d Akut, while
between Akut and Tarzan the twelve hairy apes sat upon their haunches,
blinking dubiously this way and that, and now and then turning their
eyes longingly back toward shore.

All went well until the canoe had passed beyond the reef. Here the
breeze struck the sail, sending the rude craft lunging among the waves
that ran higher and higher as they drew away from the shore.

With the tossing of the boat the apes became panic-stricken. They
first moved uneasily about, and then commenced grumbling and whining.
With difficulty Akut kept them in hand for a time; but when a
particularly large wave struck the dugout simultaneously with a little
squall of wind their terror broke all bounds, and, leaping to their
feet, they all but overturned the boat before Akut and Tarzan together
could quiet them. At last calm was restored, and eventually the apes
became accustomed to the strange antics of their craft, after which no
more trouble was experienced with them.

The trip was uneventful, the wind held, and after ten hours' steady
sailing the black shadows of the coast loomed close before the
straining eyes of the ape-man in the bow. It was far too dark to
distinguish whether they had approached close to the mouth of the
Ugambi or not, so Tarzan ran in through the surf at the closest point
to await the dawn.

The dugout turned broadside the instant that its nose touched the sand,
and immediately it rolled over, with all its crew scrambling madly for
the shore. The next breaker rolled them over and over, but eventually
they all succeeded in crawling to safety, and in a moment more their
ungainly craft had been washed up beside them.

The balance of the night the apes sat huddled close to one another for
warmth; while Mugambi built a fire close to them over which he
crouched. Tarzan and Sheeta, however, were of a different mind, for
neither of them feared the jungle night, and the insistent craving of
their hunger sent them off into the Stygian blackness of the forest in
search of prey.

Side by side they walked when there was room for two abreast. At other
times in single file, first one and then the other in advance. It was
Tarzan who first caught the scent of meat--a bull buffalo--and
presently the two came stealthily upon the sleeping beast in the midst
of a dense jungle of reeds close to a river.

Closer and closer they crept toward the unsuspecting beast, Sheeta upon
his right side and Tarzan upon h