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contemplation-two days of constant fear, two days, every moment of which would
be fraught with danger. She turned toward her companion.
"
I wish that he had remained," she said. "I always feel so much safer when he is
near. He is very grim and very terrible, and yet I feel safer with him than with any
man I ever have known. He seems to dislike me and yet I know that he would let
no harm befall me. I cannot understand him."
"Neither do I understand him," replied the Englishman; "but I know this much--
our presence here is interfering with his plans. He would like to be rid of us, and I
half imagine that he rather hopes to find when he returns that we have
succumbed to one of the dangers which must always confront us in this savage
land.
"I think that we should try to return to the white settlements. This man does not
want us here, nor is it reasonable to assume that we could long survive in such a
savage wilderness. I have traveled and hunted in several parts of Africa, but never
have I seen or heard of any single locality so overrun with savage beasts and
dangerous natives. If we set out for the east coast at once we would be in but
little more danger than we are here, and if we could survive a day's march, I
believe that we will find the means of reaching the coast in a few hours, for my
plane must still be in the same place that I landed just before the blacks captured
me. Of course there is no one here who could operate it nor is there any reason
why they should have destroyed it. As a matter of fact, the natives would be so
fearful and suspicious of so strange and incomprehensible a thing that the
chances are they would not dare approach it. Yes, it must be where I left it and
all ready to carry us safely to the settlements."
"But we cannot leave," said the girl, "until he returns. We could not go away like
that without thanking him or bidding him farewell. We are under too great
obligations to him."
The man looked at her in silence for a moment. He wondered if she knew how
Tarzan felt toward her and then he himself began to speculate upon the truth of
the ape-man's charges. The longer he looked at the girl, the less easy was it to
entertain the thought that she was an enemy spy. He was upon the point of
asking her point-blank but he could not bring himself to do so, finally
determining to wait until time and longer acquaintance should reveal the truth or
falsity of the accusation.
"I believe," he said as though there had been no pause in their conversation, "that
the man would be more than glad to find us gone when he returns. It is not
necessary to jeopardize our lives for two more days in order that we may thank
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