avage

The noise of their battle with Numa had drawn an excited horde of
savages from the nearby village, and a moment after the lion's death
the two men were surrounded by lithe, ebon warriors, gesticulating and
jabbering--a thousand questions that drowned each ventured reply.

And then the women came, and the children--eager, curious, and, at
sight of Tarzan, more questioning than ever. The ape-man's new friend
finally succeeded in making himself heard, and when he had done talking
the men and women of the village vied with one another in doing honor
to the strange creature who had saved their fellow and battled
single-handed with fierce Numa.

At last they led him back to their village, where they brought him
gifts of fowl, and goats, and cooked food. When he pointed to their
weapons the warriors hastened to fetch spear, shield, arrows, and a
bow. His friend of the encounter presented him with the knife with
which he had killed Numa. There was nothing in all the village he
could not have had for the asking.

How much easier this was, thought Tarzan, than murder and robbery to
supply his wants. How close he had been to killing this man whom he
never had seen before, and who now was manifesting by every primitive
means at his command friendship and affection for his would-be slayer.
Tarzan of the Apes was ashamed. Hereafter he would at least wait until
he knew men deserved it before he thought of killing them.

The idea recalled Rokoff to his mind. He wished that he might have the
Russian to himself in the dark jungle for a few minutes. There was a
man who deserved killing if ever any one did. And if he could have
seen Rokoff at that moment as he assiduously bent every endeavor to the
pleasant task of ingratiating himself into the affections of the
beautiful Miss Strong, he would have longed more than ever to mete out
to the man the fate he deserved.

Tarzan's first night with the savages was devoted to a wild orgy in his
honor. There was feasting, for the hunters had brought in an antelope
and a zebra as trophies of their skill, and gallons of the weak native
beer were consumed. As the warriors danced in the firelight, Tarzan
was again impressed by the symmetry of their figures and the regularity
of their features--the flat noses and thick lips of the typical West
Coast savage were entirely missing. In repose the faces of the men
were intelligent and dignified, those of the women ofttimes
preposse