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Mugambi's absence worried the ape-man not a little. He attempted to learn from

Akut what had become of the black, fearing that the beasts, freed from the

restraint of Tarzan's presence, might have fallen upon the man and devoured

him; but to all his questions the great ape but pointed back in the direction from

which they had come out of the jungle.

The night passed with Tarzan still fast bound to the stake, and shortly after dawn

his fears were realized in the discovery of naked black figures moving stealthily

just within the edge of the jungle about the village. The blacks were returning.

With daylight their courage would be equal to the demands of a charge upon the

handful of beasts that had routed them from their rightful abodes. The result of

the encounter seemed foregone if the savages could curb their superstitious

terror, for against their overwhelming numbers, their long spears and poisoned

arrows, the panther and the apes could not be expected to survive a really

determined attack.

That the blacks were preparing for a charge became apparent a few moments

later, when they commenced to show themselves in force upon the edge of the

clearing, dancing and jumping about as they waved their spears and shouted

taunts and fierce warcries toward the village.

These manoeuvres Tarzan knew would continue until the blacks had worked

themselves into a state of hysterical courage sufficient to sustain them for a short

charge toward the village, and even though he doubted that they would reach it

at the first attempt, he believed that at the second or the third they would swarm

through the gateway, when the outcome could not be aught than the

extermination of Tarzan's bold, but unarmed and undisciplined, defenders.

Even as he had guessed, the first charge carried the howling warriors but a short

distance into the open--a shrill, weird challenge from the ape-man being all that

was necessary to send them scurrying back to the bush. For half an hour they

pranced and yelled their courage to the sticking-point, and again essayed a

charge.

This time they came quite to the village gate, but when Sheeta and the hideous

apes leaped among them they turned screaming in terror, and again fled to the

jungle.

Again was the dancing and shouting repeated. This time Tarzan felt no doubt

they would enter the village and complete the work that a handful of determined

white men would have carried to a successful conclusion at the first attempt.

The Beasts of Tarzan