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of verdure which lined the river's bank, then he melted away up-stream before

any of those in the canoe discovered him.

Like a deer he bounded along the narrow trail until, filled with the excitement of

his news, he burst into a native village several miles above the point at which

Tarzan and his pack had stopped to hunt.

"Another white man is coming!" he cried to the chief who squatted before the

entrance to his circular hut. "Another white man, and with him are many

warriors. They come in a great war-canoe to kill and rob as did the black-

bearded one who has just left us."

Kaviri leaped to his feet. He had but recently had a taste of the white man's

medicine, and his savage heart was filled with bitterness and hate. In another

moment the rumble of the war-drums rose from the village, calling in the hunters

from the forest and the tillers from the fields.

Seven war-canoes were launched and manned by paint-daubed, befeathered

warriors. Long spears bristled from the rude battle-ships, as they slid noiselessly

over the bosom of the water, propelled by giant muscles rolling beneath

glistening, ebony hides.

There was no beating of tom-toms now, nor blare of native horn, for Kaviri was a

crafty warrior, and it was in his mind to take no chances, if they could be

avoided. He would swoop noiselessly down with his seven canoes upon the single

one of the white man, and before the guns of the latter could inflict much damage

upon his people he would have overwhelmed the enemy by force of numbers.

Kaviri's own canoe went in advance of the others a short distance, and as it

rounded a sharp bend in the river where the swift current bore it rapidly on its

way it came suddenly upon the thing that Kaviri sought.

So close were the two canoes to one another that the black had only an

opportunity to note the white face in the bow of the oncoming craft before the two

touched and his own men were upon their feet, yelling like mad devils and

thrusting their long spears at the occupants of the other canoe.

But a moment later, when Kaviri was able to realize the nature of the crew that

manned the white man's dugout, he would have given all the beads and iron wire

that he possessed to have been safely within his distant village. Scarcely had the

two craft come together than the frightful apes of Akut rose, growling and

barking, from the bottom of the canoe, and, with long, hairy arms far

outstretched, grasped the menacing spears from the hands of Kaviri's warriors.

The Beasts of Tarzan