ls at the last moment."

"Don't worry," said Tarzan. "It doesn't last long and you won't
funk. It is really not half as bad as it sounds. There is only a
brief period of pain before you lose consciousness. I have seen it
many times before. It is as good a way to go as another. We must
die sometime. What difference whether it be tonight, tomorrow night,
or a year hence, just so that we have lived--and I have lived!"

"Your philosophy may be all right, old top," said the young
lieutenant, "but I can't say that it is exactly satisfying."

Tarzan laughed. "Roll over here," he said, "where I can get at
your bonds with my teeth." The Englishman did as he was bid and
presently Tarzan was working at the thongs with his strong white
teeth. He felt them giving slowly beneath his efforts. In another
moment they would part, and then it would be a comparatively simple
thing for the Englishman to remove the remaining bonds from Tarzan
and himself.

It was then that one of the guards entered the hut. In an instant he
saw what the new prisoner was doing and raising his spear, struck
the ape-man a vicious blow across the head with its shaft. Then he
called in the other guards and together they fell upon the luckless
men, kicking and beating them unmercifully, after which they bound
the Englishman more securely than before and tied both men fast on
opposite sides of the hut. When they had gone Tarzan looked across
at his companion in misery.

"While there is life," he said, "there is hope," but he grinned as
he voiced the ancient truism.

Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick returned the other's smile.
"I fancy," he said, "that we are getting short on both. It must
be close to supper time now."

Zu-tag hunted alone far from the balance of the tribe of Go-lat,
the great ape. Zu-tag (Big-neck) was a young bull but recently
arrived at maturity. He was large, powerful, and ferocious and at
the same time far above the average of his kind in intelligence as
was denoted by a fuller and less receding forehead. Already Go-lat
saw in this young ape a possible contender for the laurels of his
kingship and consequently the old bull looked upon Zu-tag with
jealousy and disfavor. It was for this reason, possibly, as much
as another that Zu-tag hunted so often alone; but it was his utter
fearlessness that permitted him to wander far afield away from the
protection which numbers gave the great apes. One of the results
of this habit was a gre