Part 33 (1/2)

There was a terrible expression upon his savage face as he fitted a poisoned shaft to his bow An ugly light gleahted full at the back of the unsuspectingthe polished shaft, drawing the bowstring far back, that the arrow h the heart for which it was aier Slowly the point of the arrow drooped; the scar upon the brown forehead faded; the bowstring relaxed; and Tarzan of the Apes, with bowed head, turned sadly into the jungle toward the village of the Waziri

Chapter 23

The Fifty Frightful Men

For several long minutes Jane Porter and Willia at the dead body of the beast whose prey they had so narrowly escaped becoain after her outbreak of impulsive avowal

”Who could it have been?” she whispered

”God knoas the man's only reply

”If it is a friend, why does he not show himself?” continued Jane

”Wouldn't it be well to call out to him, and at least thank hi, but there was no response

Jane Porter shuddered ”The le It renders even the ”

”We had best return to the shelter,” said Clayton ”You will be at least a little safer there I am no protection whatever,” he added bitterly

”Do not say that, Williae, acutely sorry for the wound her words had caused ”You have done the best you could You have been noble, and self-sacrificing, and brave It is no fault of yours that you are not a superman There is only one other man I have ever knoho could have done more than you My words were ill chosen in the excitement of the reaction--I did not wish to wound you All that I wish is that we may both understand once and for all that I can never e would be wicked”

”I think I understand,” he replied ”Let us not speak of it again--at least until we are back in civilization”

The next day Thuran orse Almost constantly he was in a state of deliriu to relieve hiirl's account he feared the Russian--in the bottoht that soht befall him that would leave her entirely at the reater anxiety than the probability that almost certain death awaited her should she be left entirely alone upon the outskirts of the cruel forest

The Englishman had extracted the heavy spear from the body of the lion, so that when he went into the forest to hunt that reater security than at any tie shore The result was that he penetrated farther from the shelter than ever before

To escape as far as possible fros of the fever-stricken Russian, Jane Porter had descended from the shelter to the foot of the tree--she dared not venture farther Here, beside the crude ladder Clayton had constructed for her, she sat looking out to sea, in the always surviving hope that a vessel le, and so she did not see the grasses part, or the savage face that peered from between Little, bloodshot, close-set eyes scanned her intently, roving from time to time about the open beach for indications of the presence of others than herself

Presently another head appeared, and then another and another The ain, and the heads disappeared as silently and as suddenly as they had coave no sign of perturbation at the continued wailing of the ed fro worasses attracted her attention She turned, and at the sight that confronted her staggered to her feet with a little shriek of fear Then they closed upon her with a rush Lifting her bodily in his long, gorilla-like arle A filthy paw covered her mouth to stifle her screaone, the shock was more than she could withstand Shattered nerves collapsed, and she lost consciousness

When she regained her senses she found herself in the thick of the prihtly in the little clearing in which she lay About it squatted fifty frightful men Their heads and faces were covered withars They were gnawing, like beasts, upon unclean food A pot boiled upon the edge of the fire, and out of it one of the creatures would occasionally drag a hunk of meat with a sharpened stick

When they discovered that their captive had regained consciousness, a piece of this repulsive steas tossed to her from the foul hand of a nearby feaster It rolled close to her side, but she only closed her eyes as a qualh her

For irl, footsore and exhausted, was half dragged, half pushed through the long, hot, tedious days Occasionally, when she would stumble and fall, she was cuffed and kicked by the nearest of the frightfulbefore they reached their journey's end her shoes had been discarded--the soles entirely gone Her clothes were torn to s her once white and tender skin showed raw and bleeding from contact with the thousand pitiless thorns and braed

The last two days of the journey found her in such utter exhaustion that no a and abuse could force her to her poor, bleeding feet Outraged nature had reached the liirl was physically powerless to raise herself even to her knees