For two days Tarzan of the Apes had been hunting leisurelyto the north, and swinging in a wide circle, he had re-turned to within a short distance of the clearing where hehad left Bertha Kircher and the young lieutenant. He had spentthe night in a large tree that overhung the river only a shortdistance from the clearing, and now in the early morninghours he was crouching at the water's edge waiting for anopportunity to capture Pisah, the fish, thinking that he wouldtake it back with him to the hut where the girl could cook itfor herself and her companion.

Motionless as a bronze statue was the wily ape-man, forwell he knew how wary is Pisah, the fish. The slightest move-ment would frighten him away and only by infinite patiencemight he be captured at all. Tarzan depended upon his ownquickness and the suddenness of his attack, for he had nobait or hook. His knowledge of the ways of the denizens ofthe water told him where to wait for Pisah. It might be aminute or it might be an hour before the fish would swim intothe little pool above which he crouched, but sooner or laterone would come. That the ape-man knew, so with the pa-tience of the beast of prey he waited for his quarry.

At last there was a glint of shiny scales. Pisah was coming.In a moment he would be within reach and then with theswiftness of light two strong, brown hands would plunge intothe pool and seize him, but, just at the moment that the fishwas about to come within reach, there was a great crashing inthe underbrush behind the ape-man. Instantly Pisah wasgone and Tarzan, growling, had wheeled about to face what-ever creature might be menacing him. The moment that heturned he saw that the author of the disturbance was Zu-tag.

"What does Zu-tag want?" asked the ape-man.

"Zu-tag comes to the water to drink," replied the ape.

"Where is the tribe?" asked Tarzan.

"They are hunting for pisangs and scimatines farther backin the forest," replied Zu-tag.

"And the Tarmangani she and bull --" asked Tarzan, "arethey safe?"

"They have gone away," replied Zu-tag. "Kudu has comeout of his lair twice since they left."

"Did the tribe chase them away?" asked Tarzan.

"No," replied the ape. "We did not see them go. We donot know why they left."

Tarzan swung quickly through the trees toward the clearing.The hut and boma were as he had left them, but there was nosign of either the man or the woman. Crossing the clearing, heentered the boma and then the hut. Both were empty, and histrained nostrils told him that they had been gone for atleast two days. As he was about to leave the hut he saw apaper pinned upon the wall with a sliver of wood and takingit down, he read:

After what you told me about Miss Kircher, and knowingthat you dislike her, I feel that it is not fair to her and toyouthat we should impose longer upon you. I know that ourpresence is keeping you from continuing your journey to thewest coast, and so I have decided that it is better for us totry and reach the white settlements immediately without im-posing further upon you. We both thank you for your kind-ness and protection. If there was any way that I might repaythe obligation I feel, I should be only too glad to do so.

It was signed by Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick.

Tarzan shrugged his shoulders, crumpled the note in hishand and tossed it aside. He felt a certain sense of relieffrom responsibility and was glad that they had taken thematter out of his hands. They were gone and would for-get, but somehow he could not forget. He walked out acrossthe boma and into the clearing. He felt uneasy and restless.Once he started toward the north in response to a suddendetermination to continue his way to the west coast. Hewould follow the winding river toward the north a few mileswhere its course turned to the west and then on toward itssource across a wooded plateau and up into the foothills andthe mountains. Upon the other side of the range he wouldsearch for a stream running downward toward the west coast,and thus following the rivers he would be sure of game andwater in plenty.

But he did not go far. A dozen steps, perhaps, and he cameto a sudden stop. "He is an Englishman," he muttered, "andthe other is a woman. They can never reach the settlementswithout my help. I could not kill her with my own handswhen I tried, and if I let them go on alone, I will have killedher just as surely as though I had run my knife into her heart.No," and again he shook his head. "Tarzan of the Apes is afool and a weak, old woman," and he turned back toward thesouth.

Manu, the monkey, had seen the two Tarmangani pass twodays before. Chattering and scolding, he told Tarzan all aboutit. They had gone in the direction of the village of theGomangani, that much had Manu seen with his own eyes, sothe ape-man swung on through the jungle in a southerly direc-tion and though with no concentrated effort to follow the spoorof those he trailed, he passed numerous evidences that theyhad gone this way -- faint suggestions of their scent spoorclung lightly to leaf or branch or bole that one or the otherhad touched, or in the earth of the trail their feet had trod,and where the way wound through the gloomy depth of dankforest, the impress of their shoes still showed occasionally inthe damp mass of decaying vegetation that floored the way.

An inexplicable urge spurred Tarzan to increasing, speed.The same still, small voice that chided him for having neg-lected them seemed constantly whispering that they were indire need of him now. Tarzan's conscience was troubling him,which accounted for the fact that he compared himself to aweak, old woman, for the ape-man, reared in savagery andinured to hardships and cruelty, disliked to admit any of thegentler traits that in reality were his birthright.

