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Mile after mile Tarzan of the Apes put slowly behind him, borne up by sheer force

of will where a lesser man would have lain down to die and rest forever tired

muscles whose every move was an agony of effort; but at last his progress became

practically mechanical--he staggered on with a dazed mind that reacted numbly

to a single urge--on, on, on! The hills were now but a dim, ill-defined blur ahead.

Sometimes he forgot that they were hills, and again he wondered vaguely why he

must go on forever through all this torture endeavoring to overtake them--the

fleeing, elusive hills. Presently he began to hate them and there formed within his

half-delirious brain the hallucination that the hills were German hills, that they

had slain someone dear to him, whom he could never quite recall, and that he

was pursuing to slay them.

This idea, growing, appeared to give him strength--a new and revivifying purpose-

-so that for a time he no longer staggered; but went forward steadily with head

erect. Once he stumbled and fell, and when he tried to rise he found that he

could not--that his strength was so far gone that he could only crawl forward on

his hands and knees for a few yards and then sink down again to rest.

It was during one of these frequent periods of utter exhaustion that he heard the

flap of dismal wings close above him. With his remaining strength he turned

himself over on his back to see Ska wheel quickly upward. With the sight

Tarzan's mind cleared for a while.

"Is the end so near as that?" he thought. "Does Ska know that I am so near gone

that he dares come down and perch upon my carcass?" And even then a grim

smile touched those swollen lips as into the savage mind came a sudden thought-

the cunning of the wild beast at bay. Closing his eyes he threw a forearm across

them to protect them from Ska's powerful beak and then he lay very still and

waited.

It was restful lying there, for the sun was now obscured by clouds and Tarzan

was very tired. He feared that he might sleep and something told him that if he

did he would never awaken, and so he concentrated all his remaining powers

upon the one thought of remaining awake. Not a muscle moved-to Ska, circling

above, it became evident that the end had come--that at last he should be

rewarded for his long vigil.

Circling slowly he dropped closer and closer to the dying man. Why did not

Tarzan move? Had he indeed been overcome by the sleep of exhaustion, or was

Ska right--had death at last claimed that mighty body? Was that great, savage

heart stilled forever? It is unthinkable.

Tarzan the Untamed