the long journey to the sea.

With bated breath she groped beneath the little mound, scarce daring to
hope that the treasure remained where she had left it; but, to her
infinite relief and joy, her hand came at once upon the barrel of the
heavy weapon and then upon the bandoleer of cartridges.

As she threw the latter about her shoulder and felt the weight of the
big game-gun in her hand a sudden sense of security suffused her. It
was with new hope and a feeling almost of assured success that she
again set forward upon her journey.

That night she slept in the crotch of a tree, as Tarzan had so often
told her that he was accustomed to doing, and early the next morning
was upon her way again. Late in the afternoon, as she was about to
cross a little clearing, she was startled at the sight of a huge ape
coming from the jungle upon the opposite side.

The wind was blowing directly across the clearing between them, and
Jane lost no time in putting herself downwind from the huge creature.
Then she hid in a clump of heavy bush and watched, holding the rifle
ready for instant use.

To her consternation she saw that the apes were pausing in the centre
of the clearing. They came together in a little knot, where they stood
looking backward, as though in expectation of the coming of others of
their tribe. Jane wished that they would go on, for she knew that at
any moment some little, eddying gust of wind might carry her scent down
to their nostrils, and then what would the protection of her rifle
amount to in the face of those gigantic muscles and mighty fangs?

Her eyes moved back and forth between the apes and the edge of the
jungle toward which they were gazing until at last she perceived the
object of their halt and the thing that they awaited. They were being
stalked.

Of this she was positive, as she saw the lithe, sinewy form of a
panther glide noiselessly from the jungle at the point at which the
apes had emerged but a moment before.

Quickly the beast trotted across the clearing toward the anthropoids.
Jane wondered at their apparent apathy, and a moment later her wonder
turned to amazement as she saw the great cat come quite close to the
apes, who appeared entirely unconcerned by its presence, and, squatting
down in their midst, fell assiduously to the business of preening,
which occupies most of the waking hours of the cat family.

If the young woman was surprised by the sight of these natural enemies
f