rd her as though recollecting her presence after a moment of
forgetfulness. "Come! Meriem," he called, and then she recognized him
with a startled: "Bwana!" Quickly the girl dropped from the tree and
ran to his side. Tantor cocked a questioning eye at the white giant,
but receiving a warning word let Meriem approach. Together the two
walked to where Korak lay, his eyes wide with wonder and filled with a
pathetic appeal for forgiveness, and, mayhap, a glad thankfulness for
the miracle that had brought these two of all others to his side.

"Jack!" cried the white giant, kneeling at the ape-man's side.

"Father!" came chokingly from The Killer's lips. "Thank God that it
was you. No one else in all the jungle could have stopped Tantor."

Quickly the man cut the bonds that held Korak, and as the youth leaped
to his feet and threw his arms about his father, the older man turned
toward Meriem.

"I thought," he said, sternly, "that I told you to return to the farm."

Korak was looking at them wonderingly. In his heart was a great
yearning to take the girl in his arms; but in time he remembered the
other--the dapper young English gentleman--and that he was but a
savage, uncouth ape-man.

Meriem looked up pleadingly into Bwana's eyes.

"You told me," she said, in a very small voice, "that my place was
beside the man I loved," and she turned her eyes toward Korak all
filled with the wonderful light that no other man had yet seen in them,
and that none other ever would.

The Killer started toward her with outstretched arms; but suddenly he
fell upon one knee before her, instead, and lifting her hand to his
lips kissed it more reverently than he could have kissed the hand of
his country's queen.

A rumble from Tantor brought the three, all jungle bred, to instant
alertness. Tantor was looking toward the trees behind them, and as
their eyes followed his gaze the head and shoulders of a great ape
appeared amidst the foliage. For a moment the creature eyed them, and
then from its throat rose a loud scream of recognition and of joy, and
a moment later the beast had leaped to the ground, followed by a score
of bulls like himself, and was waddling toward them, shouting in the
primordial tongue of the anthropoid:

"Tarzan has returned! Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle!"

It was Akut, and instantly he commenced leaping and bounding about the
trio, uttering hideous shrieks and mouthings that to any other human
beings might