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him, however much we may appreciate his services to us. You have more than

balanced your obligations to him and from what he told me I feel that you

especially should not remain here longer."

The girl looked up at him in astonishment. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I do not like to tell," said the Englishman, digging nervously at the turf with the

point of a stick, "but you have my word that he would rather you were not here."

Tell me what he said," she insisted, "I have a right to know."

Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick squared his shoulders and raised his eyes to those of

the girl. "He said that he hated you," he blurted. "He has only aided you at all

from a sense of duty because you are a woman."

The girl paled and then flushed. "I will be ready to go," she said, "in just a

moment. We had better take some of this meat with us. There is no telling when

we will be able to get more."

And so the two set out down the river toward the south. The man carried the

short spear that Tarzan had left with the girl, while she was entirely unarmed

except for a stick she had picked up from among those left after the building of

the hut. Before departing she had insisted that the man leave a note for Tarzan

thanking him for his care of them and bidding him goodbye. This they left pinned

to the inside wall of the hut with a little sliver of wood.

It was necessary that they be constantly on the alert since they never knew what

might confront them at the next turn of the winding jungle trail or what might lie

concealed in the tangled bushes at either side. There was also the ever-present

danger of meeting some of Numabo's black warriors and as the village lay directly

in their line of march, there was the necessity for making a wide detour before

they reached it in order to pass around it without being discovered.

I am not so much afraid of the native blacks," said the girl, "as I am of Usanga

and his people. He and his men were all attached to a German native regiment.

They brought me along with them when they deserted, either with the intention of

holding me ransom or selling me into the harem of one of the black sultans of the

north. Usanga is much more to be feared than Numabo for he has had the

advantage of European military training and is armed with more or less modern

weapons and ammunition."

"It is lucky for me," remarked the Englishman, "that it was the ignorant Numabo

who discovered and captured me rather than the worldly wise Usanga. He would

119

Tarzan the Untamed