e as they neared the meeting place
of the apes. Now they were in the trees, worming their way forward,
alert for sentinels. Presently through a break in the foliage the
scene burst upon the eager eyes of the boy. To Akut it was a familiar
one; but to Korak it was all new. His nerves tingled at the savage
sight. The great bulls were dancing in the moonlight, leaping in an
irregular circle about the flat-topped earthen drum about which three
old females sat beating its resounding top with sticks worn smooth by
long years of use.

Akut, knowing the temper and customs of his kind, was too wise to make
their presence known until the frenzy of the dance had passed. After
the drum was quiet and the bellies of the tribe well-filled he would
hail them. Then would come a parley, after which he and Korak would be
accepted into membership by the community. There might be those who
would object; but such could be overcome by brute force, of which he
and the lad had an ample surplus. For weeks, possibly months, their
presence might cause ever decreasing suspicion among others of the
tribe; but eventually they would become as born brothers to these
strange apes.

He hoped that they had been among those who had known Tarzan, for that
would help in the introduction of the lad and in the consummation of
Akut's dearest wish, that Korak should become king of the apes. It was
with difficulty, however, that Akut kept the boy from rushing into the
midst of the dancing anthropoids--an act that would have meant the
instant extermination of them both, since the hysterical frenzy into
which the great apes work themselves during the performance of their
strange rites is of such a nature that even the most ferocious of the
carnivora give them a wide berth at such times.

As the moon declined slowly toward the lofty, foliaged horizon of the
amphitheater the booming of the drum decreased and lessened were the
exertions of the dancers, until, at last, the final note was struck and
the huge beasts turned to fall upon the feast they had dragged hither
for the orgy.

From what he had seen and heard Akut was able to explain to Korak that
the rites proclaimed the choosing of a new king, and he pointed out to
the boy the massive figure of the shaggy monarch, come into his
kingship, no doubt, as many human rulers have come into theirs--by the
murder of his predecessor.

When the apes had filled their bellies and many of them had sought the
b