orward at Usanga and then, placing his mouth close to
the girl's ear he cried: "Have you ever piloted a plane?" The girl
nodded a quick affirmative.

"Have you the courage to climb up there beside the black and seize
the control while I take care of him?"

The girl looked toward Usanga and shuddered. "Yes," she replied,
"but my feet are bound."

Tarzan drew his hunting knife from its sheath and reaching down,
severed the thongs that bound her ankles. Then the girl unsnapped
the strap that held her to her seat. With one hand Tarzan grasped
the girl's arm and steadied her as the two crawled slowly across
the few feet which intervened between the two seats. A single slight
tip of the plane would have cast them both into eternity. Tarzan
realized that only through a miracle of chance could they reach
Usanga and effect the change in pilots and yet he knew that that
chance must be taken, for in the brief moments since he had first
seen the plane, he had realized that the black was almost without
experience as a pilot and that death surely awaited them in any
event should the black sergeant remain at the control.

The first intimation Usanga had that all was not well with him was
when the girl slipped suddenly to his side and grasped the control
and at the same instant steel-like fingers seized his throat. A brown
hand shot down with a keen blade and severed the strap about his
waist and giant muscles lifted him bodily from his seat. Usanga
clawed the air and shrieked but he was helpless as a babe. Far
below the watchers in the meadow could see the aeroplane careening
in the sky, for with the change of control it had taken a sudden
dive. They saw it right itself and, turning in a short circle, return
in their direction, but it was so far above them and the light of
the sun so strong that they could see nothing of what was going on
within the fuselage; but presently Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick gave
a gasp of dismay as he saw a human body plunge downward from the
plane. Turning and twisting in mid-air it fell with ever-increasing
velocity and the Englishman held his breath as the thing hurtled
toward them.

With a muffled thud it flattened upon the turf near the center of
the meadow, and when at last the Englishman could gain the courage
to again turn his eyes upon it, he breathed a fervent prayer of
thanks, for the shapeless mass that lay upon the blood-stained turf
was covered with an ebon hide. Usanga had reaped his rewa