THE BLACK WARRIORS labored in the humid heat of the jungle'sstifling shade. With war spears they loosened the thick,black loam and the deep layers of rotting vegetation. With heavy-nailed fingers they scooped away the disintegratedearth from the center of the age-old game trail. Often theyceased their labors to squat, resting and gossiping,with much laughter, at the edge of the pit they were digging.

Against the boles of near-by trees leaned their long,oval shields of thick buffalo hide, and the spearsof those who were doing the scooping. Sweat glistenedupon their smooth, ebon skins, beneath which rolledrounded muscles, supple in the perfection of nature'suncontaminated health.

A reed buck, stepping warily along the trail toward water,halted as a burst of laughter broke upon his startled ears. For a moment he stood statuesque but for his sensitivelydilating nostrils; then he wheeled and fled noiselesslyfrom the terrifying presence of man.

A hundred yards away, deep in the tangle of impenetrablejungle, Numa, the lion, raised his massive head. Numa haddined well until almost daybreak and it had required muchnoise to awaken him. Now he lifted his muzzle and sniffedthe air, caught the acrid scent spoor of the reed buckand the heavy scent of man. But Numa was well filled. With a low, disgusted grunt he rose and slunk away.

Brilliantly plumaged birds with raucous voices darted fromtree to tree. Little monkeys, chattering and scolding,swung through the swaying limbs above the black warriors. Yet they were alone, for the teeming jungle with all itsmyriad life, like the swarming streets of a great metropolis,is one of the loneliest spots in God's great universe.

But were they alone?

Above them, lightly balanced upon a leafy tree limb, a gray-eyedyouth watched with eager intentness their every move. The fire of hate, restrained, smoldered beneath the lad'sevident desire to know the purpose of the black men's labors. Such a one as these it was who had slain his beloved Kala. For them there could be naught but enmity, yet he likedwell to watch them, avid as he was for greater knowledgeof the ways of man.

He saw the pit grow in depth until a great hole yawnedthe width of the trail--a hole which was amply largeenough to hold at one time all of the six excavators. Tarzan could not guess the purpose of so great a labor. And when they cut long stakes, sharpened at their upper ends,and set them at intervals upright in the bottom of the pit,his wonderment but increased, nor was it satisfied withthe placing of the light cross-poles over the pit, or thecareful arrangement of leaves and earth which completelyhid from view the work the black men had performed.

When they were done they surveyed their handiwork withevident satisfaction, and Tarzan surveyed it, too. Even tohis practiced eye there remained scarce a vestige of evidencethat the ancient game trail had been tampered with in any way.

So absorbed was the ape-man in speculation as tothe purpose of the covered pit that he permittedthe blacks to depart in the direction of their villagewithout the usual baiting which had rendered himthe terror of Mbonga's people and had afforded Tarzanboth a vehicle of revenge and a source of inexhaustible delight.

Puzzle as he would, however, he could not solve the mysteryof the concealed pit, for the ways of the blacks were stillstrange ways to Tarzan. They had entered his jungle but ashort time before--the first of their kind to encroach uponthe age-old supremacy of the beasts which laired there. To Numa, the lion, to Tantor, the elephant, to the greatapes and the lesser apes, to each and all of the myriadcreatures of this savage wild, the ways of man were new. They had much to learn of these black, hairless creaturesthat walked erect upon their hind paws--and they werelearning it slowly, and always to their sorrow.

Shortly after the blacks had departed, Tarzan swung easilyto the trail. Sniffing suspiciously, he circled the edgeof the pit. Squatting upon his haunches, he scrapedaway a little earth to expose one of the cross-bars. Hesniffed at this, touched it, cocked his head upon one side,and contemplated it gravely for several minutes. Then hecarefully re-covered it, arranging the earth as neatlyas had the blacks. This done, he swung himself back amongthe branches of the trees and moved off in search of hishairy fellows, the great apes of the tribe of Kerchak.

Once he crossed the trail of Numa, the lion, pausing for amoment to hurl a soft fruit at the snarling face of his enemy,and to taunt and insult him, calling him eater of carrionand brother of Dango, the hyena. Numa, his yellow-greeneyes round and burning with concentrated hate, glared upat the dancing figure above him. Low growls vibrated hisheavy jowls and his great rage transmitted to his sinuoustail a sharp, whiplike motion; but realizing from pastexperience the futility of long distance argument with theape-man, he turned presently and struck off into the tangledvegetation which hid him from the view of his tormentor. With a final scream of jungle invective and an apelikegrimace at his departing foe, Tarzan continued along his way.

