TARZAN OF THE Apes sat at the foot of a great tree braidinga new grass rope. Beside him lay the frayed remnants of theold one, torn and severed by the fangs and talons of Sheeta,the panther. Only half the original rope was there,the balance having been carried off by the angry cat as hebounded away through the jungle with the noose still abouthis savage neck and the loose end dragging among the underbrush.

Tarzan smiled as he recalled Sheeta's great rage, his franticefforts to free himself from the entangling strands,his uncanny screams that were part hate, part anger,part terror. He smiled in retrospection at the discomfitureof his enemy, and in anticipation of another day as headded an extra strand to his new rope.

This would be the strongest, the heaviest rope that Tarzanof the Apes ever had fashioned. Visions of Numa, the lion,straining futilely in its embrace thrilled the ape-man. Hewas quite content, for his hands and his brain were busy. Content, too, were his fellows of the tribe of Kerchak,searching for food in the clearing and the surroundingtrees about him. No perplexing thoughts of the futureburdened their minds, and only occasionally, dimly aroserecollections of the near past. They were stimulatedto a species of brutal content by the delectable businessof filling their bellies. Afterward they would sleep--itwas their life, and they enjoyed it as we enjoy ours,you and I--as Tarzan enjoyed his. Possibly they enjoyedtheirs more than we enjoy ours, for who shall say that thebeasts of the jungle do not better fulfill the purposesfor which they are created than does man with his manyexcursions into strange fields and his contraventionsof the laws of nature? And what gives greater contentand greater happiness than the fulfilling of a destiny?

As Tarzan worked, Gazan, Teeka's little balu, played abouthim while Teeka sought food upon the opposite side ofthe clearing. No more did Teeka, the mother, or Taug,the sullen sire, harbor suspicions of Tarzan's intentionstoward their first-born. Had he not courted death to savetheir Gazan from the fangs and talons of Sheeta? Did henot fondle and cuddle the little one with even as greata show of affection as Teeka herself displayed? Theirfears were allayed and Tarzan now found himself oftenin the role of nursemaid to a tiny anthropoid-- anavocation which he found by no means irksome, since Gazanwas a never-failing fount of surprises and entertainment.

Just now the apeling was developing those arborealtendencies which were to stand him in such good steadduring the years of his youth, when rapid flight intothe upper terraces was of far more importance and valuethan his undeveloped muscles and untried fighting fangs. Backing off fifteen or twenty feet from the bole of the treebeneath the branches of which Tarzan worked upon his rope,Gazan scampered quickly forward, scrambling nimbly upwardto the lower limbs. Here he would squat for a moment or two,quite proud of his achievement, then clamber to the groundagain and repeat. Sometimes, quite often in fact, for hewas an ape, his attention was distracted by other things,a beetle, a caterpillar, a tiny field mouse, and off hewould go in pursuit; the caterpillars he always caught,and sometimes the beetles; but the field mice, never.

Now he discovered the tail of the rope upon which Tarzanwas working. Grasping it in one small hand he bounced away,for all the world like an animated rubber ball, snatching itfrom the ape-man's hand and running off across the clearing. Tarzan leaped to his feet and was in pursuit in an instant,no trace of anger on his face or in his voice as he calledto the roguish little balu to drop his rope.

Straight toward his mother raced Gazan, and after himcame Tarzan. Teeka looked up from her feeding, and in thefirst instant that she realized that Gazan was fleeing andthat another was in pursuit, she bared her fangs and bristled;but when she saw that the pursuer was Tarzan she turned backto the business that had been occupying her attention. At her very feet the ape-man overhauled the balu and,though the youngster squealed and fought when Tarzanseized him, Teeka only glanced casually in their direction. No longer did she fear harm to her first-born at the handsof the ape-man. Had he not saved Gazan on two occasions?

Rescuing his rope, Tarzan returned to his tree and resumedhis labor; but thereafter it was necessary to watchcarefully the playful balu, who was now possessed to stealit whenever he thought his great, smooth-skinned cousinwas momentarily off his guard.

But even under this handicap Tarzan finally completedthe rope, a long, pliant weapon, stronger than any heever had made before. The discarded piece of his formerone he gave to Gazan for a plaything, for Tarzan hadit in his mind to instruct Teeka's balu after ideasof his own when the youngster should be old and strongenough to profit by his precepts. At present the littleape's innate aptitude for mimicry would be sufficientto familiarize him with Tarzan's ways and weapons,and so the ape-man swung off into the jungle, his new ropecoiled over one shoulder, while little Gazan hopped aboutthe clearing dragging the old one after him in childish glee.

As Tarzan traveled, dividing his quest for food with onefor a sufficiently noble quarry whereupon to test hisnew weapon, his mind often was upon Gazan. The ape-manhad realized a deep affection for Teeka's balu almost fromthe first, partly because the child belonged to Teeka,his first love, and partly for the little ape's own sake,and Tarzan's human longing for some sentient creatureupon which to expend those natural affections of the soulwhich are inherent to all normal members of the GENUSHOMO. Tarzan envied Teeka. It was true that Gazanevidenced a considerable reciprocation of Tarzan's fondnessfor him, even preferring him to his own surly sire;but to Teeka the little one turned when in pain or terror,when tired or hungry. Then it was that Tarzan feltquite alone in the world and longed desperately for onewho should turn first to him for succor and protection.

Taug had Teeka; Teeka had Gazan; and nearly every otherbull and cow of the tribe of Kerchak had one or moreto love and by whom to be loved. Of course Tarzan couldscarcely formulate the thought in precisely this way--heonly knew that he craved something which was denied him;something which seemed to be represented by thoserelations which existed between Teeka and her balu,and so he envied Teeka and longed for a balu of his own.

