to follow him; but Tibo
only clung tightly to the bole of the tree and wept. Being a boy, and
a native African, he had, of course, climbed into trees many times
before this; but the idea of racing off through the forest, leaping
from one branch to another, as his captor, to his horror, had done when
he had carried Tibo away from his mother, filled his childish heart
with terror.

Tarzan sighed. His newly acquired balu had much indeed to learn. It
was pitiful that a balu of his size and strength should be so backward.
He tried to coax Tibo to follow him; but the child dared not, so Tarzan
picked him up and carried him upon his back. Tibo no longer scratched
or bit. Escape seemed impossible. Even now, were he set upon the
ground, the chance was remote, he knew, that he could find his way back
to the village of Mbonga, the chief. Even if he could, there were the
lions and the leopards and the hyenas, any one of which, as Tibo was
well aware, was particularly fond of the meat of little black boys.

So far the terrible white god of the jungle had offered him no harm.
He could not expect even this much consideration from the frightful,
green-eyed man-eaters. It would be the lesser of two evils, then, to
let the white god carry him away without scratching and biting, as he
had done at first.

As Tarzan swung rapidly through the trees, little Tibo closed his eyes
in terror rather than look longer down into the frightful abysses
beneath. Never before in all his life had Tibo been so frightened, yet
as the white giant sped on with him through the forest there stole over
the child an inexplicable sensation of security as he saw how true were
the leaps of the ape-man, how unerring his grasp upon the swaying limbs
which gave him hand-hold, and then, too, there was safety in the middle
terraces of the forest, far above the reach of the dreaded lions.

And so Tarzan came to the clearing where the tribe fed, dropping among
them with his new balu clinging tightly to his shoulders. He was
fairly in the midst of them before Tibo spied a single one of the great
hairy forms, or before the apes realized that Tarzan was not alone.
When they saw the little Gomangani perched upon his back some of them
came forward in curiosity with upcurled lips and snarling mien.

An hour before little Tibo would have said that he knew the uttermost
depths of fear; but now, as he saw these fearsome beasts surrounding
him, he realized that all th