Another mile and a shifting wind brought to his keennostrils a familiar, pungent odor close at hand,and a moment later there loomed beneath him a huge,gray-black bulk forging steadily along the jungle trail. Tarzan seized and broke a small tree limb, and at thesudden cracking sound the ponderous figure halted. Great ears were thrown forward, and a long, supple trunkrose quickly to wave to and fro in search of the scentof an enemy, while two weak, little eyes peered suspiciouslyand futilely about in quest of the author of the noisewhich had disturbed his peaceful way.

Tarzan laughed aloud and came closer above the headof the pachyderm.

"Tantor! Tantor!" he cried. "Bara, the deer, is less fearfulthan you--you, Tantor, the elephant, greatest of the junglefolk with the strength of as many Numas as I have toes uponmy feet and fingers upon my hands. Tantor, who can uprootgreat trees, trembles with fear at the sound of a broken twig."

A rumbling noise, which might have been either a signof contempt or a sigh of relief, was Tantor's only replyas the uplifted trunk and ears came down and the beast'stail dropped to normal; but his eyes still roved aboutin search of Tarzan. He was not long kept in suspense,however, as to the whereabouts of the ape-man, for a secondlater the youth dropped lightly to the broad head of hisold friend. Then stretching himself at full length,he drummed with his bare toes upon the thick hide, and ashis fingers scratched the more tender surfaces beneath thegreat ears, he talked to Tantor of the gossip of the jungleas though the great beast understood every word that he said.

Much there was which Tarzan could make Tantor understand,and though the small talk of the wild was beyondthe great, gray dreadnaught of the jungle, he stoodwith blinking eyes and gently swaying trunk as thoughdrinking in every word of it with keenest appreciation. As a matter of fact it was the pleasant, friendly voiceand caressing hands behind his ears which he enjoyed,and the close proximity of him whom he had often borneupon his back since Tarzan, as a little child, had oncefearlessly approached the great bull, assuming upon thepart of the pachyderm the same friendliness which filledhis own heart.

In the years of their association Tarzan had discoveredthat he possessed an inexplicable power to govern anddirect his mighty friend. At his bidding, Tantor wouldcome from a great distance--as far as his keen ears coulddetect the shrill and piercing summons of the ape-man--andwhen Tarzan was squatted upon his head, Tantor wouldlumber through the jungle in any direction which hisrider bade him go. It was the power of the man-mindover that of the brute and it was just as effectiveas though both fully understood its origin, though neither did.

For half an hour Tarzan sprawled there upon Tantor's back. Time had no meaning for either of them. Life, as they saw it,consisted principally in keeping their stomachs filled. To Tarzan this was a less arduous labor than to Tantor,for Tarzan's stomach was smaller, and being omnivorous,food was less difficult to obtain. If one sort did notcome readily to hand, there were always many others tosatisfy his hunger. He was less particular as to his dietthan Tantor, who would eat only the bark of certain trees,and the wood of others, while a third appealed to him onlythrough its leaves, and these, perhaps, just at certainseasons of the year.

Tantor must needs spend the better part of his lifein filling his immense stomach against the needs of hismighty thews. It is thus with all the lower orders--theirlives are so occupied either with searching for food orwith the processes of digestion that they have little timefor other considerations. Doubtless it is this handicapwhich has kept them from advancing as rapidly as man,who has more time to give to thought upon other matters.

However, these questions troubled Tarzan but little,and Tantor not at all. What the former knew was thathe was happy in the companionship of the elephant. He did not know why. He did not know that because he wasa human being-- a normal, healthy human being--he cravedsome living thing upon which to lavish his affection. His childhood playmates among the apes of Kerchak werenow great, sullen brutes. They felt nor inspired butlittle affection. The younger apes Tarzan still playedwith occasionally. In his savage way he loved them;but they were far from satisfying or restful companions. Tantor was a great mountain of calm, of poise, of stability. It was restful and satisfying to sprawl upon his roughpate and pour one's vague hopes and aspirations intothe great ears which flapped ponderously to and froin apparent understanding. Of all the jungle folk,Tantor commanded Tarzan's greatest love since Kalahad been taken from him. Sometimes Tarzan wonderedif Tantor reciprocated his affection. It was difficultto know.

