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stone, rose and fell in mighty blows upon the panther's side behind the left

shoulder.

Akut had just time to leap to one side to avoid being pinioned beneath these

battling monsters of the jungle.

With a crash they came to earth at his feet. Sheeta was screaming, snarling, and

roaring horribly; but the white ape clung tenaciously and in silence to the

thrashing body of his quarry.

Steadily and remorselessly the stone knife was driven home through the glossy

hide--time and again it drank deep, until with a final agonized lunge and shriek

the great feline rolled over upon its side and, save for the spasmodic jerking of its

muscles, lay quiet and still in death.

Then the ape-man raised his head, as he stood over the carcass of his kill, and

once again through the jungle rang his wild and savage victory challenge.

Akut and the apes of Akut stood looking in startled wonder at the dead body of

Sheeta and the lithe, straight figure of the man who had slain him.

Tarzan was the first to speak.

He had saved Akut's life for a purpose, and, knowing the limitations of the ape

intellect, he also knew that he must make this purpose plain to the anthropoid if

it were to serve him in the way he hoped.

"I am Tarzan of the Apes," he said, "Mighty hunter. Mighty fighter. By the great

water I spared Akut's life when I might have taken it and become king of the tribe

of Akut. Now I have saved Akut from death beneath the rending fangs of Sheeta.

"When Akut or the tribe of Akut is in danger, let them call to Tarzan thus"--and

the ape-man raised the hideous cry with which the tribe of Kerchak had been

wont to summon its absent members in times of peril.

"And," he continued, "when they hear Tarzan call to them, let them remember

what he has done for Akut and come to him with great speed. Shall it be as

Tarzan says?"

Huh!" assented Akut, and from the members of his tribe there rose a unanimous

Huh."

Then, presently, they went to feeding again as though nothing had happened, and

with them fed John Clayton, Lord Greystoke.

The Beasts of Tarzan