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No littlest beetle that he might eat had given evidence that life of any sort existed

here, and it was a hungry and thirsty Tarzan who lay down to rest in the evening.

He decided now to push on during the cool of the night, for he realized that even

mighty Tarzan had his limitations and that where there was no food one could

not eat and where there was no water the greatest woodcraft in the world could

find none. It was a totally new experience to Tarzan to find so barren and terrible

a country in his beloved Africa. Even the Sahara had its oases; but this frightful

world gave no indication of containing a square foot of hospitable ground.

However, he had no misgivings but that he would fare forth into the wonder

country of which little Manu had told him, though it was certain that he would do

it with a dry skin and an empty belly. And so he fought on until daylight, when he

again felt the need of rest. He was at the edge of another of those terrible

canyons, the eighth he had crossed, whose precipitous sides would have taxed to

the uttermost the strength of an untired man well fortified by food and water, and

for the first time, as he looked down into the abyss and then at the opposite side

that he must scale, misgivings began to assail his mind.

He did not fear death--with the memory of his murdered mate still fresh in his

mind he almost courted it, yet strong within him was that primal instinct of self-

preservation--the battling force of life that would keep him an active contender

against the Great Reaper until, fighting to the very last, he should be overcome by

a superior power.

A shadow swung slowly across the ground beside him, and looking up, the ape-

man saw Ska, the vulture, wheeling a wide circle above him. The grim and

persistent harbinger of evil aroused the man to renewed determination. He arose

and approached the edge of the canyon, and then, wheeling, with his face turned

upward toward the circling bird of prey, he bellowed forth the challenge of the

bull ape.

"I am Tarzan," he shouted, "Lord of the Jungle. Tarzan of the Apes is not for Ska,

eater of carrion. Go back to the lair of Dango and feed off the leavings of the

hyenas, for Tarzan will leave no bones for Ska to pick in this empty wilderness of

death."

But before he reached the bottom of the canyon he again was forced to the

realization that his great strength was waning, and when he dropped exhausted

at the foot of the cliff and saw before him the opposite wall that must be scaled,

he bared his fighting fangs and growled. For an hour he lay resting in the cool

shade at the foot of the cliff. All about him reigned utter silence--the silence of the

tomb. No fluttering birds, no humming insects, no scurrying reptiles relieved the

deathlike stillness. This indeed was the valley of death. He felt the depressing

Tarzan the Untamed