dergone a
sudden reversion to type, which left him a wild beast, forgetful of the
dagger that projected from his belt--thinking only of nature's weapons
with which his brute prototype had battled.

But if he could use his teeth and hands to advantage, he found one even
better versed in the school of savage warfare to which he had reverted,
for Tarzan of the Apes closed with him, and they fell to the floor
tearing and rending at one another like two bull apes; while the
primitive priestess stood flattened against the wall, watching with
wide, fear-fascinated eyes the growing, snapping beasts at her feet.

At last she saw the stranger close one mighty hand upon the throat of
his antagonist, and as he forced the bruteman's head far back rain blow
after blow upon the upturned face. A moment later he threw the still
thing from him, and, arising, shook himself like a lion. He placed a
foot upon the carcass before him, and raised his head to give the
victory cry of his kind, but as his eyes fell upon the opening above
him leading into the temple of human sacrifice he thought better of his
intended act.

The girl, who had been half paralyzed by fear as the two men fought,
had just commenced to give thought to her probable fate now that,
though released from the clutches of a madman, she had fallen into the
hands of one whom but a moment before she had been upon the point of
killing. She looked about for some means of escape. The black mouth
of a diverging corridor was near at hand, but as she turned to dart
into it the ape-man's eyes fell upon her, and with a quick leap he was
at her side, and a restraining hand was laid upon her arm.

"Wait!" said Tarzan of the Apes, in the language of the tribe of
Kerchak.

The girl looked at him in astonishment.

"Who are you," she whispered, "who speaks the language of the first
man?"

"I am Tarzan of the Apes," he answered in the vernacular of the
anthropoids.

"What do you want of me?" she continued. "For what purpose did you
save me from Tha?"

"I could not see a woman murdered?" It was a half question that
answered her.

"But what do you intend to do with me now?" she continued.

"Nothing," he replied, "but you can do something for me--you can lead
me out of this place to freedom." He made the suggestion without the
slightest thought that she would accede. He felt quite sure that the
sacrifice would go on from the point where it had been interrupted if
the high p