The two savages, Kaviri and Mugambi, squatting beforethe entrance to Kaviri's hut, looked at one another--Kaviri with ill-concealed alarm.

"What is it?" he whispered.

"It is Bwana Tarzan and his people," replied Mugambi. "But what they are doing I know not, unless it be that theyare devouring your people who ran away."

Kaviri shuddered and rolled his eyes fearfully toward the jungle. In all his long life in the savage forest he had neverheard such an awful, fearsome din.

Closer and closer came the sounds, and now with them weremingled the terrified shrieks of women and children andof men. For twenty long minutes the blood-curdling criescontinued, until they seemed but a stone's throw fromthe palisade. Kaviri rose to flee, but Mugambi seized andheld him, for such had been the command of Tarzan.

A moment later a horde of terrified natives burst from the jungle,racing toward the shelter of their huts. Like frightened sheepthey ran, and behind them, driving them as sheep might be driven,came Tarzan and Sheeta and the hideous apes of Akut.

Presently Tarzan stood before Kaviri, the old quiet smile upon his lips.

"Your people have returned, my brother," he said, "andnow you may select those who are to accompany me andpaddle my canoe."

Tremblingly Kaviri tottered to his feet, calling to his peopleto come from their huts; but none responded to his summons.

"Tell them," suggested Tarzan, "that if they do not comeI shall send my people in after them."

Kaviri did as he was bid, and in an instant the entirepopulation of the village came forth, their wide and frightenedeyes rolling from one to another of the savage creatures thatwandered about the village street.

Quickly Kaviri designated a dozen warriors to accompany Tarzan. The poor fellows went almost white with terror at theprospect of close contact with the panther and the apes inthe narrow confines of the canoes; but when Kaviri explainedto them that there was no escape--that Bwana Tarzanwould pursue them with his grim horde should they attemptto run away from the duty--they finally went gloomily downto the river and took their places in the canoe.

It was with a sigh of relief that their chieftain saw the partydisappear about a headland a short distance up-river.

For three days the strange company continued farther andfarther into the heart of the savage country that lies on eitherside of the almost unexplored Ugambi. Three of the twelvewarriors deserted during that time; but as several of the apeshad finally learned the secret of the paddles, Tarzan felt nodismay because of the loss.

As a matter of fact, he could have travelled much morerapidly on shore, but he believed that he could hold his ownwild crew together to better advantage by keeping them tothe boat as much as possible. Twice a day they landed to huntand feed, and at night they slept upon the bank of the mainlandor on one of the numerous little islands that dotted the river.

Before them the natives fled in alarm, so that they foundonly deserted villages in their path as they proceeded. Tarzan was anxious to get in touch with some of the savageswho dwelt upon the river's banks, but so far he had been unableto do so.

Finally he decided to take to the land himself, leaving hiscompany to follow after him by boat. He explained to Mugambithe thing that he had in mind, and told Akut to followthe directions of the black.

"I will join you again in a few days," he said. "Now I goahead to learn what has become of the very bad white manwhom I seek."

At the next halt Tarzan took to the shore, and was soonlost to the view of his people.

The first few villages he came to were deserted, showingthat news of the coming of his pack had travelled rapidly;but toward evening he came upon a distant cluster of thatchedhuts surrounded by a rude palisade, within which were acouple of hundred natives.

The women were preparing the evening meal as Tarzan ofthe Apes poised above them in the branches of a giant treewhich overhung the palisade at one point.

The ape-man was at a loss as to how he might enter intocommunication with these people without either frighteningthem or arousing their savage love of battle. He had no desireto fight now, for he was upon a much more important missionthan that of battling with every chance tribe that heshould happen to meet with.

At last he hit upon a plan, and after seeing that he wasconcealed from the view of those below, he gave a few hoarsegrunts in imitation of a panther. All eyes immediately turnedupward toward the foliage above.

It was growing dark, and they could not penetrate the leafyscreen which shielded the ape-man from their view. The momentthat he had won their attention he raised his voice tothe shriller and more hideous scream of the beast he personated,and then, scarce stirring a leaf in his descent, droppedto the ground once again outside the palisade, and, with thespeed of a deer, ran quickly round to the village gate.

Here he beat upon the fibre-bound saplings of which thebarrier was constructed, shouting to the natives in their owntongue that he was a friend who wished food and shelter forthe night.

Tarzan knew well the nature of the black man. He wasaware that the grunting and screaming of Sheeta in the treeabove them would set their nerves on edge, and that hispounding upon their gate after dark would still further addto their terror.

