ms.

The young Englishman had heard the sound of Tarzan's body crashing
through the tree to the ground and the commotion in the village
which immediately followed, and now, as he stood with his back
against the wall of the hut, he looked upon the fellow-prisoner that
the blacks carried in and laid upon the floor with mixed feelings
of surprise and compassion. He realized that he never had seen
a more perfect specimen of manhood than that of the unconscious
figure before him, and he wondered to what sad circumstances the
man owed his capture. It was evident that the new prisoner was
himself as much a savage as his captors if apparel and weapons were
any criterion by which to judge; yet it was also equally evident
that he was a white man and from his well-shaped head and clean-cut
features that he was not one of those unhappy halfwits who so often
revert to savagery even in the heart of civilized communities.

As he watched the man, he presently noticed that his eyelids were
moving. Slowly they opened and a pair of gray eyes looked blankly
about. With returning consciousness the eyes assumed their natural
expression of keen intelligence, and a moment later, with an
effort, the prisoner rolled over upon his side and drew himself to
a sitting position. He was facing the Englishman, and as his eyes
took in the bound ankles and the arms drawn tightly behind the
other's back, a slow smile lighted his features.

"They will fill their bellies tonight," he said.

The Englishman grinned. "From the fuss they made," he said, "the
beggars must be awfully hungry. They like to have eaten me alive
when they brought me in. How did they get you?"

Tarzan shrugged his head ruefully. "It was my own fault," he
replied. "I deserve to be eaten. I crawled out upon a branch that
would not bear my weight and when it broke, instead of alighting
on my feet, I caught my foot in a trailer and came down on my head.
Otherwise they would not have taken me--alive."

"Is there no escape?" asked the Englishman.

"I have escaped them before," replied Tarzan, "and I have seen
others escape them. I have seen a man taken away from the stake
after a dozen spear thrusts had pierced his body and the fire had
been lighted about his feet."

Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick shuddered. "God!" he exclaimed, "I hope I
don't have to face that. I believe I could stand anything but the
thought of the fire. I should hate like the devil to go into a funk
before the devi