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nameless waif, and lavished upon it all the love that had been denied her during

the long, bitter weeks of her captivity aboard the Kincaid.

She saw that the end was near, and though she was terrified at contemplation of

her loss, still she hoped that it would come quickly now and end the sufferings of

the little victim.

The footsteps she had heard without the hut now halted before the door. There

was a whispered colloquy, and a moment later M'ganwazam, chief of the tribe,

entered. She had seen but little of him, as the women had taken her in hand

almost as soon as she had entered the village.

M'ganwazam, she now saw, was an evil-appearing savage with every mark of

brutal degeneracy writ large upon his bestial countenance. To Jane Clayton he

looked more gorilla than human. He tried to converse with her, but without

success, and finally he called to some one without.

In answer to his summons another Negro entered--a man of very different

appearance from M'ganwazam--so different, in fact, that Jane Clayton

immediately decided that he was of another tribe. This man acted as interpreter,

and almost from the first question that M'ganwazam put to her, Jane felt an

intuitive conviction that the savage was attempting to draw information from her

for some ulterior motive.

She thought it strange that the fellow should so suddenly have become interested

in her plans, and especially in her intended destination when her journey had

been interrupted at his village.

Seeing no reason for withholding the information, she told him the truth; but

when he asked if she expected to meet her husband at the end of the trip, she

shook her head negatively.

Then he told her the purpose of his visit, talking through the interpreter.

"I have just learned," he said, "from some men who live by the side of the great

water, that your husband followed you up the Ugambi for several marches, when

he was at last set upon by natives and killed. Therefore I have told you this that

you might not waste your time in a long journey if you expected to meet your

husband at the end of it; but instead could turn and retrace your steps to the

coast."

Jane thanked M'ganwazam for his kindness, though her heart was numb with

suffering at this new blow. She who had suffered so much was at last beyond

The Beasts of Tarzan