Part 12 (1/2)

His face grew very white as his eyes rested upon the bloody thing grinning up at hi horror

”Coet to work and finish this de upon ave orders that Tarzan should be lifted and carried to the stake; but it was several minutes before he could prevail upon any of his men to touch the prisoner

At last, however, four of the younger warriors dragged Tarzan roughly from the hut, and once outside the pall of terror see blacks pushed and buffeted the prisoner down the village street and bound him to the post in the centre of the circle of little fires and boiling cooking-pots

When at last he was made fast and seemed quite helpless and beyond the faintest hope of succour, Rokoff's shrivelled wart of courage swelled to its usual proportions when danger was not present

He stepped close to the ape-es, was the first to prod the helpless victiiant's smooth skin from the wound in his side; but no murmur of pain passed his lips

The smile of contempt upon his face seemed to infuriate the Russian With a volley of oaths he leaped at the helpless captive, beating hi his

Then he raised the heavy spear to drive it through the hty heart, and still Tarzan of the Apes smiled contemptuously upon him

Before Rokoff could drive the weapon hoed him away from his intended victim

”Stop, white man!” he cried ”Rob us of this prisoner and our death-dance, and you yourself may have to take his place”

The threat provedthe Russian froh he continued to stand a little apart and hurl taunts at his ene to eat the ape-ed upon the horrors of the future life of Tarzan's son, and intieance would reach as well to Jane Clayton

”You think your wife safe in England,” said Rokoff ”Poor fool! She is even now in the hands of one not even of decent birth, and far from the safety of London and the protection of her friends I had not le Island proof of her fate

”Now that you are about to die the iven a white ht of your wife add to the tore spear-thrust releases you from your torture”

The dance had co warriors drowned Rokoff's further attees, the flickering firelight playing upon their painted bodies, circled about the victim at the stake

To Tarzan's memory came a similar scene, when he had rescued D'Arnot from a like predicament at the last moment before the final spear-thrust should have ended his sufferings Who was there now to rescue him? In all the world there was none able to save hiht that these human fiends would devour hile quals as it would have to those of an ordinary white le devour the flesh of their kills

Had he not hireat ape at that long-gone Dum-Dum, when he had slain the fierce Tublat and won his niche in the respect of the Apes of Kerchak?

The dancers were leapingto find his body in the first torturing pricks that prefaced thenow The ape-e that would end his le, rose a shrill scream

For an instant the dancers paused, and in the silence of the interval there rose fro shriek, le-beast that had roused it

For severalof Rokoff and their chief, they leaped in to finish the dance and the victim; but ere ever another spear touched the brown hide a tawny streak of green-eyed hate and ferocity bounded from the door of the hut in which Tarzan had been i beside his master

For an instant the blacks and the whites stood transfixed with terror Their eyes were riveted upon the bared fangs of the jungle cat

Only Tarzan of the Apes sahat else there was e from the dark interior of the hut