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The warriors were circling now. Presently Numabo would draw first blood with his

sharp spear which would be the signal for the beginning of the torture after a

little of which the fagots would be lighted around the feet of the victims.

Closer and closer danced the hideous chief, his yellow, sharp-filed teeth showing

in the firelight between his thick, red lips. Now bending double, now stamping

furiously upon the ground, now leaping into the air, he danced step by step in the

narrowing circle that would presently bring him within spear reach of the

intended feast.

At last the spear reached out and touched the ape-man on the breast and when it

came away, a little trickle of blood ran down the smooth, brown hide and almost

simultaneously there broke from the outer periphery of the expectant audience a

woman's shriek which seemed a signal for a series of hideous screamings,

growlings and barkings, and a great commotion upon that side of the circle. The

victims could not see the cause of the disturbance, but Tarzan did not have to

see, for he knew by the voices of the apes the identity of the disturbers. He only

wondered what had brought them and what the purpose of the attack, for he

could not believe that they had come to rescue him.

Numabo and his warriors broke quickly from the circle of their dance to see

pushing toward them through the ranks of their screaming and terrified people

the very white girl who had escaped them a few nights before, and at her back

what appeared to their surprised eyes a veritable horde of the huge and hairy

forest men upon whom they looked with considerable fear and awe.

Striking to right and left with his heavy fists, tearing with his great fangs, came

Zu-tag, the young bull, while at his heels, emulating his example, surged his

hideous apes. Quickly they came through the old men and the women and

children, for straight toward Numabo and his warriors the girl led them. It was

then that they came within range of Tarzan's vision and he saw with unmixed

surprise who it was that led the apes to his rescue.

To Zu-tag he shouted: "Go for the big bulls while the she unbinds me," and to

Bertha Kircher: "Quick! Cut these bonds. The apes will take care of the blacks."

Turning from her advance the girl ran to his side. She had no knife and the bonds

were tied tightly but she worked quickly and coolly and as Zu-tag and his apes

closed with the warriors, she succeeded in loosening Tarzan's bonds sufficiently

to permit him to extricate his own hands so that in another minute he had freed

himself.

Now unbind the Englishman," he cried, and, leaping forward, ran to join Zu-tag

and his fellows in their battle against the blacks. Numabo and his warriors,

Tarzan the Untamed