It was the call of the stomach--the most compelling andinsistent call which the jungle knows--that took Tarzanfinally back to the trees and off in search of food,while Tantor continued his interrupted journey in theopposite direction.

For an hour the ape-man foraged. A lofty nest yieldedits fresh, warm harvest. Fruits, berries, and tenderplantain found a place upon his menu in the order that hehappened upon them, for he did not seek such foods. Meat, meat, meat! It was always meat that Tarzanof the Apes hunted; but sometimes meat eluded him, as today.

And as he roamed the jungle his active mind busied itselfnot alone with his hunting, but with many other subjects. He had a habit of recalling often the events of the precedingdays and hours. He lived over his visit with Tantor;he cogitated upon the digging blacks and the strange,covered pit they had left behind them. He wonderedagain and again what its purpose might be. He comparedperceptions and arrived at judgments. He compared judgments,reaching conclusions--not always correct ones, it is true,but at least he used his brain for the purpose Godintended it, which was the less difficult because he wasnot handicapped by the second-hand, and usually erroneous,judgment of others.

And as he puzzled over the covered pit, there loomedsuddenly before his mental vision a huge, gray-black bulkwhich lumbered ponderously along a jungle trail.Instantly Tarzan tensed to the shock of a sudden fear. Decision and action usually occurred simultaneously inthe life of the ape-man, and now he was away through theleafy branches ere the realization of the pit's purposehad scarce formed in his mind.

Swinging from swaying limb to swaying limb, he raced throughthe middle terraces where the trees grew close together. Again he dropped to the ground and sped, silently andlight of foot, over the carpet of decaying vegetation,only to leap again into the trees where the tangledundergrowth precluded rapid advance upon the surface.

In his anxiety he cast discretion to the winds. The caution of the beast was lost in the loyalty ofthe man, and so it came that he entered a large clearing,denuded of trees, without a thought of what might liethere or upon the farther edge to dispute the way with him.

He was half way across when directly in his path andbut a few yards away there rose from a clump of tallgrasses a half dozen chattering birds. Instantly Tarzanturned aside, for he knew well enough what manner of creaturethe presence of these little sentinels proclaimed. Simultaneously Buto, the rhinoceros, scrambled to hisshort legs and charged furiously. Haphazard charges Buto,the rhinoceros. With his weak eyes he sees but poorlyeven at short distances, and whether his erratic rushesare due to the panic of fear as he attempts to escape,or to the irascible temper with which he is generally credited,it is difficult to determine. Nor is the matter of littlemoment to one whom Buto charges, for if he be caught and tossed,the chances are that naught will interest him thereafter.

And today it chanced that Buto bore down straightupon Tarzan, across the few yards of knee-deep grass whichseparated them. Accident started him in the directionof the ape-man, and then his weak eyes discerned the enemy,and with a series of snorts he charged straight for him. The little rhino birds fluttered and circled about theirgiant ward. Among the branches of the trees at the edgeof the clearing, a score or more monkeys chatteredand scolded as the loud snorts of the angry beast sentthem scurrying affrightedly to the upper terraces. Tarzan alone appeared indifferent and serene.

Directly in the path of the charge he stood. There had beenno time to seek safety in the trees beyond the clearing,nor had Tarzan any mind to delay his journey becauseof Buto. He had met the stupid beast before and heldhim in fine contempt.

And now Buto was upon him, the massive head loweredand the long, heavy horn inclined for the frightful workfor which nature had designed it; but as he struck upward,his weapon raked only thin air, for the ape-man had sprunglightly aloft with a catlike leap that carried him abovethe threatening horn to the broad back of the rhinoceros. Another spring and he was on the ground behind the bruteand racing like a deer for the trees.

Buto, angered and mystified by the strange disappearanceof his prey, wheeled and charged frantically inanother direction, which chanced to be not the directionof Tarzan's flight, and so the ape-man came in safetyto the trees and continued on his swift way through the forest.

Some distance ahead of him Tantor moved steadily along thewell-worn elephant trail, and ahead of Tantor a crouching,black warrior listened intently in the middle of the path. Presently he heard the sound for which he had been hoping--the cracking, snapping sound which heralded the approachof an elephant.

