the lion, eyed the pair hungrily
and licked his chops.

Tarzan, entering the tent of Achmet Zek, searched the interior
thoroughly. He tore the bed to pieces and scattered the contents of
box and bag about the floor. He investigated whatever his eyes
discovered, nor did those keen organs overlook a single article within
the habitation of the raider chief; but no pouch or pretty pebbles
rewarded his thoroughness.

Satisfied at last that his belongings were not in the possession of
Achmet Zek, unless they were on the person of the chief himself, Tarzan
decided to secure the person of the she before further prosecuting his
search for the pouch.

Motioning for Chulk to follow him, he passed out of the tent by the
same way that he had entered it, and walking boldly through the
village, made directly for the hut where Jane Clayton had been
imprisoned.

He noted with surprise the absence of Taglat, whom he had expected to
find awaiting him outside the tent of Achmet Zek; but, accustomed as he
was to the unreliability of apes, he gave no serious attention to the
present defection of his surly companion. So long as Taglat did not
cause interference with his plans, Tarzan was indifferent to his
absence.

As he approached the hut, the ape-man noticed that a crowd had
collected about the entrance. He could see that the men who composed
it were much excited, and fearing lest Chulk's disguise should prove
inadequate to the concealment of his true identity in the face of so
many observers, he commanded the ape to betake himself to the far end
of the village, and there await him.

As Chulk waddled off, keeping to the shadows, Tarzan advanced boldly
toward the excited group before the doorway of the hut. He mingled
with the blacks and the Arabs in an endeavor to learn the cause of the
commotion, in his interest forgetting that he alone of the assemblage
carried a spear, a bow and arrows, and thus might become an object of
suspicious attention.

Shouldering his way through the crowd he approached the doorway, and
had almost reached it when one of the Arabs laid a hand upon his
shoulder, crying: "Who is this?" at the same time snatching back the
hood from the ape-man's face.

Tarzan of the Apes in all his savage life had never been accustomed to
pause in argument with an antagonist. The primitive instinct of
self-preservation acknowledges many arts and wiles; but argument is not
one of them, nor did he now waste preciou