He saw Sheeta and his mate with their little family of three;and deeper inland toward the rocky hills, where one might lieup during the heat of the day, in the dense shade of a tangledthicket close under the cool face of an overhanging rock,Tarzan had found the lair of Numa, the lion, and of Sabor,the lioness. Here he had watched them with their littlebalus--playful creatures, spotted leopard-like. And hehad seen the young fawn with Bara, the deer, and with Buto,the rhinoceros, its ungainly little one. Each of thecreatures of the jungle had its own--except Tarzan. It made the ape-man sad to think upon this thing,sad and lonely; but presently the scent of game clearedhis young mind of all other considerations, as catlike hecrawled far out upon a bending limb above the game trailwhich led down to the ancient watering place of the wildthings of this wild world.

How many thousands of times had this great, old limb bentto the savage form of some blood-thirsty hunter in thelong years that it had spread its leafy branches abovethe deep-worn jungle path! Tarzan, the ape-man, Sheeta,the panther, and Histah, the snake, it knew well. They had worn smooth the bark upon its upper surface.

Today it was Horta, the boar, which came down toward thewatcher in the old tree--Horta, the boar, whose formidabletusks and diabolical temper preserved him from all butthe most ferocious or most famished of the largest carnivora.

But to Tarzan, meat was meat; naught that was edible or tastymight pass a hungry Tarzan unchallenged and unattacked. In hunger, as in battle, the ape-man out-savaged thedreariest denizens of the jungle. He knew neither fearnor mercy, except upon rare occasions when some strange,inexplicable force stayed his hand--a force inexplicableto him, perhaps, because of his ignorance of his own originand of all the forces of humanitarianism and civilizationthat were his rightful heritage because of that origin.

So today, instead of staying his hand until a lessformidable feast found its way toward him, Tarzan droppedhis new noose about the neck of Horta, the boar. It was an excellent test for the untried strands. The angered boar bolted this way and that; but each timethe new rope held him where Tarzan had made it fastabout the stem of the tree above the branch from which hehad cast it.

As Horta grunted and charged, slashing the sturdy junglepatriarch with his mighty tusks until the bark flew inevery direction, Tarzan dropped to the ground behind him. In the ape-man's hand was the long, keen blade that had beenhis constant companion since that distant day upon whichchance had directed its point into the body of Bolgani,the gorilla, and saved the torn and bleeding man-childfrom what else had been certain death.

Tarzan walked in toward Horta, who swung now to facehis enemy. Mighty and muscled as was the young giant,it yet would have appeared but the maddest folly for himto face so formidable a creature as Horta, the boar,armed only with a slender hunting knife. So it wouldhave seemed to one who knew Horta even slightly and Tarzannot at all.

For a moment Horta stood motionless facing the ape-man.His wicked, deep-set eyes flashed angrily. He shookhis lowered head.

"Mud-eater!" jeered the ape-man. "Wallower in filth. Even your meat stinks, but it is juicy and makes Tarzan strong. Today I shall eat your heart, O Lord of the Great Tusks,that it shall keep savage that which pounds against myown ribs."

Horta, understanding nothing of what Tarzan said, was nonethe less enraged because of that. He saw only a nakedman-thing, hairless and futile, pitting his puny fangsand soft muscles against his own indomitable savagery,and he charged.

Tarzan of the Apes waited until the upcut of a wickedtusk would have laid open his thigh, then he moved--justthe least bit to one side; but so quickly that lightningwas a sluggard by comparison, and as he moved, he stoopedlow and with all the great power of his right arm drovethe long blade of his father's hunting knife straightinto the heart of Horta, the boar. A quick leap carriedhim from the zone of the creature's death throes,and a moment later the hot and dripping heart of Hortawas in his grasp.

His hunger satisfied, Tarzan did not seek a lying-up placefor sleep, as was sometimes his way, but continued onthrough the jungle more in search of adventure than of food,for today he was restless. And so it came that he turnedhis footsteps toward the village of Mbonga, the black chief,whose people Tarzan had baited remorselessly since thatday upon which Kulonga, the chief's son, had slain Kala.

A river winds close beside the village of the black men. Tarzan reached its side a little below the clearing wheresquat the thatched huts of the Negroes. The river lifewas ever fascinating to the ape-man. He found pleasurein watching the ungainly antics of Duro, the hippopotamus,and keen sport in tormenting the sluggish crocodile,Gimla, as he basked in the sun. Then, too, there werethe shes and the balus of the black men of the Gomanganito frighten as they squatted by the river, the shes withtheir meager washing, the balus with their primitive toys.

This day he came upon a woman and her child fartherdown stream than usual. The former was searching for aspecies of shellfish which was to be found in the mudclose to the river bank. She was a young black womanof about thirty. Her teeth were filed to sharp points,for her people ate the flesh of man. Her under lipwas slit that it might support a rude pendant of copperwhich she had worn for so many years that the lip had beendragged downward to prodigious lengths, exposing the teethand gums of her lower jaw. Her nose, too, was slit,and through the slit was a wooden skewer. Metal ornamentsdangled from her ears, and upon her forehead and cheeks;upon her chin and the bridge of her nose were tattooingsin colors that were mellowed now by age. She wasnaked except for a girdle of grasses about her waist. Altogether she was very beautiful in her own estimationand even in the estimation of the men of Mbonga's tribe,though she was of another people--a trophy of war seizedin her maidenhood by one of Mbonga's fighting men.

