fety in the trees beyond the clearing, nor had Tarzan any mind
to delay his journey because of Buto. He had met the stupid beast
before and held him in fine contempt.

And now Buto was upon him, the massive head lowered and the long, heavy
horn inclined for the frightful work for which nature had designed it;
but as he struck upward, his weapon raked only thin air, for the
ape-man had sprung lightly aloft with a catlike leap that carried him
above the threatening horn to the broad back of the rhinoceros.
Another spring and he was on the ground behind the brute and racing
like a deer for the trees.

Buto, angered and mystified by the strange disappearance of his prey,
wheeled and charged frantically in another direction, which chanced to
be not the direction of Tarzan's flight, and so the ape-man came in
safety to the trees and continued on his swift way through the forest.

Some distance ahead of him Tantor moved steadily along the well-worn
elephant trail, and ahead of Tantor a crouching, black warrior listened
intently in the middle of the path. Presently he heard the sound for
which he had been hoping--the cracking, snapping sound which heralded
the approach of an elephant.

To his right and left in other parts of the jungle other warriors were
watching. A low signal, passed from one to another, apprised the most
distant that the quarry was afoot. Rapidly they converged toward the
trail, taking positions in trees down wind from the point at which
Tantor must pass them. Silently they waited and presently were
rewarded by the sight of a mighty tusker carrying an amount of ivory in
his long tusks that set their greedy hearts to palpitating.

No sooner had he passed their positions than the warriors clambered
from their perches. No longer were they silent, but instead clapped
their hands and shouted as they reached the ground. For an instant
Tantor, the elephant, paused with upraised trunk and tail, with great
ears up-pricked, and then he swung on along the trail at a rapid,
shuffling pace--straight toward the covered pit with its sharpened
stakes upstanding in the ground.

Behind him came the yelling warriors, urging him on in the rapid flight
which would not permit a careful examination of the ground before him.
Tantor, the elephant, who could have turned and scattered his
adversaries with a single charge, fled like a frightened deer--fled
toward a hideous, torturing death.

And behind them all came Tarz