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Ska, filled with suspicions, circled warily. Twice he almost alighted upon the

great, naked breast only to wheel suddenly away; but the third time his talons

touched the brown skin. It was as though the contact closed an electric circuit

that instantaneously vitalized the quiet clod that had lain motionless so long. A

brown hand swept downward from the brown forehead and before Ska could raise

a wing in flight he was in the clutches of his intended victim.

Ska fought, but he was no match for even a dying Tarzan, and a moment later the

ape-man's teeth closed upon the carrion-eater. The flesh was coarse and tough

and gave off an unpleasant odor and a worse taste; but it was food and the blood

was drink and Tarzan only an ape at heart and a dying ape into the bargain--

dying of starvation and thirst.

Even mentally weakened as he was the ape-man was still master of his appetite

and so he ate but sparingly, saving the rest, and then, feeling that he now could

do so safely, he turned upon his side and slept.

Rain, beating heavily upon his body, awakened him and sitting up he cupped his

hands and caught the precious drops which he transferred to his parched throat.

Only a little he got at a time; but that was best. The few mouthfuls of Ska that he

had eaten, together with the blood and rain water and the sleep had refreshed

him greatly and put new strength into his tired muscles.

Now he could see the hills again and they were close and, though there was no

sun, the world looked bright and cheerful, for Tarzan knew that he was saved.

The bird that would have devoured him, and the providential rain, had saved him

at the very moment that death seemed inevitable.

Again partaking of a few mouthfuls of the unsavory flesh of Ska, the vulture, the

ape-man arose with something of his old force and set out with steady gait toward

the hills of promise rising alluringly ahead. Darkness fell before he reached them;

but he kept on until he felt the steeply rising ground that proclaimed his arrival

at the base of the hills proper, and then he lay down and waited until morning

should reveal the easiest passage to the land beyond. The rain had ceased, but

the sky still was overcast so that even his keen eyes could not penetrate the

darkness farther than a few feet. And there he slept, after eating again of what

remained of Ska, until the morning sun awakened him with a new sense of

strength and well-being.

And so at last he came through the hills out of the valley of death into a land of

park-like beauty, rich in game. Below him lay a deep valley through the center of

which dense jungle vegetation marked the course of a river beyond which a

primeval forest extended for miles to terminate at last at the foot of lofty, snow-

Tarzan the Untamed