Her child was a boy of ten, lithe, straight and,for a black, handsome. Tarzan looked upon the two fromthe concealing foliage of a near-by bush. He was aboutto leap forth before them with a terrifying scream,that he might enjoy the spectacle of their terror and theirincontinent flight; but of a sudden a new whim seized him. Here was a balu fashioned as he himself was fashioned. Of course this one's skin was black; but what of it?Tarzan had never seen a white man. In so far as he knew,he was the sole representative of that strange formof life upon the earth. The black boy should make anexcellent balu for Tarzan, since he had none of his own. He would tend him carefully, feed him well, protect himas only Tarzan of the Apes could protect his own,and teach him out of his half human, half bestial lorethe secrets of the jungle from its rotting surfacevegetation to the high tossed pinnacles of the forest'supper terraces.

* * *

Tarzan uncoiled his rope, and shook out the noose. The two before him, all ignorant of the near presence ofthat terrifying form, continued preoccupied in the searchfor shellfish, poking about in the mud with short sticks.

Tarzan stepped from the jungle behind them; his nooselay open upon the ground beside him. There was a quickmovement of the right arm and the noose rose gracefullyinto the air, hovered an instant above the head of theunsuspecting youth, then settled. As it encompassedhis body below the shoulders, Tarzan gave a quick jerkthat tightened it about the boy's arms, pinioning themto his sides. A scream of terror broke from the lad's lips,and as his mother turned, affrighted at his cry,she saw him being dragged quickly toward a great whitegiant who stood just beneath the shade of a near-by tree,scarcely a dozen long paces from her.

With a savage cry of terror and rage, the woman leaped fearlesslytoward the ape-man. In her mien Tarzan saw determinationand courage which would shrink not even from death itself. She was very hideous and frightful even when her facewas in repose; but convulsed by passion, her expressionbecame terrifyingly fiendish. Even the ape-man drew back,but more in revulsion than fear--fear he knew not.

Biting and kicking was the black she's balu as Tarzan tuckedhim beneath his arm and vanished into the branches hanginglow above him, just as the infuriated mother dashed forwardto seize and do battle with him. And as he melted away intothe depth of the jungle with his still struggling prize,he meditated upon the possibilities which might lie in theprowess of the Gomangani were the hes as formidable as the shes.

Once at a safe distance from the despoiled mother and outof earshot of her screams and menaces, Tarzan pausedto inspect his prize, now so thoroughly terrorizedthat he had ceased his struggles and his outcries.

The frightened child rolled his eyes fearfully towardhis captor, until the whites showed gleaming all aboutthe irises.

"I am Tarzan," said the ape-man, in the vernacular ofthe anthropoids. "I will not harm you. You are to beTarzan's balu. Tarzan will protect you. He will feed you. The best in the jungle shall be for Tarzan's balu,for Tarzan is a mighty hunter. None need you fear,not even Numa, the lion, for Tarzan is a mighty fighter. None so great as Tarzan, son of Kala. Do not fear."

But the child only whimpered and trembled, for he didnot understand the tongue of the great apes, and the voiceof Tarzan sounded to him like the barking and growlingof a beast. Then, too, he had heard stories of this bad,white forest god. It was he who had slain Kulongaand others of the warriors of Mbonga, the chief. It was he who entered the village stealthily, by magic,in the darkness of the night, to steal arrows and poison,and frighten the women and the children and even thegreat warriors. Doubtless this wicked god fed uponlittle boys. Had his mother not said as much when hewas naughty and she threatened to give him to the whitegod of the jungle if he were not good? Little black Tiboshook as with ague.

"Are you cold, Go-bu-balu?" asked Tarzan, using the simianequivalent of black he-baby in lieu of a better name. "The sun is hot; why do you shiver?"

Tibo could not understand; but he cried for his mamma andbegged the great, white god to let him go, promising alwaysto be a good boy thereafter if his plea were granted. Tarzan shook his head. Not a word could he understand. This would never do! He must teach Go-bu-balu a languagewhich sounded like talk. It was quite certain to Tarzanthat Go-bu-balu's speech was not talk at all. It soundedquite as senseless as the chattering of the silly birds. It would be best, thought the ape-man, quickly to get himamong the tribe of Kerchak where he would hear the Manganitalking among themselves. Thus he would soon learn anintelligible form of speech.

Tarzan rose to his feet upon the swaying branch where hehad halted far above the ground, and motioned to the childto follow him; but Tibo only clung tightly to the boleof the tree and wept. Being a boy, and a native African,he had, of course, climbed into trees many times before this;but the idea of racing off through the forest, leaping fromone branch to another, as his captor, to his horror,had done when he had carried Tibo away from his mother,filled his childish heart with terror.

Tarzan sighed. His newly acquired balu had much indeedto learn. It was pitiful that a balu of his size and strengthshould be so backward. He tried to coax Tibo to follow him;but the child dared not, so Tarzan picked him up and carriedhim upon his back. Tibo no longer scratched or bit. Escape seemed impossible. Even now, were he set uponthe ground, the chance was remote, he knew, that he couldfind his way back to the village of Mbonga, the chief. Even if he could, there were the lions and the leopardsand the hyenas, any one of which, as Tibo was well aware,was particularly fond of the meat of little black boys.

So far the terrible white god of the jungle had offeredhim no harm. He could not expect even this muchconsideration from the frightful, green-eyed man-eaters.It would be the lesser of two evils, then, to let thewhite god carry him away without scratching and biting,as he had done at first.