To his right and left in other parts of the jungle otherwarriors were watching. A low signal, passed from oneto another, apprised the most distant that the quarrywas afoot. Rapidly they converged toward the trail,taking positions in trees down wind from the pointat which Tantor must pass them. Silently they waitedand presently were rewarded by the sight of a mightytusker carrying an amount of ivory in his long tusksthat set their greedy hearts to palpitating.

No sooner had he passed their positions than the warriorsclambered from their perches. No longer were they silent,but instead clapped their hands and shouted as theyreached the ground. For an instant Tantor, the elephant,paused with upraised trunk and tail, with great earsup-pricked, and then he swung on along the trail at a rapid,shuffling pace--straight toward the covered pit with itssharpened stakes upstanding in the ground.

Behind him came the yelling warriors, urging him onin the rapid flight which would not permit a carefulexamination of the ground before him. Tantor, the elephant,who could have turned and scattered his adversarieswith a single charge, fled like a frightened deer--fledtoward a hideous, torturing death.

And behind them all came Tarzan of the Apes, racing throughthe jungle forest with the speed and agility of a squirrel,for he had heard the shouts of the warriors and hadinterpreted them correctly. Once he uttered a piercingcall that reverberated through the jungle; but Tantor,in the panic of terror, either failed to hear, or hearing,dared not pause to heed.

Now the giant pachyderm was but a few yards fromthe hidden death lurking in his path, and the blacks,certain of success, were screaming and dancing in his wake,waving their war spears and celebrating in advance theacquisition of the splendid ivory carried by their preyand the surfeit of elephant meat which would be theirs thisnight.

So intent were they upon their gratulations that theyentirely failed to note the silent passage of the man-beastabove their heads, nor did Tantor, either, see or hear him,even though Tarzan called to him to stop.

A few more steps would precipitate Tantor upon the sharpenedstakes;Tarzan fairly flew through the trees until he had comeabreast of the fleeing animal and then had passed him. At the pit's verge the ape-man dropped to the groundin the center of the trail. Tantor was almost upon himbefore his weak eyes permitted him to recognize his old friend.

"Stop!" cried Tarzan, and the great beast haltedto the upraised hand.

Tarzan turned and kicked aside some of the brush which hidthe pit. Instantly Tantor saw and understood.

"Fight!" growled Tarzan. "They are coming behind you."But Tantor, the elephant, is a huge bunch of nerves,and now he was half panic-stricken by terror.

Before him yawned the pit, how far he did not know, but toright and left lay the primeval jungle untouched by man. With a squeal the great beast turned suddenly at rightangles and burst his noisy way through the solid wallof matted vegetation that would have stopped any but him.

Tarzan, standing upon the edge of the pit, smiled as hewatched Tantor's undignified flight. Soon the blackswould come. It was best that Tarzan of the Apes fadedfrom the scene. He essayed a step from the pit's edge,and as he threw the weight of his body upon his left foot,the earth crumbled away. Tarzan made a single Herculeaneffort to throw himself forward, but it was too late. Backward and downward he went toward the sharpened stakes inthe bottom of the pit.

When, a moment later, the blacks came they saw evenfrom a distance that Tantor had eluded them, for thesize of the hole in the pit covering was too smallto have accommodated the huge bulk of an elephant. At first they thought that their prey had put one greatfoot through the top and then, warned, drawn back;but when they had come to the pit's verge and peered over,their eyes went wide in astonishment, for, quiet and still,at the bottom lay the naked figure of a white giant.

Some of them there had glimpsed this forest god beforeand they drew back in terror, awed by the presencewhich they had for some time believed to possess themiraculous powers of a demon; but others there were whopushed forward, thinking only of the capture of an enemy,and these leaped into the pit and lifted Tarzan out.

There was no scar upon his body. None of the sharpenedstakes had pierced him--only a swollen spot at the baseof the brain indicated the nature of his injury. In the falling backward his head had struck upon theside of one of the stakes, rendering him unconscious. The blacks were quick to discover this, and equallyquick to bind their prisoner's arms and legs before heshould regain consciousness, for they had learned toharbor a wholesome respect for this strange man-beastthat consorted with the hairy tree folk.

They had carried him but a short distance toward theirvillage when the ape-man's eyelids quivered and raised. He looked about him wonderingly for a moment,and then full consciousness returned and he realizedthe seriousness of his predicament. Accustomed almostfrom birth to relying solely upon his own resources,he did not cast about for outside aid now, but devotedhis mind to a consideration of the possibilitiesfor escape which lay within himself and his own powers.

