Slowly Tarzan unfolded the note the sailor had thrust intohis hand, and read it. At first it made little impression onhis sorrow-numbed senses, but finally the full purport of thehideous plot of revenge unfolded itself before his imagination.

"This will explain to you" [the note read] "the exact natureof my intentions relative to your offspring and to you.

"You were born an ape. You lived naked in the jungles--to your own we have returned you; but your son shall rise astep above his sire. It is the immutable law of evolution.

"The father was a beast, but the son shall be a man--heshall take the next ascending step in the scale of progress. He shall be no naked beast of the jungle, but shall wear aloincloth and copper anklets, and, perchance, a ring in hisnose, for he is to be reared by men--a tribe of savage cannibals.

"I might have killed you, but that would have curtailed thefull measure of the punishment you have earned at my hands.

"Dead, you could not have suffered in the knowledge ofyour son's plight; but living and in a place from which youmay not escape to seek or succour your child, you shall sufferworse than death for all the years of your life in contemplationof the horrors of your son's existence.

"This, then, is to be a part of your punishment for havingdared to pit yourself against

N. R.

"P.S.--The balance of your punishment has to do withwhat shall presently befall your wife--that I shallleave to your imagination."

As he finished reading, a slight sound behind him broughthim back with a start to the world of present realities.

Instantly his senses awoke, and he was again Tarzan of the Apes.

As he wheeled about, it was a beast at bay, vibrant withthe instinct of self-preservation, that faced a huge bull-apethat was already charging down upon him.

The two years that had elapsed since Tarzan had come outof the savage forest with his rescued mate had witnessedslight diminution of the mighty powers that had made himthe invincible lord of the jungle. His great estates in Uzirihad claimed much of his time and attention, and there hehad found ample field for the practical use and retention ofhis almost superhuman powers; but naked and unarmed to dobattle with the shaggy, bull-necked beast that now confrontedhim was a test that the ape-man would scarce have welcomedat any period of his wild existence.

But there was no alternative other than to meet the rage-maddened creature with the weapons with which nature hadendowed him.

Over the bull's shoulder Tarzan could see now the headsand shoulders of perhaps a dozen more of these mighty fore-runners of primitive man.

He knew, however, that there was little chance that theywould attack him, since it is not within the reasoning powersof the anthropoid to be able to weigh or appreciate the valueof concentrated action against an enemy--otherwise theywould long since have become the dominant creatures oftheir haunts, so tremendous a power of destruction lies intheir mighty thews and savage fangs.

With a low snarl the beast now hurled himself at Tarzan,but the ape-man had found, among other things in the hauntsof civilized man, certain methods of scientific warfare thatare unknown to the jungle folk.

Whereas, a few years since, he would have met the bruterush with brute force, he now sidestepped his antagonist'sheadlong charge, and as the brute hurtled past him swung amighty right to the pit of the ape's stomach.

With a howl of mingled rage and anguish the great anthropoidbent double and sank to the ground, though almostinstantly he was again struggling to his feet.

Before he could regain them, however, his white-skinnedfoe had wheeled and pounced upon him, and in the act theredropped from the shoulders of the English lord the last shredof his superficial mantle of civilization.

Once again he was the jungle beast revelling in bloodyconflict with his kind. Once again he was Tarzan,son of Kala the she-ape.

His strong, white teeth sank into the hairy throat of hisenemy as he sought the pulsing jugular.

Powerful fingers held the mighty fangs from his own flesh,or clenched and beat with the power of a steam-hammerupon the snarling, foam-flecked face of his adversary.

In a circle about them the balance of the tribe of apes stoodwatching and enjoying the struggle. They muttered low gutturalsof approval as bits of white hide or hairy bloodstainedskin were torn from one contestant or the other. But theywere silent in amazement and expectation when they saw themighty white ape wriggle upon the back of their king, and,with steel muscles tensed beneath the armpits of his antagonist,bear down mightily with his open palms upon the back of thethick bullneck, so that the king ape could but shriek in agonyand flounder helplessly about upon the thick mat of jungle grass.