As Tarzan swung rapidly through the trees, little Tiboclosed his eyes in terror rather than look longer downinto the frightful abysses beneath. Never before in allhis life had Tibo been so frightened, yet as the whitegiant sped on with him through the forest there stoleover the child an inexplicable sensation of security as hesaw how true were the leaps of the ape-man, how unerringhis grasp upon the swaying limbs which gave him hand-hold,and then, too, there was safety in the middle terracesof the forest, far above the reach of the dreaded lions.

And so Tarzan came to the clearing where the tribe fed,dropping among them with his new balu clinging tightlyto his shoulders. He was fairly in the midst of thembefore Tibo spied a single one of the great hairy forms,or before the apes realized that Tarzan was not alone. When they saw the little Gomangani perched upon his backsome of them came forward in curiosity with upcurled lipsand snarling mien.

An hour before little Tibo would have said that heknew the uttermost depths of fear; but now, as he sawthese fearsome beasts surrounding him, he realized thatall that had gone before was as nothing by comparison. Why did the great white giant stand there so unconcernedly?Why did he not flee before these horrid, hairy, tree menfell upon them both and tore them to pieces? And thenthere came to Tibo a numbing recollection. It was noneother than the story he had heard passed from mouthto mouth, fearfully, by the people of Mbonga, the chief,that this great white demon of the jungle was naught otherthan a hairless ape, for had not he been seen in company withthese?

Tibo could only stare in wide-eyed horror at theapproaching apes. He saw their beetling brows,their great fangs, their wicked eyes. He noted theirmighty muscles rolling beneath their shaggy hides. Their every attitude and expression was a menace. Tarzan saw this, too. He drew Tibo around in front of him.

"This is Tarzan's Go-bu-balu," he said. "Do not harm him,or Tarzan will kill you," and he bared his own fangsin the teeth of the nearest ape.

"It is a Gomangani," replied the ape. "Let me kill it. It is a Gomangani. The Gomangani are our enemies. Let me kill it."

"Go away," snarled Tarzan. "I tell you, Gunto, it isTarzan's balu. Go away or Tarzan will kill you,"and the ape-man took a step toward the advancing ape.

The latter sidled off, quite stiff and haughty,after the manner of a dog which meets another and istoo proud to fight and too fearful to turn his back and run.

Next came Teeka, prompted by curiosity. At her sideskipped little Gazan. They were filled with wonderlike the others; but Teeka did not bare her fangs. Tarzan saw this and motioned that she approach.

"Tarzan has a balu now," he said. "He and Teeka's balucan play together."

"It is a Gomangani, " replied Teeka. "It will kill my balu. Take it away, Tarzan."

Tarzan laughed. "It could not harm Pamba, the rat,"he said. "It is but a little balu and very frightened. Let Gazan play with it."

Teeka still was fearful, for with all their mightyferocity the great anthropoids are timid; but at last,assured by her great confidence in Tarzan, she pushedGazan forward toward the little black boy. The small ape,guided by instinct, drew back toward its mother, baring itssmall fangs and screaming in mingled fear and rage.

Tibo, too, showed no signs of desiring a closer acquaintancewith Gazan, so Tarzan gave up his efforts for the time.

During the week which followed, Tarzan found his timemuch occupied. His balu was a greater responsibilitythan he had counted upon. Not for a moment did he dareleave it, since of all the tribe, Teeka alone could havebeen depended upon to refrain from slaying the haplessblack had it not been for Tarzan's constant watchfulness. When the ape-man hunted, he must carry Go-bu-balu aboutwith him. It was irksome, and then the little blackseemed so stupid and fearful to Tarzan. It was quitehelpless against even the lesser of the jungle creatures. Tarzan wondered how it had survived at all. He triedto teach it, and found a ray of hope in the fact thatGo-bu-balu had mastered a few words of the languageof the anthropoids, and that he could now cling to ahigh-tossed branch without screaming in fear; but therewas something about the child which worried Tarzan. He often had watched the blacks within their village. He had seen the children playing, and always there hadbeen much laughter; but little Go-bu-balu never laughed. It was true that Tarzan himself never laughed. Upon occasionhe smiled, grimly, but to laughter he was a stranger. The black, however, should have laughed, reasoned the ape-man.It was the way of the Gomangani.

Also, he saw that the little fellow often refused foodand was growing thinner day by day. At times he surprisedthe boy sobbing softly to himself. Tarzan tried tocomfort him, even as fierce Kala had comforted Tarzanwhen the ape-man was a balu, but all to no avail. Go-bu-balu merely no longer feared Tarzan--that was all. He feared every other living thing within the jungle. He feared the jungle days with their long excursionsthrough the dizzy tree tops. He feared the jungle nightswith their swaying, perilous couches far above the ground,and the grunting and coughing of the great carnivora prowlingbeneath him.

Tarzan did not know what to do. His heritage of Englishblood rendered it a difficult thing even to considera surrender of his project, though he was forced to admitto himself that his balu was not all that he had hoped. Though he was faithful to his self-imposed task, and evenfound that he had grown to like Go-bu-balu, he couldnot deceive himself into believing that he felt for itthat fierce heat of passionate affection which Teekarevealed for Gazan, and which the black mother had shownfor Go-bu-balu.

The little black boy from cringing terror at the sight ofTarzan passed by degrees into trustfulness and admiration. Only kindness had he ever received at the hands of thegreat white devil-god, yet he had seen with what ferocityhis kindly captor could deal with others. He had seen himleap upon a certain he-ape which persisted in attemptingto seize and slay Go-bu-balu. He had seen the strong,white teeth of the ape-man fastened in the neck ofhis adversary, and the mighty muscles tensed in battle. He had heard the savage, bestial snarls and roarsof combat, and he had realized with a shudder that hecould not differentiate between those of his guardianand those of the hairy ape.

