Part 2 (1/2)

Tarzan watched the blacks lolling in the shade They were exhausted Already several of the just above them Not a leaf rustled before his stealthy advance He waited in the infinite patience of the beast of prey Presently but two of the warriors re

Tarzan of the Apes gathered himself, and as he did so the black who did not sleep arose and passed around to the rear of the cage The ape-boy followed just above his head Taug was eyeing the warrior and erowls Tarzan feared that the anthropoid would awaken the sleepers

In a whisper which was inaudible to the ears of the Negro, Tarzan whispered Taug's na ceased

The black approached the rear of the cage and exas of the door, and as he stood there the beast above hiers circled his throat, choking the cry which sprang to the lips of the terrifiedteeth fastened thes wound themselves about his torso

The black in a frenzy of terror tried to dislodge the silent thing which clung to hiround and rolled about; but still those rip

The ue protruded, his eyes started froers only increased their pressure

Taug was a silent witness of the struggle In his fierce little brain he doubtless wondered what purpose prootten his recent battle with the ape-boy, nor the cause of it Now he saw the foro limp There was a convulsive shi+ver and thefroers he worked rapidly at the thongs which held the door in place Taug could only watch-he could not help Presently Tarzan pushed the thing up a couple of feet and Taug crawled out The ape would have turned upon the sleeping blacks that he eance; but Tarzan would not pered the body of the black within the cage and propped it against the side bars Then he lowered the door and s as they had been before

A happy shted his features as he worked, for one of his principal diversions was the baiting of the blacks of Mbonga's village He could iine their terror when they awoke and found the dead body of their coreat ape safely secured but a few ether, the shaggy coat of the fierce ape brushi+ng the sleek skin of the English lordling as they passed through the prile side by side

”Go back to Teeka,” said Tarzan ”She is yours Tarzan does not want her”

”Tarzan has found another she?” asked Taug

The ape-boy shrugged

”For the Goani,” he said; ”for Numa, the lion, there is Sabor, the lioness; for Sheeta there is a she of his own kind; for Bara, the deer; for Manu, the le is there ais an ape Teeka is an ape Go back to Teeka Tarzan is a o alone”

2

The Capture of Tarzan

THE BLACK WARRIORS labored in the hu shade With war spears they loosened the thick, black loaetation With heavy-nailed fingers they scooped away the disintegrated earth froa and gossiping, with

Against the boles of near-by trees leaned their long, oval shi+elds of thick buffalo hide, and the spears of those ere doing the scooping Sweat glistened upon their smooth, ebon skins, beneath which rolled rounded muscles, supple in the perfection of nature's unconta the trail toater, halted as a burst of laughter broke upon his startled ears For anostrils; then he wheeled and fled noiselessly fro presence of le of ile, Numa, the lion, raised his massive head Numa had dined well until almost daybreak and it had required much noise to awaken hiht the acrid scent spoor of the reed buck and the heavy scent of runt he rose and slunk away

Brilliantly plued birds with raucous voices darted fro through the swaying limbs above the black warriors Yet they were alone, for the tee streets of a great reat universe

But were they alone?

Above theray-eyed youth watched with eager intentness their every move The fire of hate, restrained, smoldered beneath the lad's evident desire to know the purpose of the black men's labors Such a one as these it ho had slain his beloved Kala For theht but enreater knowledge of the ways of reat hole yawned the width of the trail-a hole which was ah to hold at one tiuess the purpose of so great a labor And when they cut long stakes, sharpened at their upper ends, and set theht in the bottom of the pit, his wonder of the light cross-poles over the pit, or the careful arrangement of leaves and earth which completely hid from view the work the black men had performed

When they were done they surveyed their handiith evident satisfaction, and Tarzan surveyed it, too Even to his practiced eye there reame trail had been tampered with in any way

So absorbed was the ape-man in speculation as to the purpose of the covered pit that he pere without the usual baiting which had rendered hia's people and had afforded Tarzan both a vehicle of revenge and a source of inexhaustible delight