The trail made a detour to the east of the village of theWamabos, and then returned to the wide elephant path nearerto the river, where it continued in a southerly direction forseveral miles. At last there came to the ears of the ape-mana peculiar whirring, throbbing sound. For an instant hepaused, listening intently, "An aeroplane!" he muttered, andhastened forward at greatly increased speed.

When Tarzan of the Apes finally reached the edge of themeadowland where Smith-Oldwick's plane had landed, hetook in the entire scene in one quick glance and grasped thesituation, although he could scarce give credence to the thingshe saw. Bound and helpless, the English officer lay upon theground at one side of the meadow, while around him stooda number of the black deserters from the German command.Tarzan had seen these men before and knew who they were.Coming toward him down the meadow was an aeroplanepiloted by the black Usanga and in the seat behind the pilotwas the white girl, Bertha Kircher. How it befell that theignorant savage could operate the plane, Tarzan could notguess nor had he time in which to speculate upon the subject.His knowledge of Usanga, together with the position of thewhite man, told him that the black sergeant was attemptingto carry off the white girl. Why he should be doing this whenhe had her in his power and had also captured and securedthe only creature in the jungle who might wish to defend herin so far as the black could know, Tarzan could not guess, forhe knew nothing of Usanga's twenty-four dream wives nor ofthe black's fear of the horrid temper of Naratu, his presentmate. He did not know, then, that Usanga had determinedto fly away with the white girl never to return, and to put sogreat a distance between himself and Naratu that the latternever could find him again; but it was this very thing thatwas in the black's mind although not even his own warriorsguessed it. He had told them that he would take the captiveto a sultan of the north and there obtain a great price for herand that when he returned they should have some of the spoils.

These things Tarzan did not know. All he knew was whathe saw -- a Negro attempting to fly away with a white girl.Already the machine was slowly leaving the ground. In amoment more it would rise swiftly out of reach. At first Tar-zan thought of fitting an arrow to his bow and slaying Usanga,but as quickly he abandoned the idea because he knew thatthe moment the pilot was slain the machine, running wild,would dash the girl to death among the trees.

There was but one way in which he might hope to succorher -- a way which if it failed must send him to instant deathand yet he did not hesitate in an attempt to put it into execu-tion.

Usanga did not see him, being too intent upon the unac-customed duties of a pilot, but the blacks across the meadowsaw him and they ran forward with loud and savage criesand menacing rifles to intercept him. They saw a giant whiteman leap from the branches of a tree to the turf and racerapidly toward the plane. They saw him take a long grassrope from about his shoulders as he ran. They saw the nooseswinging in an undulating circle above his head. They sawthe white girl in the machine glance down and discover him.

Twenty feet above the running ape-man soared the hugeplane. The open noose shot up to meet it, and the girl, halfguessing the ape-man's intentions, reached out and caughtthe noose and, bracing herself, clung tightly to it with bothhands. Simultaneously Tarzan was dragged from his feetand the plane lurched sideways in response to the new strain.Usanga clutched wildly at the control and the machine shotupward at a steep angle. Dangling at the end of the rope theape-man swung pendulum-like in space. The Englishman,lying bound upon the ground, had been a witness of all thesehappenings. His heart stood still as he saw Tarzan's bodyhurtling through the air toward the tree tops among which itseemed he must inevitably crash; but the plane was risingrapidly, so that the beast-man cleared the top-most branches.Then slowly, hand over hand, he climbed toward the fuselage.The girl, clinging desperately to the noose, strained everymuscle to hold the great weight dangling at the lower end ofthe rope.

Usanga, all unconscious of what was going on behind him,drove the plane higher and higher into the air.

Tarzan glanced downward. Below him the tree tops andthe river passed rapidly to the rear and only a slender grassrope and the muscles of a frail girl stood between him and thedeath yawning there thousands of feet below.

It seemed to Bertha Kircher that the fingers of her handswere dead. The numbness was running up her arms to herelbows. How much longer she could cling to the strainingstrands she could not guess. It seemed to her that thoselifeless fingers must relax at any instant and then, when shehad about given up hope, she saw a strong brown hand reachup and grasp the side of the fuselage. Instantly the weightupon the rope was removed and a moment later Tarzan ofthe Apes raised his body above the side and threw a leg overthe edge. He glanced forward at Usanga and then, placinghis mouth close to the girl's ear he cried: "Have you everpiloted a plane?" The girl nodded a quick affirmative.

"Have you the courage to climb up there beside the blackand seize the control while I take care of him?"

The girl looked toward Usanga and shuddered. "Yes," shereplied, "but my feet are bound."