He had seen Tarzan bring down a buck, just as Numa, the lion,might have done, leaping upon its back and fastening his fangsin the creature's neck. Tibo had shuddered at the sight,but he had thrilled, too, and for the first time thereentered his dull, Negroid mind a vague desire to emulatehis savage foster parent. But Tibo, the little black boy,lacked the divine spark which had permitted Tarzan,the white boy, to benefit by his training in the waysof the fierce jungle. In imagination he was wanting,and imagination is but another name for super-intelligence.

Imagination it is which builds bridges, and cities,and empires. The beasts know it not, the blacks onlya little, while to one in a hundred thousand of earth'sdominant race it is given as a gift from heaven that manmay not perish from the earth.

While Tarzan pondered his problem concerning the futureof his balu, Fate was arranging to take the matter outof his hands. Momaya, Tibo's mother, grief-stricken atthe loss of her boy, had consulted the tribal witch-doctor,but to no avail. The medicine he made was not good medicine,for though Momaya paid him two goats for it, it didnot bring back Tibo, nor even indicate where she mightsearch for him with reasonable assurance of finding him. Momaya, being of a short temper and of another people,had little respect for the witch-doctor of herhusband's tribe, and so, when he suggested that a furtherpayment of two more fat goats would doubtless enablehim to make stronger medicine, she promptly loosed hershrewish tongue upon him, and with such good effect thathe was glad to take himself off with his zebra's tail and his potof magic.

When he had gone and Momaya had succeeded in partiallysubduing her anger, she gave herself over to thought,as she so often had done since the abduction of her Tibo,in the hope that she finally might discover some feasiblemeans of locating him, or at least assuring herself as towhether he were alive or dead.

It was known to the blacks that Tarzan did not eat the fleshof man, for he had slain more than one of their number,yet never tasted the flesh of any. Too, the bodiesalways had been found, sometimes dropping as thoughfrom the clouds to alight in the center of the village. As Tibo's body had not been found, Momaya argued that hestill lived, but where?

Then it was that there came to her mind a recollectionof Bukawai, the unclean, who dwelt in a cave in the hillsideto the north, and who it was well known entertaineddevils in his evil lair. Few, if any, had the temerityto visit old Bukawai, firstly because of fear of his blackmagic and the two hyenas who dwelt with him and werecommonly known to be devils masquerading, and secondlybecause of the loathsome disease which had caused Bukawaito be an outcast--a disease which was slowly eating away hisface.

Now it was that Momaya reasoned shrewdly that if any mightknow the whereabouts of her Tibo, it would be Bukawai,who was in friendly intercourse with gods and demons,since a demon or a god it was who had stolen her baby;but even her great mother love was sorely taxed to findthe courage to send her forth into the black jungle towardthe distant hills and the uncanny abode of Bukawai,the unclean, and his devils.

Mother love, however, is one of the human passionswhich closely approximates to the dignity of anirresistible force. It drives the frail flesh of weakwomen to deeds of heroic measure. Momaya was neither frailnor weak, physically, but she was a woman, an ignorant,superstitious, African savage. She believed in devils,in black magic, and in witchcraft. To Momaya, the junglewas inhabited by far more terrifying things than lionsand leopards--horrifying, nameless things which possessedthe power of wreaking frightful harm under various innocentguises.

From one of the warriors of the village, whom she knewto have once stumbled upon the lair of Bukawai, the motherof Tibo learned how she might find it--near a spring ofwater which rose in a small rocky canon between two hills,the easternmost of which was easily recognizable becauseof a huge granite boulder which rested upon its summit. The westerly hill was lower than its companion, and wasquite bare of vegetation except for a single mimosa treewhich grew just a little below its summit.

These two hills, the man assured her, could be seenfor some distance before she reached them, and togetherformed an excellent guide to her destination. He warned her, however, to abandon so foolish anddangerous an adventure, emphasizing what she alreadyquite well knew, that if she escaped harm at the handsof Bukawai and his demons, the chances were that shewould not be so fortunate with the great carnivoraof the jungle through which she must pass going and returning.

The warrior even went to Momaya's husband, who, in turn,having little authority over the vixenish lady of his choice,went to Mbonga, the chief. The latter summoned Momaya,threatening her with the direst punishment should sheventure forth upon so unholy an excursion. The oldchief's interest in the matter was due solely to thatage-old alliance which exists between church and state. The local witch-doctor, knowing his own medicinebetter than any other knew it, was jealous of allother pretenders to accomplishments in the black art. He long had heard of the power of Bukawai, and feared lest,should he succeed in recovering Momaya's lost child,much of the tribal patronage and consequent fees would bediverted to the unclean one. As Mbonga received, as chief,a certain proportion of the witch-doctor's fees and couldexpect nothing from Bukawai, his heart and soul were,quite naturally, wrapped up in the orthodox church.

But if Momaya could view with intrepid heart an excursioninto the jungle and a visit to the fear-haunted abodeof Bukawai, she was not likely to be deterred by threatsof future punishment at the hands of old Mbonga,whom she secretly despised. Yet she appeared to accedeto his injunctions, returning to her hut in silence.

She would have preferred starting upon her questby day-light, but this was now out of the question,since she must carry food and a weapon of some sort--thingswhich she never could pass out of the village with byday without being subjected to curious questioningthat surely would come immediately to the ears of Mbonga.

