It was two weeks later that John Clayton, LordGreystoke, riding in from a tour of inspection of hisvast African estate, glimpsed the head of a column ofmen crossing the plain that lay between his bungalowand the forest to the north and west.

He reined in his horse and watched the little party asit emerged from a concealing swale. His keen eyescaught the reflection of the sun upon the white helmetof a mounted man, and with the conviction that awandering European hunter was seeking his hospitality,he wheeled his mount and rode slowly forward to meetthe newcomer.

A half hour later he was mounting the steps leading tothe veranda of his bungalow, and introducing M. JulesFrecoult to Lady Greystoke.

"I was completely lost," M. Frecoult was explaining."My head man had never before been in this part of thecountry and the guides who were to have accompanied mefrom the last village we passed knew even less of thecountry than we. They finally deserted us two dayssince. I am very fortunate indeed to have stumbled soprovidentially upon succor. I do not know what Ishould have done, had I not found you."

It was decided that Frecoult and his party shouldremain several days, or until they were thoroughlyrested, when Lord Greystoke would furnish guides tolead them safely back into country with whichFrecoult's head man was supposedly familiar.

In his guise of a French gentleman of leisure, Werperfound little difficulty in deceiving his host and iningratiating himself with both Tarzan and Jane Clayton;but the longer he remained the less hopeful he becameof an easy accomplishment of his designs.

Lady Greystoke never rode alone at any great distancefrom the bungalow, and the savage loyalty of theferocious Waziri warriors who formed a great part ofTarzan's followers seemed to preclude the possibilityof a successful attempt at forcible abduction, or ofthe bribery of the Waziri themselves.

A week passed, and Werper was no nearer the fulfillmentof his plan, in so far as he could judge, than upon theday of his arrival, but at that very moment somethingoccurred which gave him renewed hope and set his mindupon an even greater reward than a woman's ransom.

A runner had arrived at the bungalow with the weeklymail, and Lord Greystoke had spent the afternoon in hisstudy reading and answering letters. At dinner heseemed distraught, and early in the evening he excusedhimself and retired, Lady Greystoke following him verysoon after. Werper, sitting upon the veranda, couldhear their voices in earnest discussion, and havingrealized that something of unusual moment was afoot,he quietly rose from his chair, and keeping well in theshadow of the shrubbery growing profusely about thebungalow, made his silent way to a point beneath thewindow of the room in which his host and hostess slept.

Here he listened, and not without result, for almostthe first words he overheard filled him withexcitement. Lady Greystoke was speaking as Werper camewithin hearing.

"I always feared for the stability of the company," shewas saying; "but it seems incredible that they shouldhave failed for so enormous a sum--unless there hasbeen some dishonest manipulation."

"That is what I suspect," replied Tarzan; "but whateverthe cause, the fact remains that I have losteverything, and there is nothing for it but to returnto Opar and get more."

"Oh, John," cried Lady Greystoke, and Werper could feelthe shudder through her voice, "is there no other way?I cannot bear to think of you returning to thatfrightful city. I would rather live in poverty alwaysthan to have you risk the hideous dangers of Opar."

"You need have no fear," replied Tarzan, laughing."I am pretty well able to take care of myself, and wereI not, the Waziri who will accompany me will see that noharm befalls me."

"They ran away from Opar once, and left you to yourfate," she reminded him.

"They will not do it again," he answered. "They werevery much ashamed of themselves, and were coming backwhen I met them."

"But there must be some other way," insisted the woman.

"There is no other way half so easy to obtain anotherfortune, as to go to the treasure vaults of Opar andbring it away," he replied. "I shall be very careful,Jane, and the chances are that the inhabitants of Oparwill never know that I have been there again anddespoiled them of another portion of the treasure, thevery existence of which they are as ignorant of as theywould be of its value."

The finality in his tone seemed to assure LadyGreystoke that further argument was futile, and so sheabandoned the subject.

Werper remained, listening, for a short time, and then,confident that he had overheard all that was necessaryand fearing discovery, returned to the veranda, wherehe smoked numerous cigarets in rapid succession beforeretiring.

The following morning at breakfast, Werper announcedhis intention of making an early departure, and askedTarzan's permission to hunt big game in the Waziricountry on his way out--permission which Lord Greystokereadily granted.

The Belgian consumed two days in completing hispreparations, but finally got away with his safari,accompanied by a single Waziri guide whom LordGreystoke had loaned him. The party made but a singleshort march when Werper simulated illness, andannounced his intention of remaining where he was untilhe had fully recovered. As they had gone but a shortdistance from the Greystoke bungalow, Werper dismissedthe Waziri guide, telling the warrior that he wouldsend for him when he was able to proceed. The Wazirigone, the Belgian summoned one of Achmet Zek's trustedblacks to his tent, and dispatched him to watch for thedeparture of Tarzan, returning immediately to adviseWerper of the event and the direction taken by theEnglishman.

The Belgian did not have long to wait, for thefollowing day his emissary returned with word thatTarzan and a party of fifty Waziri warriors had set outtoward the southeast early in the morning.

Werper called his head man to him, after writing a longletter to Achmet Zek. This letter he handed to thehead man.

"Send a runner at once to Achmet Zek with this," heinstructed the head man. "Remain here in camp awaitingfurther instructions from him or from me. If any comefrom the bungalow of the Englishman, tell them that Iam very ill within my tent and can see no one. Now,give me six porters and six askaris--the strongest andbravest of the safari--and I will march after theEnglishman and discover where his gold is hidden."

And so it was that as Tarzan, stripped to the loincloth and armed after the primitive fashion he bestloved, led his loyal Waziri toward the dead city ofOpar, Werper, the renegade, haunted his trail throughthe long, hot days, and camped close behind him bynight.

And as they marched, Achmet Zek rode with his entirefollowing southward toward the Greystoke farm.

To Tarzan of the Apes the expedition was in the natureof a holiday outing. His civilization was at best butan outward veneer which he gladly peeled off with hisuncomfortable European clothes whenever any reasonablepretext presented itself. It was a woman's love whichkept Tarzan even to the semblance of civilization--acondition for which familiarity had bred contempt. Hehated the shams and the hypocrisies of it and with theclear vision of an unspoiled mind he had penetrated tothe rotten core of the heart of the thing--the cowardlygreed for peace and ease and the safe-guarding ofproperty rights. That the fine things of life--art,music and literature--had thriven upon such enervatingideals he strenuously denied, insisting, rather, thatthey had endured in spite of civilization.

"Show me the fat, opulent coward," he was wont to say,"who ever originated a beautiful ideal. In the clashof arms, in the battle for survival, amid hunger anddeath and danger, in the face of God as manifested inthe display of Nature's most terrific forces, is bornall that is finest and best in the human heart andmind."

And so Tarzan always came back to Nature in the spiritof a lover keeping a long deferred tryst after a periodbehind prison walls. His Waziri, at marrow, were morecivilized than he. They cooked their meat before theyate it and they shunned many articles of food asunclean that Tarzan had eaten with gusto all his lifeand so insidious is the virus of hypocrisy that eventhe stalwart ape-man hesitated to give rein to hisnatural longings before them. He ate burnt flesh whenhe would have preferred it raw and unspoiled, and hebrought down game with arrow or spear when he would farrather have leaped upon it from ambush and sunk hisstrong teeth in its jugular; but at last the call ofthe milk of the savage mother that had suckled him ininfancy rose to an insistent demand--he craved the hotblood of a fresh kill and his muscles yearned to pitthemselves against the savage jungle in the battle forexistence that had been his sole birthright for thefirst twenty years of his life.