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realized that something was behind him. As he sprang to his feet the warriors

leaped toward him with raised clubs and savage yells, but the foremost went

down to sudden death beneath the long, stout stick of the ape-man, and then the

lithe, sinewy figure was among them, striking right and left with a fury, power,

and precision that brought panic to the ranks of the blacks.

For a moment they withdrew, those that were left of them, and consulted together

at a short distance from the ape-man, who stood with folded arms, a half-smile

upon his handsome face, watching them. Presently they advanced upon him

once more, this time wielding their heavy war-spears. They were between Tarzan

and the jungle, in a little semicircle that closed in upon him as they advanced.

There seemed to the ape-man but slight chance to escape the final charge when

all the great spears should be hurled simultaneously at him; but if he had desired

to escape there was no way other than through the ranks of the savages except

the open sea behind him.

His predicament was indeed most serious when an idea occurred to him that

altered his smile to a broad grin. The warriors were still some little distance

away, advancing slowly, making, after the manner of their kind, a frightful din

with their savage yells and the pounding of their naked feet upon the ground as

they leaped up and down in a fantastic war dance.

Then it was that the ape-man lifted his voice in a series of wild, weird screams

that brought the blacks to a sudden, perplexed halt. They looked at one another

questioningly, for here was a sound so hideous that their own frightful din faded

into insignificance beside it. No human throat could have formed those bestial

notes, they were sure, and yet with their own eyes they had seen this white man

open his mouth to pour forth his awful cry.

But only for a moment they hesitated, and then with one accord they again took

up their fantastic advance upon their prey; but even then a sudden crashing in

the jungle behind them brought them once more to a halt, and as they turned to

look in the direction of this new noise there broke upon their startled visions a

sight that may well have frozen the blood of braver men than the Wagambi.

Leaping from the tangled vegetation of the jungle's rim came a huge panther, with

blazing eyes and bared fangs, and in his wake a score of mighty, shaggy apes

lumbering rapidly toward them, half erect upon their short, bowed legs, and with

their long arms reaching to the ground, where their horny knuckles bore the

weight of their ponderous bodies as they lurched from side to side in their

grotesque advance.

The beasts of Tarzan had come in answer to his call.

The Beasts of Tarzan