in astonishment. "What do you mean?" she
asked.

"I do not like to tell," said the Englishman, digging nervously at
the turf with the point of a stick, "but you have my word that he
would rather you were not here."

"Tell me what he said," she insisted, "I have a right to know."

Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick squared his shoulders and raised his eyes
to those of the girl. "He said that he hated you," he blurted. "He
has only aided you at all from a sense of duty because you are a
woman."

The girl paled and then flushed. "I will be ready to go," she said,
"in just a moment. We had better take some of this meat with us.
There is no telling when we will be able to get more."

And so the two set out down the river toward the south. The man
carried the short spear that Tarzan had left with the girl, while
she was entirely unarmed except for a stick she had picked up from
among those left after the building of the hut. Before departing
she had insisted that the man leave a note for Tarzan thanking him
for his care of them and bidding him goodbye. This they left pinned
to the inside wall of the hut with a little sliver of wood.

It was necessary that they be constantly on the alert since they
never knew what might confront them at the next turn of the winding
jungle trail or what might lie concealed in the tangled bushes at
either side. There was also the ever-present danger of meeting some
of Numabo's black warriors and as the village lay directly in their
line of march, there was the necessity for making a wide detour
before they reached it in order to pass around it without being
discovered.

"I am not so much afraid of the native blacks," said the girl, "as
I am of Usanga and his people. He and his men were all attached
to a German native regiment. They brought me along with them when
they deserted, either with the intention of holding me ransom or
selling me into the harem of one of the black sultans of the north.
Usanga is much more to be feared than Numabo for he has had the
advantage of European military training and is armed with more or
less modern weapons and ammunition."

"It is lucky for me," remarked the Englishman, "that it was the
ignorant Numabo who discovered and captured me rather than the
worldly wise Usanga. He would have felt less fear of the giant
flying machine and would have known only too well how to wreck it."

"Let us pray that the black sergeant has not discovered it," said
the girl.