he might feast her eyes upon him.

Quickly she snatched the blanket from before the infant's face;
Anderssen was looking at her as she did so.

He saw her stagger to her feet, holding the baby at arm's length from
her, her eyes glued in horror upon the little chubby face and twinkling
eyes.

Then he heard her piteous cry as her knees gave beneath her, and she
sank to the ground in a swoon.

Chapter 10

The Swede

As the warriors, clustered thick about Tarzan and Sheeta, realized that
it was a flesh-and-blood panther that had interrupted their dance of
death, they took heart a trifle, for in the face of all those circling
spears even the mighty Sheeta would be doomed.

Rokoff was urging the chief to have his spearmen launch their missiles,
and the black was upon the instant of issuing the command, when his
eyes strayed beyond Tarzan, following the gaze of the ape-man.

With a yell of terror the chief turned and fled toward the village
gate, and as his people looked to see the cause of his fright, they too
took to their heels--for there, lumbering down upon them, their huge
forms exaggerated by the play of moonlight and camp fire, came the
hideous apes of Akut.

The instant the natives turned to flee the ape-man's savage cry rang
out above the shrieks of the blacks, and in answer to it Sheeta and the
apes leaped growling after the fugitives. Some of the warriors turned
to battle with their enraged antagonists, but before the fiendish
ferocity of the fierce beasts they went down to bloody death.

Others were dragged down in their flight, and it was not until the
village was empty and the last of the blacks had disappeared into the
bush that Tarzan was able to recall his savage pack to his side. Then
it was that he discovered to his chagrin that he could not make one of
them, not even the comparatively intelligent Akut, understand that he
wished to be freed from the bonds that held him to the stake.

In time, of course, the idea would filter through their thick skulls,
but in the meanwhile many things might happen--the blacks might return
in force to regain their village; the whites might readily pick them
all off with their rifles from the surrounding trees; he might even
starve to death before the dull-witted apes realized that he wished
them to gnaw through his bonds.

As for Sheeta--the great cat understood even less than the apes; but
yet Tarzan could not but marvel at the remarkable character