That they did not reply to his hail was no surprise, fornatives are fearful of any voice that comes out of the nightfrom beyond their palisades, attributing it always to somedemon or other ghostly visitor; but still he continued to call.

"Let me in, my friends!" he cried. "I am a white manpursuing the very bad white man who passed this way a fewdays ago. I follow to punish him for the sins he has committedagainst you and me.

"If you doubt my friendship, I will prove it to you by goinginto the tree above your village and driving Sheeta back intothe jungle before he leaps among you. If you will not promiseto take me in and treat me as a friend I shall let Sheeta stayand devour you."

For a moment there was silence. Then the voice of an oldman came out of the quiet of the village street.

"If you are indeed a white man and a friend, we will letyou come in; but first you must drive Sheeta away."

"Very well," replied Tarzan. "Listen, and you shall hearSheeta fleeing before me."

The ape-man returned quickly to the tree, and this time hemade a great noise as he entered the branches, at the sametime growling ominously after the manner of the panther, so thatthose below would believe that the great beast was still there.

When he reached a point well above the village street hemade a great commotion, shaking the tree violently, cryingaloud to the panther to flee or be killed, and punctuating hisown voice with the screams and mouthings of an angry beast.

Presently he raced toward the opposite side of the tree andoff into the jungle, pounding loudly against the boles of treesas he went, and voicing the panther's diminishing growls ashe drew farther and farther away from the village.

A few minutes later he returned to the village gate, callingto the natives within.

"I have driven Sheeta away," he said. "Now come andadmit me as you promised."

For a time there was the sound of excited discussion withinthe palisade, but at length a half-dozen warriors came andopened the gates, peering anxiously out in evident trepidationas to the nature of the creature which they should findwaiting there. They were not much relieved at sight of analmost naked white man; but when Tarzan had reassuredthem in quiet tones, protesting his friendship for them,they opened the barrier a trifle farther and admitted him.

When the gates had been once more secured the self-confidenceof the savages returned, and as Tarzan walked up the village streettoward the chief's hut he was surrounded by a host of curious men,women, and children.

From the chief he learned that Rokoff had passed up theriver a week previous, and that he had horns growing fromhis forehead, and was accompanied by a thousand devils. Later the chief said that the very bad white man had remaineda month in his village.

Though none of these statements agreed with Kaviri's, thatthe Russian was but three days gone from the chieftain'svillage and that his following was much smaller than now stated,Tarzan was in no manner surprised at the discrepancies, forhe was quite familiar with the savage mind's strange mannerof functioning.

What he was most interested in knowing was that he was uponthe right trail, and that it led toward the interior. In thiscircumstance he knew that Rokoff could never escape him.

After several hours of questioning and cross-questioningthe ape-man learned that another party had preceded theRussian by several days--three whites--a man, a woman,and a little man-child, with several Mosulas.

Tarzan explained to the chief that his people would followhim in a canoe, probably the next day, and that though hemight go on ahead of them the chief was to receive themkindly and have no fear of them, for Mugambi would seethat they did not harm the chief's people, if they wereaccorded a friendly reception.

"And now," he concluded, "I shall lie down beneath thistree and sleep. I am very tired. Permit no one to disturb me."

The chief offered him a hut, but Tarzan, from past experienceof native dwellings, preferred the open air, and, further,he had plans of his own that could be better carried outif he remained beneath the tree. He gave as his reason adesire to be close at hand should Sheeta return, and after thisexplanation the chief was very glad to permit him to sleepbeneath the tree.

Tarzan had always found that it stood him in good steadto leave with natives the impression that he was to someextent possessed of more or less miraculous powers. He mighteasily have entered their village without recourse to thegates, but he believed that a sudden and unaccountabledisappearance when he was ready to leave them would resultin a more lasting impression upon their childlike minds, andso as soon as the village was quiet in sleep he rose, and,leaping into the branches of the tree above him, faded silentlyinto the black mystery of the jungle night.

All the balance of that night the ape-man swung rapidlythrough the upper and middle terraces of the forest. When thegoing was good there he preferred the upper branches of thegiant trees, for then his way was better lighted by the moon;but so accustomed were all his senses to the grim world ofhis birth that it was possible for him, even in the dense,black shadows near the ground, to move with ease and rapidity. You or I walking beneath the arcs of Main Street, or Broadway,or State Street, could not have moved more surely or witha tenth the speed of the agile ape-man through thegloomy mazes that would have baffled us entirely.

