a wilderness.

The Russian, following his usual custom, berated his companions, laying
all the blame upon their shoulders for the events which had led up to
the almost hopeless condition in which they now found themselves; but
the sailors were in no mood to brook his insults and his cursing.

In the midst of this tirade one of them drew a revolver and fired
point-blank at the Russian. The fellow's aim was poor, but his act so
terrified Rokoff that he turned and fled for his tent.

As he ran his eyes chanced to pass beyond the boma to the edge of the
forest, and there he caught a glimpse of that which sent his craven
heart cold with a fear that almost expunged his terror of the seven men
at his back, who by this time were all firing in hate and revenge at
his retreating figure.

What he saw was the giant figure of an almost naked white man emerging
from the bush.

Darting into his tent, the Russian did not halt in his flight, but kept
right on through the rear wall, taking advantage of the long slit that
Jane Clayton had made the night before.

The terror-stricken Muscovite scurried like a hunted rabbit through the
hole that still gaped in the boma's wall at the point where his own
prey had escaped, and as Tarzan approached the camp upon the opposite
side Rokoff disappeared into the jungle in the wake of Jane Clayton.

As the ape-man entered the boma with old Tambudza at his elbow the
seven sailors, recognizing him, turned and fled in the opposite
direction. Tarzan saw that Rokoff was not among them, and so he let
them go their way--his business was with the Russian, whom he expected
to find in his tent. As to the sailors, he was sure that the jungle
would exact from them expiation for their villainies, nor, doubtless,
was he wrong, for his were the last white man's eyes to rest upon any
of them.

Finding Rokoff's tent empty, Tarzan was about to set out in search of
the Russian when Tambudza suggested to him that the departure of the
white man could only have resulted from word reaching him from
M'ganwazam that Tarzan was in his village.

"He has doubtless hastened there," argued the old woman. "If you would
find him let us return at once."

Tarzan himself thought that this would probably prove to be the fact,
so he did not waste time in an endeavour to locate the Russian's trail,
but, instead, set out briskly for the village of M'ganwazam, leaving
Tambudza to plod slowly in his wake.

His one hope was