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After several hours of questioning and cross-questioning the ape-man learned

that another party had preceded the Russian by several days--three whites--a

man, a woman, and a little man-child, with several Mosulas.

Tarzan explained to the chief that his people would follow him in a canoe,

probably the next day, and that though he might go on ahead of them the chief

was to receive them kindly and have no fear of them, for Mugambi would see that

they did not harm the chief's people, if they were accorded a friendly reception.

"And now," he concluded, "I shall lie down beneath this tree and sleep. I am very

tired. Permit no one to disturb me."

The chief offered him a hut, but Tarzan, from past experience of native dwellings,

preferred the open air, and, further, he had plans of his own that could be better

carried out if he remained beneath the tree. He gave as his reason a desire to be

close at hand should Sheeta return, and after this explanation the chief was very

glad to permit him to sleep beneath the tree.

Tarzan had always found that it stood him in good stead to leave with natives the

impression that he was to some extent possessed of more or less miraculous

powers. He might easily have entered their village without recourse to the gates,

but he believed that a sudden and unaccountable disappearance when he was

ready to leave them would result in a more lasting impression upon their childlike

minds, and so as soon as the village was quiet in sleep he rose, and, leaping into

the branches of the tree above him, faded silently into the black mystery of the

jungle night.

All the balance of that night the ape-man swung rapidly through the upper and

middle terraces of the forest. When the going was good there he preferred the

upper branches of the giant trees, for then his way was better lighted by the

moon; but so accustomed were all his senses to the grim world of his birth that it

was possible for him, even in the dense, black shadows near the ground, to move

with ease and rapidity. You or I walking beneath the arcs of Main Street, or

Broadway, or State Street, could not have moved more surely or with a tenth the

speed of the agile ape-man through the gloomy mazes that would have baffled us

entirely.

At dawn he stopped to feed, and then he slept for several hours, taking up the

pursuit again toward noon.

Twice he came upon natives, and, though he had considerable difficulty in

approaching them, he succeeded in each instance in quieting both their fears and

bellicose intentions toward him, and learned from them that he was upon the

trail of the Russian.

The Beasts of Tarzan