So Momaya bided her time until night, and just before thegates of the village were closed, she slipped through intothe darkness and the jungle. She was much frightened,but she set her face resolutely toward the north, and thoughshe paused often to listen, breathlessly, for the hugecats which, here, were her greatest terror, she neverthelesscontinued her way staunchly for several hours, until a lowmoan a little to her right and behind her brought her to a suddenstop.

With palpitating heart the woman stood, scarce daringto breathe, and then, very faintly but unmistakableto her keen ears, came the stealthy crunching of twigsand grasses beneath padded feet.

All about Momaya grew the giant trees of the tropical jungle,festooned with hanging vines and mosses. She seizedupon the nearest and started to clamber, apelike, to thebranches above. As she did so, there was a suddenrush of a great body behind her, a menacing roar thatcaused the earth to tremble, and something crashedinto the very creepers to which she was clinging--but below her.

Momaya drew herself to safety among the leafy branches andthanked the foresight which had prompted her to bring alongthe dried human ear which hung from a cord about her neck. She always had known that that ear was good medicine. It had been given her, when a girl, by the witch-doctorof her town tribe, and was nothing like the poor,weak medicine of Mbonga's witch-doctor.

All night Momaya clung to her perch, for although thelion sought other prey after a short time, she darednot descend into the darkness again, for fear she mightencounter him or another of his kind; but at daylightshe clambered down and resumed her way.

Tarzan of the Apes, finding that his balu never ceased to giveevidence of terror in the presence of the apes of the tribe,and also that most of the adult apes were a constant menaceto Go-bu-balu's life, so that Tarzan dared not leave himalone with them, took to hunting with the little black boyfarther and farther from the stamping grounds of the anthropoids.

Little by little his absences from the tribe grew in lengthas he wandered farther away from them, until finally hefound himself a greater distance to the north than he everbefore had hunted, and with water and ample game and fruit,he felt not at all inclined to return to the tribe.

Little Go-bu-balu gave evidences of a greater interestin life, an interest which varied in direct proportionto the distance he was from the apes of Kerchak. He now trotted along behind Tarzan when the ape-man wentupon the ground, and in the trees he even did his bestto follow his mighty foster parent. The boy was stillsad and lonely. His thin, little body had grown steadilythinner since he had come among the apes, for while,as a young cannibal, he was not overnice in the matterof diet, he found it not always to his taste to stomachthe weird things which tickled the palates of epicuresamong the apes.

His large eyes were very large indeed now, his cheeks sunken,and every rib of his emaciated body plainly discernibleto whomsoever should care to count them. Constant terror,perhaps, had had as much to do with his physical condition ashad improper food. Tarzan noticed the change and was worried. He had hoped to see his balu wax sturdy and strong. His disappointment was great. In only one respect didGo-bu-balu seem to progress--he readily was masteringthe language of the apes. Even now he and Tarzan couldconverse in a fairly satisfactory manner by supplementingthe meager ape speech with signs; but for the most part,Go-bu-balu was silent other than to answer questions putto him. His great sorrow was yet too new and too poignantto be laid aside even momentarily. Always he pined forMomaya--shrewish, hideous, repulsive, perhaps, she wouldhave been to you or me, but to Tibo she was mamma,the personification of that one great love which knowsno selfishness and which does not consume itself in its ownfires.

As the two hunted, or rather as Tarzan hunted and Go-bu-balutagged along in his wake, the ape-man noticed many thingsand thought much. Once they came upon Sabor moaning inthe tall grasses. About her romped and played two littleballs of fur, but her eyes were for one which lay betweenher great forepaws and did not romp, one who never would rompagain.

Tarzan read aright the anguish and the suffering of thehuge mother cat. He had been minded to bait her. It wasto do this that he had sneaked silently through the treesuntil he had come almost above her, but something held theape-man as he saw the lioness grieving over her dead cub. With the acquisition of Go-bu-balu, Tarzan had cometo realize the responsibilities and sorrows of parentage,without its joys. His heart went out to Sabor as it mightnot have done a few weeks before. As he watched her,there rose quite unbidden before him a vision of Momaya,the skewer through the septum of her nose, her pendulousunder lip sagging beneath the weight which dragged it down. Tarzan saw not her unloveliness; he saw only the same anguishthat was Sabor's, and he winced. That strange functioningof the mind which sometimes is called association of ideassnapped Teeka and Gazan before the ape-man's mental vision. What if one should come and take Gazan from Teeka. Tarzan uttered a low and ominous growl as though Gazan werehis own. Go-bu-balu glanced here and there apprehensively,thinking that Tarzan had espied an enemy. Sabor sprangsuddenly to her feet, her yellow-green eyes blazing,her tail lashing as she cocked her ears, and raisingher muzzle, sniffed the air for possible danger. The two little cubs, which had been playing, scamperedquickly to her, and standing beneath her, peered outfrom between her forelegs, their big ears upstanding,their little heads cocked first upon one side and thenupon the other.

With a shake of his black shock, Tarzan turned awayand resumed his hunting in another direction; but all daythere rose one after another, above the threshold of hisobjective mind, memory portraits of Sabor, of Momaya,and of Teeka--a lioness, a cannibal, and a she-ape, yetto the ape-man they were identical through motherhood.

It was noon of the third day when Momaya came withinsight of the cave of Bukawai, the unclean. The oldwitch-doctor had rigged a framework of interlaced boughsto close the mouth of the cave from predatory beasts. This was now set to one side, and the black cavern beyondyawned mysterious and repellent. Momaya shivered as froma cold wind of the rainy season. No sign of life appearedabout the cave, yet Momaya experienced that uncannysensation as of unseen eyes regarding her malevolently. Again she shuddered. She tried to force her unwillingfeet onward toward the cave, when from its depths issuedan uncanny sound that was neither brute nor human, a weirdsound that was akin to mirthless laughter.

