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The Englishman looked questioningly at Bertha Kircher, who had now risen from

the couch, shaking and trembling. She saw the question in his eyes and with an

effort she drew herself to her full height. "No," she cried, "if he dies here I shall die

with him. Go if you wish to. You can do nothing here, but I--I cannot go."

Tarzan had now regained his feet, but the maniac still clung to him tenaciously.

The girl turned suddenly to Smith-Oldwick. "Your pistol!" she cried. "Why don't

you shoot him?"

The man drew the weapon from his pocket and approached the two antagonists,

but by this time they were moving so rapidly that there was no opportunity for

shooting one without the danger of hitting the other. At the same time Bertha

Kircher circled about them with the prince's saber, but neither could she find an

opening. Again and again the two men fell to the floor, until presently Tarzan

found a hold upon the other's throat, against which contingency Metak had been

constantly battling, and slowly, as the giant fingers closed, the other's mad eyes

protruded from his livid face, his jaws gaped and released their hold upon

Tarzan's shoulder, and then in a sudden excess of disgust and rage the ape-man

lifted the body of the prince high above his head and with all the strength of his

great arms hurled it across the room and through the window where it fell with a

sickening thud into the pit of lions beneath.

As Tarzan turned again toward his companions, the girl was standing with the

saber still in her hand and an expression upon her face that he never had seen

there before. Her eyes were wide and misty with unshed tears, while her sensitive

lips trembled as though she were upon the point of giving way to some pent

emotion which her rapidly rising and falling bosom plainly indicated she was

fighting to control.

"If we are going to get out of here," said the ape-man, "we can't lose any time. We

are together at last and nothing can be gained by delay. The question now is the

safest way. The couple who escaped us evidently departed through the

passageway to the roof and secured the trap against us so that we are cut off in

that direction. What chance have we below? You came that way," and he turned

toward the girl.

"At the foot of the stairs," she said, "is a room full of armed men. I doubt if we

could pass that way."

It was then that Otobu raised himself to a sitting posture. "So you are not dead

after all," exclaimed the ape-man. "Come, how badly are you hurt?"

The Negro rose gingerly to his feet, moved his arms and legs and felt of his head.

228

Tarzan the Untamed