He did not dare test the strength of his bonds while theblacks were carrying him, for fear they would becomeapprehensive and add to them. Presently his captorsdiscovered that he was conscious, and as they had littlestomach for carrying a heavy man through the jungle heat,they set him upon his feet and forced him forwardamong them, pricking him now and then with their spears,yet with every manifestation of the superstitious awein which they held him.

When they discovered that their prodding brought no outwardevidence of suffering, their awe increased, so that theysoon desisted, half believing that this strange whitegiant was a supernatural being and so was immune from pain.

As they approached their village, they shouted aloud thevictorious cries of successful warriors, so that by the timethey reached the gate, dancing and waving their spears,a great crowd of men, women, and children were gatheredthere to greet them and hear the story of their adventure.

As the eyes of the villagers fell upon the prisoner,they went wild, and heavy jaws fell open in astonishmentand incredulity. For months they had lived in perpetualterror of a weird, white demon whom but few had everglimpsed and lived to describe. Warriors had disappearedfrom the paths almost within sight of the village andfrom the midst of their companions as mysteriously andcompletely as though they had been swallowed by the earth,and later, at night, their dead bodies had fallen,as from the heavens, into the village street.

This fearsome creature had appeared by night in the hutsof the village, killed, and disappeared, leaving behindhim in the huts with his dead, strange and terrifyingevidences of an uncanny sense of humor.

But now he was in their power! No longer could heterrorize them. Slowly the realization of this dawnedupon them. A woman, screaming, ran forward and struckthe ape-man across the face. Another and another followedher example, until Tarzan of the Apes was surroundedby a fighting, clawing, yelling mob of natives.

And then Mbonga, the chief, came, and laying his spearheavily across the shoulders of his people, drove themfrom their prey.

"We will save him until night," he said.

Far out in the jungle Tantor, the elephant, his firstpanic of fear allayed, stood with up-pricked ears andundulating trunk. What was passing through the convolutionsof his savage brain? Could he be searching for Tarzan?Could he recall and measure the service the ape-manhad performed for him? Of that there can be no doubt. But did he feel gratitude? Would he have risked his ownlife to have saved Tarzan could he have known of thedanger which confronted his friend? You will doubt it.Anyone at all familiar with elephants will doubt it. Englishmen who have hunted much with elephants in Indiawill tell you that they never have heard of an instancein which one of these animals has gone to the aid of a manin danger, even though the man had often befriended it. And so it is to be doubted that Tantor would have attemptedto overcome his instinctive fear of the black men in aneffort to succor Tarzan.

The screams of the infuriated villagers came faintly tohis sensitive ears, and he wheeled, as though in terror,contemplating flight; but something stayed him,and again he turned about, raised his trunk, and gavevoice to a shrill cry.

Then he stood listening.

In the distant village where Mbonga had restored quietand order, the voice of Tantor was scarcely audibleto the blacks, but to the keen ears of Tarzan of the Apesit bore its message.

His captors were leading him to a hut where he might beconfined and guarded against the coming of the nocturnalorgy that would mark his torture-laden death. He haltedas he heard the notes of Tantor's call, and raisinghis head, gave vent to a terrifying scream that sentcold chills through the superstitious blacks and causedthe warriors who guarded him to leap back even thoughtheir prisoner's arms were securely bound behind him.

With raised spears they encircled him as for a momentlonger he stood listening. Faintly from the distancecame another, an answering cry, and Tarzan of the Apes,satisfied, turned and quietly pursued his way towardthe hut where he was to be imprisoned.

The afternoon wore on. From the surrounding village theape-man heard the bustle of preparation for the feast. Through the doorway of the hut he saw the women laying thecooking fires and filling their earthen caldrons with water;but above it all his ears were bent across the junglein eager listening for the coming of Tantor.

Even Tarzan but half believed that he would come. He knew Tantor even better than Tantor knew himself. He knew the timid heart which lay in the giant body. He knew the panic of terror which the scent of the Gomanganiinspired within that savage breast, and as night drew on,hope died within his heart and in the stoic calm of the wildbeast which he was, he resigned himself to meet the fatewhich awaited him.

