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The blacks were overcome with terror, but there was nothing to do other than to
fight. Now came the other war-canoes rapidly down upon the two craft. Their
occupants were eager to join the battle, for they thought that their foes were
white men and their native porters.
They swarmed about Tarzan's craft; but when they saw the nature of the enemy
all but one turned and paddled swiftly up-river. That one came too close to the
ape-man's craft before its occupants realized that their fellows were pitted against
demons instead of men. As it touched Tarzan spoke a few low words to Sheeta
and Akut, so that before the attacking warriors could draw away there sprang
upon them with a blood-freezing scream a huge panther, and into the other end
of their canoe clambered a great ape.
At one end the panther wrought fearful havoc with his mighty talons and long,
sharp fangs, while Akut at the other buried his yellow canines in the necks of
those that came within his reach, hurling the terror-stricken blacks overboard as
he made his way toward the centre of the canoe.
Kaviri was so busily engaged with the demons that had entered his own craft that
he could offer no assistance to his warriors in the other. A giant of a white devil
had wrested his spear from him as though he, the mighty Kaviri, had been but a
new-born babe. Hairy monsters were overcoming his fighting men, and a black
chieftain like himself was fighting shoulder to shoulder with the hideous pack
that opposed him.
Kaviri battled bravely against his antagonist, for he felt that death had already
claimed him, and so the least that he could do would be to sell his life as dearly
as possible; but it was soon evident that his best was quite futile when pitted
against the superhuman brawn and agility of the creature that at last found his
throat and bent him back into the bottom of the canoe.
Presently Kaviri's head began to whirl--objects became confused and dim before
his eyes--there was a great pain in his chest as he struggled for the breath of life
that the thing upon him was shutting off for ever. Then he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes once more he found, much to his surprise, that he was
not dead. He lay, securely bound, in the bottom of his own canoe. A great
panther sat upon its haunches, looking down upon him.
Kaviri shuddered and closed his eyes again, waiting for the ferocious creature to
spring upon him and put him out of his misery of terror.
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