Part 33 (2/2)

As the beasts surrounded her, chattering threateningly the while they goaded her with their cudgels and beat and kicked her with their fists and feet, she lay with closed eyes, praying for the ive her surcease frohtful er able to walk, and so they picked her up and carried her the balance of the journey

Late one afternoon she saw the ruined walls of abefore them, but so weak and sick was she that it inspired not the faintest shadow of interest Wherever they were bearing her, there could be but one end to her captivity a these fierce half brutes

At last they passed through two great walls and ca pile they bore her, and here she was surrounded by hundredstheht of theate her misery But it was short-lived, for the woh, on the other hand, neither did they abuse her

After she had been inspected to the entire satisfaction of the in she was borne to a dark chamber in the vaults beneath, and here upon the bare floor she was left, with a metal bowl of water and another of food

For a week she saw only so her food and water Slowly her strength was returning--soon she would be in fit condition to offer as a sacrifice to The Fla God

Fortunate indeed it was that she could not know the fate for which she was destined

As Tarzan of the Apesthe spear that saved Clayton and Jane Porter fros of Nus to a freshly opened heart wound

He was glad that he had stayed his hand in ti that in the first mad wave of jealous wrath he had contemplated Only the fraction of a second had stood between Clayton and death at the hands of the ape-nized the girl and her co of the taut lishe impulses of brute life

He had seen the woman he craved--his woman--his mate--in the arms of another There had been but one course open to hiuided him in this other existence; but just before it had become too late the softer senti fires of his passion and saved hiave thanks that they had triuers had released that polished arrow

As he contenant

He did not wish to see a huh the jungle for a tie of his sorrow had become blunted Like his fellow beasts, he preferred to suffer in silence and alone

That night he slept again in the amphitheater of the apes, and for several days he hunted froht On the afternoon of the third day he returned early He had lain stretched upon the soft grass of the circular clearing for but a few moments when he heard far to the south a fale of a band of great apes--he could notThey were co in the direction of the amphitheater

Tarzan arose lazily and stretched hi tribe They were upwind, and presently he caught their scent, though he had not needed this added evidence to assure hiht

As they came closer to the amphitheater Tarzan of the Apes melted into the branches upon the other side of the arena There he waited to inspect the newco to wait

Presently a fierce, hairy face appeared a the lower branches opposite hilance, then there was a chattered report returned to those behind Tarzan could hear the words The scout was telling the other meht enter the ahtly upon the soft carpet of the grassy floor, and then, one by one, nearly a hundred anthropoids followed hi A few nursing babes clung close to the shaggy necks of their savage nized many members of the tribe It was the same into which he had come as a tiny babe Many of the adults had been little apes during his boyhood He had frolicked and played about this very jungle with the their brief childhood He wondered if they would re, and two years may be an eternity to them

From the talk which he overheard he learned that they had co--their late chief had fallen a hundred feet beneath a broken limb to an unti limb in plain view of theht of hiuttural she called the attention of the others Several huge bulls stood erect to get a better view of the intruder With bared fangs and bristling necks they advanced slowly toward hirowls

”Karnath, I am Tarzan of the Apes,” said the ape-ether we teased Nu sticks and nuts at hih branches”

The brute he had addressed stopped with a look of half-coe face

”And Magor,” continued Tarzan, addressing another, ”do you not recall your forhty Kerchak? Look at hter--that you all knew for many seasons?”

The apes all crowded forward now, butthemselves for a few moments