All afternoon he had been working, working, working with thebonds that held his wrists. Very slowly they were giving. He might free his hands before they came to lead him outto be butchered, and if he did--Tarzan licked his lipsin anticipation, and smiled a cold, grim smile. He couldimagine the feel of soft flesh beneath his fingers and thesinking of his white teeth into the throats of his foemen. He would let them taste his wrath before they overpowered him!

At last they came--painted, befeathered warriors--evenmore hideous than nature had intended them. They cameand pushed him into the open, where his appearance wasgreeted by wild shouts from the assembled villagers.

To the stake they led him, and as they pushed him roughlyagainst it preparatory to binding him there securelyfor the dance of death that would presently encircle him,Tarzan tensed his mighty thews and with a single,powerful wrench parted the loosened thongs which hadsecured his hands. Like thought, for quickness,he leaped forward among the warriors nearest him. A blow sent one to earth, as, growling and snarling,the beast-man leaped upon the breast of another. His fangs were buried instantly in the jugular of hisadversary and then a half hundred black men had leapedupon him and borne him to earth.

Striking, clawing, and snapping, the ape-man fought--fought as his foster people had taught him to fight--foughtlike a wild beast cornered. His strength, his agility,his courage, and his intelligence rendered him easily a matchfor half a dozen black men in a hand-to-hand struggle,but not even Tarzan of the Apes could hope to successfullycope with half a hundred.

Slowly they were overpowering him, though a score of thembled from ugly wounds, and two lay very still beneath thetrampling feet, and the rolling bodies of the contestants.

Overpower him they might, but could they keep himoverpowered while they bound him? A half hour ofdesperate endeavor convinced them that they could not,and so Mbonga, who, like all good rulers, had circled inthe safety of the background, called to one to work his wayin and spear the victim. Gradually, through the milling,battling men, the warrior approached the object of his quest.

He stood with poised spear above his head waiting forthe instant that would expose a vulnerable part of theape-man's body and still not endanger one of the blacks. Closer and closer he edged about, following the movementsof the twisting, scuffling combatants. The growlsof the ape-man sent cold chills up the warrior's spine,causing him to go carefully lest he miss at the first castand lay himself open to an attack from those mercilessteeth and mighty hands.

At last he found an opening. Higher he raised his spear,tensing his muscles, rolling beneath his glistening, ebon hide,and then from the jungle just beyond the palisade camea thunderous crashing. The spear-hand paused, the blackcast a quick glance in the direction of the disturbance,as did the others of the blacks who were not occupiedwith the subjugation of the ape-man.

In the glare of the fires they saw a huge bulk toppingthe barrier. They saw the palisade belly and sway inward. They saw it burst as though built of straws, and an instantlater Tantor, the elephant, thundered down upon them.

To right and left the blacks fled, screaming in terror. Some who hovered upon the verge of the strife with Tarzanheard and made good their escape, but a half dozen therewere so wrapt in the blood-madness of battle that theyfailed to note the approach of the giant tusker.

Upon these Tantor charged, trumpeting furiously. Above themhe stopped, his sensitive trunk weaving among them, and there,at the bottom, he found Tarzan, bloody, but still battling.

A warrior turned his eyes upward from the melee. Above him towered the gigantic bulk of the pachyderm,the little eyes flashing with the reflected light of thefires--wicked, frightful, terrifying. The warrior screamed,and as he screamed, the sinuous trunk encircled him,lifted him high above the ground, and hurled him far afterthe fleeing crowd.

Another and another Tantor wrenched from the bodyof the ape-man, throwing them to right and to left,where they lay either moaning or very quiet, as deathcame slowly or at once.

At a distance Mbonga rallied his warriors. His greedyeyes had noted the great ivory tusks of the bull. The first panic of terror relieved, he urged his menforward to attack with their heavy elephant spears;but as they came, Tantor swung Tarzan to his broad head,and, wheeling, lumbered off into the jungle throughthe great rent he had made in the palisade.

Elephant hunters may be right when they aver that thisanimal would not have rendered such service to a man,but to Tantor, Tarzan was not a man--he was but a fellowjungle beast.

And so it was that Tantor, the elephant, discharged anobligation to Tarzan of the Apes, cementing even moreclosely the friendship that had existed between themsince Tarzan as a little, brown boy rode upon Tantor's hugeback through the moonlit jungle beneath the equatorial stars.