced futilely before him And now Tarzan saw that only a miracle could save Busuli, and with the same unconcern hich he had once hunted this very man he hurled himself into the path of the elephant to save the black warrior's life

He still grasped his spear, and while Tantor was yet six or eight paces behind his prey, a sinehite warrior dropped as from the heavens, ale the elephant swerved to the right to dispose of this temerarious foeman who dared intervene between himself and his intended victi quickness that could galvanize those steel muscles into action so ht than Tantor's

And so it happened that before the elephant realized that his new enemy had leaped from his path Tarzan had driven his iron-shod spear froht into the fierce heart, and the colossal pachyderm had toppled to his death at the feet of the ape-man