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Lady Jane, ignorant of the fact that a state of war existed between Great Britain
and Germany, welcomed the officers most hospitably and gave orders through her
trusted Waziri to prepare a feast for the black soldiers of the enemy.
Far to the east, Tarzan of the Apes was traveling rapidly from Nairobi toward the
farm. At Nairobi he had received news of the World War that had already started,
and, anticipating an immediate invasion of British East Africa by the Germans,
was hurrying homeward to fetch his wife to a place of greater security. With him
were a score of his ebon warriors, but far too slow for the ape-man was the
progress of these trained and hardened woodsmen.
When necessity demanded, Tarzan of the Apes sloughed the thin veneer of his
civilization and with it the hampering apparel that was its badge. In a moment
the polished English gentleman reverted to the naked ape man.
His mate was in danger. For the time, that single thought dominated. He did not
think of her as Lady Jane Greystoke, but rather as the she he had won by the
might of his steel thews, and that he must hold and protect by virtue of the same
offensive armament.
It was no member of the House of Lords who swung swiftly and grimly through
the tangled forest or trod with untiring muscles the wide stretches of open plain--
it was a great he ape filled with a single purpose that excluded all thoughts of
fatigue or danger.
Little Manu, the monkey, scolding and chattering in the upper terraces of the
forest, saw him pass. Long had it been since he had thus beheld the great
Tarmangani naked and alone hurtling through the jungle. Bearded and gray was
Manu, the monkey, and to his dim old eyes came the fire of recollection of those
days when Tarzan of the Apes had ruled supreme, Lord of the Jungle, over all the
myriad life that trod the matted vegetation between the boles of the great trees, or
flew or swung or climbed in the leafy fastness upward to the very apex of the
loftiest terraces.
And Numa, the lion, lying up for the day close beside last night's successful kill,
blinked his yellow-green eyes and twitched his tawny tail as he caught the scent
spoor of his ancient enemy.
Nor was Tarzan senseless to the presence of Numa or Manu or any of the many
jungle beasts he passed in his rapid flight towards the west. No particle had his
shallow probing of English society dulled his marvelous sense faculties. His nose
had picked out the presence of Numa, the lion, even before the majestic king of
beasts was aware of his passing.
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