As Tarzan had overcome the huge Terkoz that time yearsbefore when he had been about to set out upon his quest forhuman beings of his own kind and colour, so now he overcamethis other great ape with the same wrestling hold uponwhich he had stumbled by accident during that other combat. The little audience of fierce anthropoids heard the creakingof their king's neck mingling with his agonized shrieksand hideous roaring.

Then there came a sudden crack, like the breaking of astout limb before the fury of the wind. The bullet-headcrumpled forward upon its flaccid neck against the greathairy chest--the roaring and the shrieking ceased.

The little pig-eyes of the onlookers wandered from the stillform of their leader to that of the white ape that was risingto its feet beside the vanquished, then back to their king asthough in wonder that he did not arise and slay thispresumptuous stranger.

They saw the new-comer place a foot upon the neck of the quietfigure at his feet and, throwing back his head, give vent tothe wild, uncanny challenge of the bull-ape that has made a kill.Then they knew that their king was dead.

Across the jungle rolled the horrid notes of the victory cry. The little monkeys in the tree-tops ceased their chattering. The harsh-voiced, brilliant-plumed birds were still. From afarcame the answering wail of a leopard and the deep roar of a lion.

It was the old Tarzan who turned questioning eyes uponthe little knot of apes before him. It was the old Tarzan whoshook his head as though to toss back a heavy mane that hadfallen before his face--an old habit dating from the days thathis great shock of thick, black hair had fallen about hisshoulders, and often tumbled before his eyes when it had meantlife or death to him to have his vision unobstructed.

The ape-man knew that he might expect an immediateattack on the part of that particular surviving bull-ape whofelt himself best fitted to contend for the kingship of the tribe. Among his own apes he knew that it was not unusual for anentire stranger to enter a community and, after havingdispatched the king, assume the leadership of the tribe himself,together with the fallen monarch's mates.

On the other hand, if he made no attempt to follow them,they might move slowly away from him, later to fight amongthemselves for the supremacy. That he could be king of them,if he so chose, he was confident; but he was not sure he caredto assume the sometimes irksome duties of that position,for he could see no particular advantage to be gained thereby.

One of the younger apes, a huge, splendidly muscled brute,was edging threateningly closer to the ape-man. Through hisbared fighting fangs there issued a low, sullen growl.

Tarzan watched his every move, standing rigid as a statue. To have fallen back a step would have been to precipitate animmediate charge; to have rushed forward to meet the othermight have had the same result, or it might have put thebellicose one to flight--it all depended upon the young bull'sstock of courage.

To stand perfectly still, waiting, was the middle course. In this event the bull would, according to custom, approachquite close to the object of his attention, growling hideouslyand baring slavering fangs. Slowly he would circle about the other,as though with a chip upon his shoulder; and this he did,even as Tarzan had foreseen.

It might be a bluff royal, or, on the other hand, so unstable isthe mind of an ape, a passing impulse might hurl the hairy mass,tearing and rending, upon the man without an instant's warning.

As the brute circled him Tarzan turned slowly, keepinghis eyes ever upon the eyes of his antagonist. He hadappraised the young bull as one who had never quite felt equalto the task of overthrowing his former king, but who one daywould have done so. Tarzan saw that the beast was of wondrousproportions, standing over seven feet upon his short, bowed legs.

His great, hairy arms reached almost to the ground evenwhen he stood erect, and his fighting fangs, now quite closeto Tarzan's face, were exceptionally long and sharp. Like theothers of his tribe, he differed in several minor essentialsfrom the apes of Tarzan's boyhood.

At first the ape-man had experienced a thrill of hope atsight of the shaggy bodies of the anthropoids--a hope thatby some strange freak of fate he had been again returned tohis own tribe; but a closer inspection had convinced him thatthese were another species.

As the threatening bull continued his stiff and jerkycircling of the ape-man, much after the manner that you havenoted among dogs when a strange canine comes among them,it occurred to Tarzan to discover if the language of his owntribe was identical with that of this other family, and so headdressed the brute in the language of the tribe of Kerchak.

"Who are you," he asked, "who threatens Tarzan of the Apes?"

The hairy brute looked his surprise.

"I am Akut," replied the other in the same simple, primaltongue which is so low in the scale of spoken languages that,as Tarzan had surmised, it was identical with that of the tribein which the first twenty years of his life had been spent.

