rounding the huge cat precluded the possibility of an accurate throw
with the rope.

Akut had now wandered quite close beneath the tree wherein lay the
waiting death. Sheeta slowly edged his hind paws along the branch
still further beneath him, and then with a hideous shriek he launched
himself toward the great ape. The barest fraction of a second before
his spring another beast of prey above him leaped, its weird and savage
cry mingling with his.

As the startled Akut looked up he saw the panther almost above him, and
already upon the panther's back the white ape that had bested him that
day near the great water.

The teeth of the ape-man were buried in the back of Sheeta's neck and
his right arm was round the fierce throat, while the left hand,
grasping a slender piece of stone, rose and fell in mighty blows upon
the panther's side behind the left shoulder.

Akut had just time to leap to one side to avoid being pinioned beneath
these battling monsters of the jungle.

With a crash they came to earth at his feet. Sheeta was screaming,
snarling, and roaring horribly; but the white ape clung tenaciously and
in silence to the thrashing body of his quarry.

Steadily and remorselessly the stone knife was driven home through the
glossy hide--time and again it drank deep, until with a final agonized
lunge and shriek the great feline rolled over upon its side and, save
for the spasmodic jerking of its muscles, lay quiet and still in death.

Then the ape-man raised his head, as he stood over the carcass of his
kill, and once again through the jungle rang his wild and savage
victory challenge.

Akut and the apes of Akut stood looking in startled wonder at the dead
body of Sheeta and the lithe, straight figure of the man who had slain
him.

Tarzan was the first to speak.

He had saved Akut's life for a purpose, and, knowing the limitations of
the ape intellect, he also knew that he must make this purpose plain to
the anthropoid if it were to serve him in the way he hoped.

"I am Tarzan of the Apes," he said, "Mighty hunter. Mighty fighter.
By the great water I spared Akut's life when I might have taken it and
become king of the tribe of Akut. Now I have saved Akut from death
beneath the rending fangs of Sheeta.

"When Akut or the tribe of Akut is in danger, let them call to Tarzan
thus"--and the ape-man raised the hideous cry with which the tribe of
Kerchak had been wont to summon its absent members in times o