ous jungle mates, and all the while
there battled in that same big heart with these forces another mighty
force--Tarzan's love and loyalty for his friends of the civilized
world.

The ape-man, reared as he had been by savage beasts amid savage
beasts, was slow to make friends. Acquaintances he numbered by the
hundreds; but of friends he had few. These few he would have died
for as, doubtless, they would have died for him; but there were
none of these fighting with the British forces in East Africa, and
so, sickened and disgusted by the sight of man waging his cruel
and inhuman warfare, Tarzan determined to heed the insistent call
of the remote jungle of his youth, for the Germans were now on the
run and the war in East Africa was so nearly over that he realized
that his further services would be of negligible value.

Never regularly sworn into the service of the King, he was under
no obligation to remain now that the moral obligation had been
removed, and so it was that he disappeared from the British camp
as mysteriously as he had appeared a few months before.

More than once had Tarzan reverted to the primitive only to return
again to civilization through love for his mate; but now that she
was gone he felt that this time he had definitely departed forever
from the haunts of man, and that he should live and die a beast
among beasts even as he had been from infancy to maturity.

Between him and destination lay a trackless wilderness of untouched
primeval savagery where, doubtless in many spots, his would be the
first human foot to touch the virgin turf. Nor did this prospect
dismay the Tarmangani--rather was it an urge and an inducement, for
rich in his veins flowed that noble strain of blood that has made
most of the earth's surface habitable for man.

The question of food and water that would have risen paramount in
the mind of an ordinary man contemplating such an excursion gave
Tarzan little concern. The wilderness was his natural habitat
and woodcraft as inherent to him as breathing. Like other jungle
animals he could scent water from a great distance and, where you
or I might die of thirst, the ape-man would unerringly select the
exact spot at which to dig and find water.

For several days Tarzan traversed a country rich in game
and watercourses. He moved slowly, hunting and fishing, or again
fraternizing or quarreling with the other savage denizens of
the jungle. Now it was little Manu, the monkey, who c