The Beasts of Tarzan

nce of

n utter silence upon its soft padded feet. Only two blazing points of yellow-green flame shone occasionally with the

nto the branches above delayed it momentarily in its steady journey toward the east. To its sensitive nostrils came th

cravings of appetite that at another time would have sent

alted only to make a single kill, which it tore to fragments and devoured

death it circled the village, nose to ground, halting at last close to the palisade, where it almost touched the backs of

beast a message seemed to be borne to the savage brain. A wondrous transformation was wrought in the motionles

kly and silently to the top of the palisade, disappearing, stealthily and ca

r. About a stout stake near the centre of the circling fires a little knot of black warriors stood conversing, their bodies smeared with white and blue and ochre in broad and grotesque

e side of the scene of the coming orgy the bound victim of th

pinioned him; but they had been re-enforced many times at the instigation o

at

ile again tonight when he knew the end was coming quickly; but now his thoughts were not

ankful also that she at least was safe in the heart of the world's greatest city.

the

only one in all the world fitted to find and save the child from the horrors that Rokoff's evil mind had planned-had been

during the afternoon; but he had been able to wring no word of

st before the savage spears of the cannibals should for ever make the object of his hatred immune to further suffe

r the torture and the feast. The dance of death he could picture in his mind's eye-for he had

fering and to the sight of blood and to cruel death; but the desire to live was no less strong within him, and until the last spark of life should flicker and go out, his whole being would

ars caught the sound of the soundless presence without-behind the hut wherein he lay. His lips moved, and though no sound came forth that might have been appreciable to a human ear beyond the walls of his prison, yet

ter wall behind the hut and then a tearing at the poles which formed the wall. Presently t

eeta, the

nd so Tarzan could not be sure that Sheeta understood all that he attempted to communicate to him. That the man was tied and helpless Sheeta could, of

ish; but when Tarzan tried to get Sheeta to gnaw his bonds asunder the great animal could not seem

growl and slunk into the blackness of a far corner. Evidently the visitor did not hear t

to it there leaped from the blackness of the hut's farthermost corner a bolt of fur-clad death. Full upon the breast of the p

was the hideous challenge of the killing panther. Then came silence-silence except

the village without. Then there came

er heard the approaching footsteps of many men, and then, to Tarzan's surprise, the great cat rose from acro

the top of the palisade, and then silence. From the opposite s

cat intended to defend him against all comers it would have r

certain death, and again how timid upon the slightest provocation. There was doubt in his mind that some note of the approaching blacks vibrating

hat might Sheeta have done for him other than to maul a couple of his enemies

ery different story; but it had proved beyond the understanding of Shee

ior. Two in advance held lighted torches in their left hands and ready spears in their

wrought mightily upon their poor nerves, and now the awful silence of the da

f the danger which menaced him from the silent interior. With a quick movement he flung his lighted torch into the centre of t

ey had last seen him, and in the centre of the hut another figure equ

within their superstitious breasts than would the presence of Sheeta, for

k to supernatural causes, and with the thought they turned, screaming, from the hut,

ce more attempting to work up their flickering courage to a point that would permit them to make another invasion of the

s not surprised to discover that neither of them was Rokoff. He would have wagered his soul tha

ed with terror as they looked upon the mutilated corpse of their comrade. The whites tried in vain to elicit an e

t Roko

e bloody thing grinning up at him from the floor, t

and finish this demon before he has an opportuni

arried to the stake; but it was several minutes before h

ed Tarzan roughly from the hut, and once outside the

down the village street and bound him to the post in the ce

nd the faintest hope of succour, Rokoff's shrivelled wart of cou

es, was the first to prod the helpless victim. A little stream of blood trickled down th

a volley of oaths he leaped at the helpless captive, beating him upon th

through the mighty heart, and still Tarzan

ome the chief sprang upon him and drag

this prisoner and our death-dance, and y

d a little apart and hurl taunts at his enemy. He told Tarzan that he himself was going to eat the ape-man's heart. He enlar

ne not even of decent birth, and far from the safety of London and the protection of her friends.

white man to die-let this word of the plight of your wife add to the torments that

s of the circling warriors drowned Rokoff

elight playing upon their painted bodie

the last moment before the final spear-thrust should have ended his sufferings. Who was there no

qualm of horror or disgust. It did not add to his sufferings as it would have to those of an ordinary

ape at that long-gone Dum-Dum, when he had slain the fierce T

spears were commencing to find his body in the first t

e-man longed for the last savage

mazes of the weird jung

rose from the lips of the fast-bound white man an answering shriek, more f

ce and the victim; but ere ever another spear touched the brown hide a tawny streak of green-eyed hate and ferocity bound

od transfixed with terror. Their eyes were r

at else there was emerging fro