is eyes for some indication of the
whereabouts of the prisoner. His view was circumscribed by the
dense foliage of the tree in which he sat, and, so that he might
obtain a better view, he climbed further aloft and moved cautiously
out upon a slender branch.

Tarzan of the Apes possessed a woodcraft scarcely short of the
marvelous but even Tarzan's wondrous senses were not infallible.
The branch upon which he made his way outward from the bole was no
smaller than many that had borne his weight upon countless other
occasions. Outwardly it appeared strong and healthy and was in full
foliage, nor could Tarzan know that close to the stem a burrowing
insect had eaten away half the heart of the solid wood beneath the
bark.

And so when he reached a point far out upon the limb, it snapped
close to the bole of the tree without warning. Below him were no
larger branches that he might clutch and as he lunged downward his
foot caught in a looped creeper so that he turned completely over
and alighted on the flat of his back in the center of the village
street.

At the sound of the breaking limb and the crashing body falling
through the branches the startled blacks scurried to their huts
for weapons, and when the braver of them emerged, they saw the
still form of an almost naked white man lying where he had fallen.
Emboldened by the fact that he did not move they approached more
closely, and when their eyes discovered no signs of others of his
kind in the tree, they rushed forward until a dozen warriors stood
about him with ready spears. At first they thought that the falling
had killed him, but upon closer examination they discovered that
the man was only stunned. One of the warriors was for thrusting a
spear through his heart, but Numabo, the chief, would not permit
it.

"Bind him," he said. "We will feed well tonight."

And so they bound his hands and feet with thongs of gut and carried
him into the hut where Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick awaited
his fate. The Englishman had also been bound hand and foot by this
time for fear that at the last moment he might escape and rob them
of their feast. A great crowd of natives were gathered about the
hut attempting to get a glimpse of the new prisoner, but Numabo
doubled the guard before the entrance for fear that some of his
people, in the exuberance of their savage joy, might rob the others
of the pleasures of the death dance which would precede the killing
of the victi