At dawn he stopped to feed, and then he slept for severalhours, taking up the pursuit again toward noon.

Twice he came upon natives, and, though he had considerabledifficulty in approaching them, he succeeded in eachinstance in quieting both their fears and bellicose intentionstoward him, and learned from them that he was upon the trailof the Russian.

Two days later, still following up the Ugambi, he cameupon a large village. The chief, a wicked-looking fellow withthe sharp-filed teeth that often denote the cannibal, receivedhim with apparent friendliness.

The ape-man was now thoroughly fatigued, and had determinedto rest for eight or ten hours that he might be freshand strong when he caught up with Rokoff, as he was surehe must do within a very short time.

The chief told him that the bearded white man had left hisvillage only the morning before, and that doubtless he wouldbe able to overtake him in a short time. The other party thechief had not seen or heard of, so he said.

Tarzan did not like the appearance or manner of the fellow,who seemed, though friendly enough, to harbour a certaincontempt for this half-naked white man who came with nofollowers and offered no presents; but he needed the rest andfood that the village would afford him with less effort thanthe jungle, and so, as he knew no fear of man, beast, ordevil, he curled himself up in the shadow of a hut and wassoon asleep.

Scarcely had he left the chief than the latter called two ofhis warriors, to whom he whispered a few instructions. A moment later the sleek, black bodies were racing along theriver path, up-stream, toward the east.

In the village the chief maintained perfect quiet. He wouldpermit no one to approach the sleeping visitor, nor anysinging, nor loud talking. He was remarkably solicitouslest his guest be disturbed.

Three hours later several canoes came silently into viewfrom up the Ugambi. They were being pushed ahead rapidlyby the brawny muscles of their black crews. Upon the bankbefore the river stood the chief, his spear raised in ahorizontal position above his head, as though in somemanner of predetermined signal to those within the boats.

And such indeed was the purpose of his attitude--whichmeant that the white stranger within his village stillslept peacefully.

In the bows of two of the canoes were the runners that thechief had sent forth three hours earlier. It was evident thatthey had been dispatched to follow and bring back this party,and that the signal from the bank was one that had beendetermined upon before they left the village.

In a few moments the dugouts drew up to the verdure-clad bank. The native warriors filed out, and with them a half-dozenwhite men. Sullen, ugly-looking customers they were,and none more so than the evil-faced, black-bearded manwho commanded them.

"Where is the white man your messengers report to bewith you?" he asked of the chief.

"This way, bwana," replied the native. "Carefully haveI kept silence in the village that he might be still asleep whenyou returned. I do not know that he is one who seeks you todo you harm, but he questioned me closely about your comingand your going, and his appearance is as that of the oneyou described, but whom you believed safe in the countrywhich you called Jungle Island.

"Had you not told me this tale I should not have recognizedhim, and then he might have gone after and slain you. If he is a friend and no enemy, then no harm has been done,bwana; but if he proves to be an enemy, I should like verymuch to have a rifle and some ammunition."

"You have done well," replied the white man, "and youshall have the rifle and ammunition whether he be a friendor enemy, provided that you stand with me."

"I shall stand with you, bwana," said the chief,"and now come and look upon the stranger, who sleepswithin my village."

So saying, he turned and led the way toward the hut, in theshadow of which the unconscious Tarzan slept peacefully.

Behind the two men came the remaining whites and a scoreof warriors; but the raised forefingers of the chief andhis companion held them all to perfect silence.

As they turned the corner of the hut, cautiously and upontiptoe, an ugly smile touched the lips of the white as his eyesfell upon the giant figure of the sleeping ape-man.

The chief looked at the other inquiringly. The latter noddedhis head, to signify that the chief had made no mistakein his suspicions. Then he turned to those behind him and,pointing to the sleeping man, motioned for them to seizeand bind him.

A moment later a dozen brutes had leaped upon the surprisedTarzan, and so quickly did they work that he was securelybound before he could make half an effort to escape.

Then they threw him down upon his back, and as his eyesturned toward the crowd that stood near, they fell upon themalign face of Nikolas Rokoff.

A sneer curled the Russian's lips. He stepped quite closeto Tarzan.

"Pig!" he cried. "Have you not learned sufficientwisdom to keep away from Nikolas Rokoff?"

Then he kicked the prostrate man full in the face.

"That for your welcome," he said.

"Tonight, before my Ethiop friends eat you, I shall tellyou what has already befallen your wife and child, and whatfurther plans I have for their futures."