Tarzan drew his hunting knife from its sheath and reachingdown, severed the thongs that bound her ankles. Then thegirl unsnapped the strap that held her to her seat. With onehand Tarzan grasped the girl's arm and steadied her as thetwo crawled slowly across the few feet which intervened be-tween the two seats. A single slight tip of the plane wouldhave cast them both into eternity. Tarzan realized that onlythrough a miracle of chance could they reach Usanga andeffect the change in pilots and yet he knew that that chancemust be taken, for in the brief moments since he had first seenthe plane, he had realized that the black was almost withoutexperience as a pilot and that death surely awaited them inany event should the black sergeant remain at the control.

The first intimation Usanga had that all was not well withhim was when the girl slipped suddenly to his side andgrasped the control and at the same instant steel-like fingersseized his throat. A brown hand shot down with a keenblade and severed the strap about his waist and giant muscleslifted him bodily from his seat. Usanga clawed the air andshrieked but he was helpless as a babe. Far below thewatchers in the meadow could see the aeroplane careeningin the sky, for with the change of control it had taken a suddendive. They saw it right itself and, turning in a short circle,return in their direction, but it was so far above them andthe light of the sun so strong that they could see nothing ofwhat was going on within the fuselage; but presently Lieuten-ant Smith-Oldwick gave a gasp of dismay as he saw a humanbody plunge downward from the plane. Turning and twistingin mid-air it fell with ever-increasing velocity and the English-man held his breath as the thing hurtled toward them.

With a muffled thud it flattened upon the turf near thecenter of the meadow, and when at last the Englishman couldgain the courage to again turn his eyes upon it, he breatheda fervent prayer of thanks, for the shapeless mass that layupon the blood-stained turf was covered with an ebon hide.Usanga had reaped his reward.

Again and again the plane circled above the meadow. Theblacks, at first dismayed at the death of their leader, werenow worked to a frenzy of rage and a determination to beavenged. The girl and the ape-man saw them gather in aknot about the body of their fallen chief. They saw as theycircled above the meadow the black fists shaken at them, andthe rifles brandishing a menace toward them. Tarzan stillclung to the fuselage directly behind the pilot's seat. Hisface was close beside Bertha Kircher's, and at the top of hisvoice, above the noise of propeller, engine and exhaust, hescreamed a few words of instruction into her ear.

As the girl grasped the significance of his words she paled,but her lips set in a hard line and her eyes shone with a sud-den fire of determination as she dropped the plane to withina few feet of the ground and at the opposite end of themeadow from the blacks and then at full speed bore downupon the savages. So quickly the plane came that Usanga'smen had no time to escape it after they realized its menace.It touched the ground just as it struck among them and mowedthrough them, a veritable juggernaut of destruction. Whenit came to rest at the edge of the forest the ape-man leapedquickly to the ground and ran toward the young lieutenant,and as he went he glanced at the spot where the warriors hadstood, ready to defend himself if necessary, but there wasnone there to oppose him. Dead and dying they lay strewnfor fifty feet along the turf.

By the time Tarzan had freed the Englishman the girljoined them. She tried to voice her thanks to the ape-manbut he silenced her with a gesture.

"You saved yourself," he insisted, "for had you been unableto pilot the plane, I could not have helped you, and now," hesaid, "you two have the means of returning to the settlements.The day is still young. You can easily cover the distance in afew hours if you have sufficient petrol." He looked inquir-ingly toward the aviator.

Smith-Oldwick nodded his head affirmatively. "I haveplenty," he replied.

"Then go at once," said the ape-man. "Neither of youbelong in the jungle." A slight smile touched his lips as hespoke.

The girl and the Englishman smiled too. "This jungle isno place for us at least," said Smith-Oldwick, "and it is noplace for any other white man. Why don't you come backto civilization with us?"

Tarzan shook his head. "I prefer the jungle," he said.

The aviator dug his toe into the ground and still lookingdown, blurted something which he evidently hated to say."If it is a matter of living, old top," he said, "er -- money, er--you know --"

Tarzan laughed. "No" he said. "I know what you aretrying to say. It is not that. I was born in the jungle. I havelived all my life in the jungle, and I shall die in the jungle.I do not wish to live or die elsewhere."

The others shook their heads. They could not understandhim.

"Go," said the ape-man. "The quicker you go, the quickeryou will reach safety."

They walked to the plane together. Smith-Oldwick pressedthe ape-man's hand and clambered into the pilot's seat."Good-bye," said the girl as she extended her hand to Tarzan."Before I go won't you tell me you don't hate me anymore?" Tarzan's face clouded. Without a word he pickedher up and lifted her to her place behind the Englishman. Anexpression of pain crossed Bertha Kircher's face. The motorstarted and a moment later the two were being borne rapidlytoward the east.

In the center of the meadow stood the ape-man watchingthem. "It is too bad that she is a German and a spy," he said,"for she is very hard to hate."