"I am Akut," said the ape. "Molak is dead. I am king.Go away or I shall kill you!"

"You saw how easily I killed Molak," replied Tarzan. "So Icould kill you if I cared to be king. But Tarzan of theApes would not be king of the tribe of Akut. All he wishesis to live in peace in this country. Let us be friends. Tarzan of the Apes can help you, and you can help Tarzanof the Apes."

"You cannot kill Akut," replied the other. "None is sogreat as Akut. Had you not killed Molak, Akut would havedone so, for Akut was ready to be king."

For answer the ape-man hurled himself upon the great brutewho during the conversation had slightly relaxed his vigilance.

In the twinkling of an eye the man had seized the wrist ofthe great ape, and before the other could grapple with himhad whirled him about and leaped upon his broad back.

Down they went together, but so well had Tarzan's planworked out that before ever they touched the ground he hadgained the same hold upon Akut that had broken Molak's neck.

Slowly he brought the pressure to bear, and then as in daysgone by he had given Kerchak the chance to surrender andlive, so now he gave to Akut--in whom he saw a possibleally of great strength and resource--the option of living inamity with him or dying as he had just seen his savage andheretofore invincible king die.

"Ka-Goda?" whispered Tarzan to the ape beneath him.

It was the same question that he had whispered to Kerchak,and in the language of the apes it means, broadly,"Do you surrender?"

Akut thought of the creaking sound he had heard justbefore Molak's thick neck had snapped, and he shuddered.

He hated to give up the kingship, though, so again he struggledto free himself; but a sudden torturing pressure upon hisvertebra brought an agonized "ka-goda!" from his lips.

Tarzan relaxed his grip a trifle.

"You may still be king, Akut," he said. "Tarzan told youthat he did not wish to be king. If any question your right,Tarzan of the Apes will help you in your battles."

The ape-man rose, and Akut came slowly to his feet. Shaking his bullet head and growling angrily, he waddled towardhis tribe, looking first at one and then at another of thelarger bulls who might be expected to challenge his leadership.

But none did so; instead, they drew away as he approached,and presently the whole pack moved off into the jungle,and Tarzan was left alone once more upon the beach.

The ape-man was sore from the wounds that Molak hadinflicted upon him, but he was inured to physical sufferingand endured it with the calm and fortitude of the wild beaststhat had taught him to lead the jungle life after the mannerof all those that are born to it.

His first need, he realized, was for weapons of offence and defence,for his encounter with the apes, and the distant notes of the savagevoices of Numa the lion, and Sheeta, the panther, warned him thathis was to be no life of indolent ease and security.

It was but a return to the old existence of constant bloodshedand danger--to the hunting and the being hunted. Grim beastswould stalk him, as they had stalked him in the past,and never would there be a moment, by savage day or bycruel night, that he might not have instant need of such crudeweapons as he could fashion from the materials at hand.

Upon the shore he found an out-cropping of brittle, igneous rock. By dint of much labour he managed to chip off a narrow sliver sometwelve inches long by a quarter of an inch thick. One edge was quitethin for a few inches near the tip. It was the rudiment of a knife.

With it he went into the jungle, searching until he found afallen tree of a certain species of hardwood with which hewas familiar. From this he cut a small straight branch,which he pointed at one end.

Then he scooped a small, round hole in the surface of theprostrate trunk. Into this he crumbled a few bits of dry bark,minutely shredded, after which he inserted the tip of hispointed stick, and, sitting astride the bole of the tree, spunthe slender rod rapidly between his palms.

After a time a thin smoke rose from the little mass oftinder, and a moment later the whole broke into flame. Heaping some larger twigs and sticks upon the tiny fire,Tarzan soon had quite a respectable blaze roaring in theenlarging cavity of the dead tree.

Into this he thrust the blade of his stone knife, and as itbecame superheated he would withdraw it, touching a spotnear the thin edge with a drop of moisture. Beneath thewetted area a little flake of the glassy material wouldcrack and scale away.

Thus, very slowly, the ape-man commenced the tediousoperation of putting a thin edge upon his primitive hunting-knife.