With a stifled scream, Momaya turned and fled into the jungle. For a hundred yards she ran before she could controlher terror, and then she paused, listening. Was allher labor, were all the terrors and dangers throughwhich she had passed to go for naught? She tried to steelherself to return to the cave, but again fright overcame her.

Saddened, disheartened, she turned slowly upon the back trailtoward the village of Mbonga. Her young shoulders now weredrooped like those of an old woman who bears a great burdenof many years with their accumulated pains and sorrows,and she walked with tired feet and a halting step. The spring of youth was gone from Momaya.

For another hundred yards she dragged her weary way,her brain half paralyzed from dumb terror and suffering,and then there came to her the memory of a little babethat suckled at her breast, and of a slim boy who romped,laughing, about her, and they were both Tibo--her Tibo!

Her shoulders straightened. She shook her savage head,and she turned about and walked boldly back to themouth of the cave of Bukawai, the unclean--of Bukawai,the witch-doctor.

Again, from the interior of the cave came the hideouslaughter that was not laughter. This time Momayarecognized it for what it was, the strange cry of a hyena. No more did she shudder, but she held her spear readyand called aloud to Bukawai to come out.

Instead of Bukawai came the repulsive head of a hyena. Momaya poked at it with her spear, and the ugly,sullen brute drew back with an angry growl. Again Momayacalled Bukawai by name, and this time there came an answerin mumbling tones that were scarce more human than thoseof the beast.

"Who comes to Bukawai?" queried the voice.

"It is Momaya," replied the woman; "Momaya from the villageof Mbonga, the chief.

"What do you want?"

"I want good medicine, better medicine than Mbonga's witch-doctorcan make," replied Momaya. "The great, white, jungle godhas stolen my Tibo, and I want medicine to bring him back,or to find where he is hidden that I may go and get him."

"Who is Tibo?" asked Bukawai.

Momaya told him.

"Bukawai's medicine is very strong," said the voice. "Five goats and a new sleeping mat are scarce enough inexchange for Bukawai's medicine."

"Two goats are enough," said Momaya, for the spiritof barter is strong in the breasts of the blacks.

The pleasure of haggling over the price was a sufficientlypotent lure to draw Bukawai to the mouth of the cave. Momaya was sorry when she saw him that he had notremained within. There are some things too horrible,too hideous, too repulsive for description--Bukawai's facewas of these. When Momaya saw him she understood why itwas that he was almost inarticulate.

Beside him were two hyenas, which rumor had said were hisonly and constant companions. They made an excellenttrio--the most repulsive of beasts with the most repulsiveof humans.

"Five goats and a new sleeping mat," mumbled Bukawai.

"Two fat goats and a sleeping mat." Momaya raised her bid;but Bukawai was obdurate. He stuck for the five goatsand the sleeping mat for a matter of half an hour,while the hyenas sniffed and growled and laughed hideously. Momaya was determined to give all that Bukawai askedif she could do no better, but haggling is second natureto black barterers, and in the end it partly repaid her,for a compromise finally was reached which includedthree fat goats, a new sleeping mat, and a piece ofcopper wire.

"Come back tonight," said Bukawai, "when the moon is twohours in the sky. Then will I make the strong medicinewhich shall bring Tibo back to you. Bring with youthe three fat goats, the new sleeping mat, and the pieceof copper wire the length of a large man's forearm."

"I cannot bring them," said Momaya. "You will haveto come after them. When you have restored Tibo to me,you shall have them all at the village of Mbonga.

Bukawai shook his head.

"I will make no medicine," he said, "until I havethe goats and the mat and the copper wire."

Momaya pleaded and threatened, but all to no avail. Finally, she turned away and started off through the jungletoward the village of Mbonga. How she could get threegoats and a sleeping mat out of the village and throughthe jungle to the cave of Bukawai, she did not know,but that she would do it somehow she was quite positive--shewould do it or die. Tibo must be restored to her.

Tarzan coming lazily through the jungle with little Go-bu-balu,caught the scent of Bara, the deer. Tarzan hungered forthe flesh of Bara. Naught tickled his palate so greatly;but to stalk Bara with Go-bu-balu at his heels, was outof the question, so he hid the child in the crotch ofa tree where the thick foliage screened him from view,and set off swiftly and silently upon the spoor of Bara.

Tibo alone was more terrified than Tibo even among the apes. Real and apparent dangers are less disconcerting thanthose which we imagine, and only the gods of his peopleknew how much Tibo imagined.

He had been but a short time in his hiding place whenhe heard something approaching through the jungle. He crouched closer to the limb upon which he lay and prayedthat Tarzan would return quickly. His wide eyes searchedthe jungle in the direction of the moving creature.

What if it was a leopard that had caught his scent! It wouldbe upon him in a minute. Hot tears flowed from the largeeyes of little Tibo. The curtain of jungle foliage rustledclose at hand. The thing was but a few paces from his tree!His eyes fairly popped from his black face as he watchedfor the appearance of the dread creature which presently wouldthrust a snarling countenance from between the vines andcreepers.

And then the curtain parted and a woman stepped intofull view. With a gasping cry, Tibo tumbled from hisperch and raced toward her. Momaya suddenly startedback and raised her spear, but a second later she castit aside and caught the thin body in her strong arms.

