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Akut thought of the creaking sound he had heard just before Molak's thick neck

had snapped, and he shuddered.

He hated to give up the kingship, though, so again he struggled to free himself;

but a sudden torturing pressure upon his vertebra brought an agonized "ka-

goda!" from his lips.

Tarzan relaxed his grip a trifle.

"You may still be king, Akut," he said. "Tarzan told you that he did not wish to be

king. If any question your right, Tarzan of the Apes will help you in your battles."

The ape-man rose, and Akut came slowly to his feet. Shaking his bullet head

and growling angrily, he waddled toward his tribe, looking first at one and then at

another of the larger bulls who might be expected to challenge his leadership.

But none did so; instead, they drew away as he approached, and presently the

whole pack moved off into the jungle, and Tarzan was left alone once more upon

the beach.

The ape-man was sore from the wounds that Molak had inflicted upon him, but

he was inured to physical suffering and endured it with the calm and fortitude of

the wild beasts that had taught him to lead the jungle life after the manner of all

those that are born to it.

His first need, he realized, was for weapons of offence and defence, for his

encounter with the apes, and the distant notes of the savage voices of Numa the

lion, and Sheeta, the panther, warned him that his was to be no life of indolent

ease and security.

It was but a return to the old existence of constant bloodshed and danger--to the

hunting and the being hunted. Grim beasts would stalk him, as they had stalked

him in the past, and never would there be a moment, by savage day or by cruel

night, that he might not have instant need of such crude weapons as he could

fashion from the materials at hand.

Upon the shore he found an out-cropping of brittle, igneous rock. By dint of

much labour he managed to chip off a narrow sliver some twelve inches long by a

quarter of an inch thick. One edge was quite thin for a few inches near the tip. It

was the rudiment of a knife.

With it he went into the jungle, searching until he found a fallen tree of a certain

species of hardwood with which he was familiar. From this he cut a small

straight branch, which he pointed at one end.

The Beasts of Tarzan