He did not attempt to accomplish the feat all in one sitting. At first he was content to achieve a cutting edge of a coupleof inches, with which he cut a long, pliable bow, a handlefor his knife, a stout cudgel, and a goodly supply of arrows.

These he cached in a tall tree beside a little stream,and here also he constructed a platform with a roof ofpalm-leaves above it.

When all these things had been finished it was growing dusk,and Tarzan felt a strong desire to eat.

He had noted during the brief incursion he had made intothe forest that a short distance up-stream from his tree therewas a much-used watering place, where, from the trampledmud of either bank, it was evident beasts of all sorts and ingreat numbers came to drink. To this spot the hungry ape-manmade his silent way.

Through the upper terrace of the tree-tops he swung withthe grace and ease of a monkey. But for the heavy burdenupon his heart he would have been happy in this return to theold free life of his boyhood.

Yet even with that burden he fell into the little habits andmanners of his early life that were in reality more a part ofhim than the thin veneer of civilization that the past threeyears of his association with the white men of the outer worldhad spread lightly over him--a veneer that only hid thecrudities of the beast that Tarzan of the Apes had been.

Could his fellow-peers of the House of Lords have seen himthen they would have held up their noble hands in holy horror.

Silently he crouched in the lower branches of a great forestgiant that overhung the trail, his keen eyes and sensitive earsstrained into the distant jungle, from which he knew his dinnerwould presently emerge.

Nor had he long to wait.

Scarce had he settled himself to a comfortable position,his lithe, muscular legs drawn well up beneath him as thepanther draws his hindquarters in preparation for the spring,than Bara, the deer, came daintily down to drink.

But more than Bara was coming. Behind the graceful buckcame another which the deer could neither see nor scent, butwhose movements were apparent to Tarzan of the Apes becauseof the elevated position of the ape-man's ambush.

He knew not yet exactly the nature of the thing that movedso stealthily through the jungle a few hundred yards behindthe deer; but he was convinced that it was some great beastof prey stalking Bara for the selfsame purpose as that whichprompted him to await the fleet animal. Numa, perhaps, orSheeta, the panther.

In any event, Tarzan could see his repast slipping from hisgrasp unless Bara moved more rapidly toward the ford thanat present.

Even as these thoughts passed through his mind some noiseof the stalker in his rear must have come to the buck, forwith a sudden start he paused for an instant, trembling, inhis tracks, and then with a swift bound dashed straight forthe river and Tarzan. It was his intention to flee through theshallow ford and escape upon the opposite side of the river.

Not a hundred yards behind him came Numa.

Tarzan could see him quite plainly now. Below the ape-manBara was about to pass. Could he do it? But even as heasked himself the question the hungry man launched himselffrom his perch full upon the back of the startled buck.

In another instant Numa would be upon them both, so ifthe ape-man were to dine that night, or ever again,he must act quickly.

Scarcely had he touched the sleek hide of the deer with amomentum that sent the animal to its knees than he hadgrasped a horn in either hand, and with a single quick wrenchtwisted the animal's neck completely round, until he felt thevertebrae snap beneath his grip.

The lion was roaring in rage close behind him as he swungthe deer across his shoulder, and, grasping a foreleg betweenhis strong teeth, leaped for the nearest of the lower branchesthat swung above his head.

With both hands he grasped the limb, and, at the instantthat Numa sprang, drew himself and his prey out of reach ofthe animal's cruel talons.

There was a thud below him as the baffled cat fell back toearth, and then Tarzan of the Apes, drawing his dinnerfarther up to the safety of a higher limb, looked down withgrinning face into the gleaming yellow eyes of the other wildbeast that glared up at him from beneath, and with tauntinginsults flaunted the tender carcass of his kill in the face ofhim whom he had cheated of it.

With his crude stone knife he cut a juicy steak from thehindquarters, and while the great lion paced, growling, backand forth below him, Lord Greystoke filled his savage belly,nor ever in the choicest of his exclusive London clubs had ameal tasted more palatable.

The warm blood of his kill smeared his hands and faceand filled his nostrils with the scent that the savagecarnivora love best.

And when he had finished he left the balance of the carcassin a high fork of the tree where he had dined, and with Numatrailing below him, still keen for revenge, he made his wayback to his tree-top shelter, where he slept until the sun washigh the following morning.