Crushing it to her, she cried and laughed all at one andthe same time, and hot tears of joy, mingled with the tearsof Tibo, trickled down the crease between her naked breasts.

Disturbed by the noise so close at hand, there arosefrom his sleep in a near-by thicket Numa, the lion. He looked through the tangled underbrush and sawthe black woman and her young. He licked his chopsand measured the distance between them and himself. A short charge and a long leap would carry him upon them. He flicked the end of his tail and sighed.

A vagrant breeze, swirling suddenly in the wrong direction,carried the scent of Tarzan to the sensitive nostrilsof Bara, the deer. There was a startled tensing of musclesand cocking of ears, a sudden dash, and Tarzan's meatwas gone. The ape-man angrily shook his head and turnedback toward the spot where he had left Go-bu-balu. Hecame softly, as was his way. Before he reached the spothe heard strange sounds--the sound of a woman laughingand of a woman weeping, and the two which seemed to comefrom one throat were mingled with the convulsive sobbingof a child. Tarzan hastened, and when Tarzan hastened,only the birds and the wind went faster.

And as Tarzan approached the sounds, he heard another,a deep sigh. Momaya did not hear it, nor did Tibo;but the ears of Tarzan were as the ears of Bara, the deer. He heard the sigh, and he knew, so he unloosed the heavyspear which dangled at his back. Even as he sped throughthe branches of the trees, with the same ease that youor I might take out a pocket handkerchief as we strollednonchalantly down a lazy country lane, Tarzan of the Apestook the spear from its thong that it might be ready againstany emergency.

Numa, the lion, did not rush madly to attack. He reasoned again, and reason told him that already the preywas his, so he pushed his great bulk through the foliageand stood eyeing his meat with baleful, glaring eyes.

Momaya saw him and shrieked, drawing Tibo closer to her breast. To have found her child and to lose him, all in a moment!She raised her spear, throwing her hand far back ofher shoulder. Numa roared and stepped slowly forward. Momaya cast her weapon. It grazed the tawny shoulder,inflicting a flesh wound which aroused all the terrificbestiality of the carnivore, and the lion charged.

Momaya tried to close her eyes, but could not. She sawthe flashing swiftness of the huge, oncoming death,and then she saw something else. She saw a mighty,naked white man drop as from the heavens into the pathof the charging lion. She saw the muscles of a great armflash in the light of the equatorial sun as it filtered,dappling, through the foliage above. She saw a heavyhunting spear hurtle through the air to meet the lionin midleap.

Numa brought up upon his haunches, roaring terribly and strikingat the spear which protruded from his breast. His great blowsbent and twisted the weapon. Tarzan, crouching and withhunting knife in hand, circled warily about the frenzied cat. Momaya, wide-eyed, stood rooted to the spot, watching,fascinated.

In sudden fury Numa hurled himself toward the ape-man,but the wiry creature eluded the blundering charge,side-stepping quickly only to rush in upon his foe. Twice the hunting blade flashed in the air. Twice it fellupon the back of Numa, already weakening from the spearpoint so near his heart. The second stroke of the bladepierced far into the beast's spine, and with a lastconvulsive sweep of the fore-paws, in a vain attemptto reach his tormentor, Numa sprawled upon the ground,paralyzed and dying.

Bukawai, fearful lest he should lose any recompense,followed Momaya with the intention of persuading herto part with her ornaments of copper and iron againsther return with the price of the medicine--to pay,as it were, for an option on his services as one paysa retaining fee to an attorney, for, like an attorney,Bukawai knew the value of his medicine and that it waswell to collect as much as possible in advance.

The witch-doctor came upon the scene as Tarzan leapedto meet the lion's charge. He saw it all and marveled,guessing immediately that this must be the strange whitedemon concerning whom he had heard vague rumors beforeMomaya came to him.

Momaya, now that the lion was past harming her or hers,gazed with new terror upon Tarzan. It was he who had stolenher Tibo. Doubtless he would attempt to steal him again. Momaya hugged the boy close to her. She was determinedto die this time rather than suffer Tibo to be taken fromher again.

Tarzan eyed them in silence. The sight of the boy clinging,sobbing, to his mother aroused within his savage breasta melancholy loneliness. There was none thus to clingto Tarzan, who yearned so for the love of someone,of something.

At last Tibo looked up, because of the quiet that hadfallen upon the jungle, and saw Tarzan. He did not shrink.

"Tarzan," he said, in the speech of the great apes of thetribe of Kerchak, "do not take me from Momaya, my mother. Do not take me again to the lair of the hairy, tree men,for I fear Taug and Gunto and the others. Let me staywith Momaya, O Tarzan, God of the Jungle! Let me staywith Momaya, my mother, and to the end of our days we willbless you and put food before the gates of the villageof Mbonga that you may never hunger."

Tarzan sighed.

"Go," he said, "back to the village of Mbonga, and Tarzanwill follow to see that no harm befalls you."

Tibo translated the words to his mother, and the two turnedtheir backs upon the ape-man and started off toward home. In the heart of Momaya was a great fear and a great exultation,for never before had she walked with God, and never hadshe been so happy. She strained little Tibo to her,stroking his thin cheek. Tarzan saw and sighed again.

"For Teeka there is Teeka's balu," he soliloquized;"for Sabor there are balus, and for the she-Gomangani,and for Bara, and for Manu, and even for Pamba, the rat;but for Tarzan there can be none--neither a she nor a balu. Tarzan of the Apes is a man, and it must be that manwalks alone."

Bukawai saw them go, and he mumbled through his rotting face,swearing a great oath that he would yet have the threefat goats, the new sleeping mat, and the bit of copper wire.