the jugular; but Tarzan of the Apes had fought before with
creatures who struck first for the vital vein, and each time he
wriggled out of harm's way as he strove to get his fingers upon his
adversary's throat. At last he succeeded--his great muscles tensed and
knotted beneath his smooth hide as he forced with every ounce of his
mighty strength to push the hairy torso from him. And as he choked
Bolgani and strained him away, his other hand crept slowly upward
between them until the point of the hunting knife rested over the
savage heart--there was a quick movement of the steel-thewed wrist and
the blade plunged to its goal.

Bolgani, the gorilla, voiced a single frightful shriek, tore himself
loose from the grasp of the ape-man, rose to his feet, staggered a few
steps and then plunged to earth. There were a few spasmodic movements
of the limbs and the brute was still.

Tarzan of the Apes stood looking down upon his kill, and as he stood
there he ran his fingers through his thick, black shock of hair.
Presently he stooped and touched the dead body. Some of the red
life-blood of the gorilla crimsoned his fingers. He raised them to his
nose and sniffed. Then he shook his head and turned toward the cabin.
The door was still open. He closed it and fastened the latch.
Returning toward the body of his kill he again paused and scratched his
head.

If this was a sleep adventure, what then was reality? How was he to
know the one from the other? How much of all that had happened in his
life had been real and how much unreal?

He placed a foot upon the prostrate form and raising his face to the
heavens gave voice to the kill cry of the bull ape. Far in the
distance a lion answered. It was very real and, yet, he did not know.
Puzzled, he turned away into the jungle.

No, he did not know what was real and what was not; but there was one
thing that he did know--never again would he eat of the flesh of
Tantor, the elephant.

10

The Battle for Teeka

THE DAY WAS perfect. A cool breeze tempered the heat of the equatorial
sun. Peace had reigned within the tribe for weeks and no alien enemy
had trespassed upon its preserves from without. To the ape-mind all
this was sufficient evidence that the future would be identical with
the immediate past--that Utopia would persist.

The sentinels, now from habit become a fixed tribal custom, either
relaxed their vigilance or en