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"Yes," she exclaimed. "They certainly would. No man of my race would leave a

defenseless white woman alone in this horrible place."

Tarzan shrugged his broad shoulders. The conversation seemed profitless and it

was further distasteful to him for the reason that it was carried on in German, a

tongue which he detested as much as he did the people who spoke it. He wished

that the girl spoke English and then it occurred to him that as he had seen her in

disguise in the British camp carrying on her nefarious work as a German spy, she

probably did speak English and so he asked her.

Of course I speak English," she exclaimed, "but I did not know that you did."

Tarzan looked his wonderment but made no comment. He only wondered why the

girl should have any doubts as to the ability of an Englishman to speak English,

and then suddenly it occurred to him that she probably looked upon him merely

as a beast of the jungle who by accident had learned to speak German through

frequenting the district which Germany had colonized. It was there only that she

had seen him and so she might not know that he was an Englishman by birth,

and that he had had a home in British East Africa. It was as well, he thought,

that she knew little of him, as the less she knew the more he might learn from

her as to her activities in behalf of the Germans and of the German spy system of

which she was a representative; and so it occurred to him to let her continue to

think that he was only what he appeared to be--a savage denizen of his savage

jungle, a man of no race and no country, hating all white men impartially; and

this in truth, was what she did think of him. It explained perfectly his attacks

upon Major Schneider and the Major's brother, Hauptmann Fritz.

Again they worked on in silence upon the boma which was now nearly completed,

the girl helping the man to the best of her small ability. Tarzan could not but note

with grudging approval the spirit of helpfulness she manifested in the oft-times

painful labor of gathering and arranging the thorn bushes which constituted the

temporary protection against roaming carnivores. Her hands and arms gave

bloody token of the sharpness of the numerous points that had lacerated her soft

flesh, and even though she were an enemy Tarzan could not but feel compunction

that he had permitted her to do this work, and at last he bade her stop.

"Why?" she asked. "It is no more painful to me than it must be to you, and, as it

is solely for my protection that you are building this boma, there is no reason why

I should not do my share."

"You are a woman," replied Tarzan. "This is not a woman's work. If you wish to do

something, take those gourds I brought this morning and fill them with water at

the river. You may need it while I am away."

Tarzan the Untamed