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They followed him to the boma where he cut several pieces of meat from the

carcass for them, retaining a joint for himself. The young lieutenant prepared a

fire, and the girl presided over the primitive culinary rights of their simple meal.

As she worked some little way apart from them, the lieutenant and the ape-man

watched her.

She is wonderful. Is she not?" murmured Smith-Oldwick.

She is a German and a spy," replied Tarzan.

The Englishman turned quickly upon him. "What do you mean?" he cried.

I mean what I say," replied the ape-man. "She is a German and a spy."

I do not believe it!" exclaimed the aviator.

You do not have to," Tarzan assured him. "It is nothing to me what you believe. I

saw her in conference with the Boche general and his staff at the camp near

Taveta. They all knew her and called her by name and she handed him a paper.

The next time I saw her she was inside the British lines in disguise, and again I

saw her bearing word to a German officer at Wilhelmstal. She is a German and a

spy, but she is a woman and therefore I cannot destroy her."

"You really believe that what you say is true?" asked the young lieutenant. "My

God! I cannot believe it. She is so sweet and brave and good."

The ape-man shrugged his shoulders. "She is brave," he said, "but even Pamba,

the rat, must have some good quality, but she is what I have told you and

therefore I hate her and you should hate her."

Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick buried his face in his hands. "God forgive

me," he said at last. "I cannot hate her."

The ape-man cast a contemptuous look at his companion and arose. "Tarzan goes

again to hunt," he said. "You have enough food for two days. By that time he will

return."

The two watched him until he had disappeared in the foliage of the trees at the

further side of the clearing.

When he had gone the girl felt a vague sense of apprehension that she never

experienced when Tarzan was present. The invisible menaces lurking in the grim

jungle seemed more real and much more imminent now that the ape-man was no

longer near. While he had been there talking with them, the little thatched hut

and its surrounding thorn boma had seemed as safe a place as the world might

afford. She wished that he had remained--two days seemed an eternity in

117

Tarzan the Untamed