edatory force
within the boundaries of his domain.

Almost immediately upon his return to the village Tarzan commenced
making preparations for leading an expedition in search of the ruined
city of gold which old Waziri had described to him. He selected fifty
of the sturdiest warriors of his tribe, choosing only men who seemed
anxious to accompany him on the arduous march, and share the dangers of
a new and hostile country.

The fabulous wealth of the fabled city had been almost constantly in
his mind since Waziri had recounted the strange adventures of the
former expedition which had stumbled upon the vast ruins by chance.
The lure of adventure may have been quite as powerful a factor in
urging Tarzan of the Apes to undertake the journey as the lure of gold,
but the lure of gold was there, too, for he had learned among civilized
men something of the miracles that may be wrought by the possessor of
the magic yellow metal. What he would do with a golden fortune in the
heart of savage Africa it had not occurred to him to consider--it would
be enough to possess the power to work wonders, even though he never
had an opportunity to employ it.

So one glorious tropical morning Waziri, chief of the Waziri, set out
at the head of fifty clean-limbed ebon warriors in quest of adventure
and of riches. They followed the course which old Waziri had described
to Tarzan. For days they marched--up one river, across a low divide;
down another river; up a third, until at the end of the twenty-fifth
day they camped upon a mountainside, from the summit of which they
hoped to catch their first view of the marvelous city of treasure.

Early the next morning they were climbing the almost perpendicular
crags which formed the last, but greatest, natural barrier between them
and their destination. It was nearly noon before Tarzan, who headed
the thin line of climbing warriors, scrambled over the top of the last
cliff and stood upon the little flat table-land of the mountaintop.

On either hand towered mighty peaks thousands of feet higher than the
pass through which they were entering the forbidden valley. Behind him
stretched the wooded valley across which they had marched for many
days, and at the opposite side the low range which marked the boundary
of their own country.

But before him was the view that centered his attention. Here lay a
desolate valley--a shallow, narrow valley dotted with stunted trees and
covered with many gr