skin of the English lordling as they
passed through the primeval jungle side by side.

"Go back to Teeka," said Tarzan. "She is yours. Tarzan does not want
her."

"Tarzan has found another she?" asked Taug.

The ape-boy shrugged.

"For the Gomangani there is another Gomangani," he said; "for Numa, the
lion, there is Sabor, the lioness; for Sheeta there is a she of his own
kind; for Bara, the deer; for Manu, the monkey; for all the beasts and
the birds of the jungle is there a mate. Only for Tarzan of the Apes
is there none. Taug is an ape. Teeka is an ape. Go back to Teeka.
Tarzan is a man. He will go alone."

2

The Capture of Tarzan

THE BLACK WARRIORS labored in the humid heat of the jungle's stifling
shade. With war spears they loosened the thick, black loam and the
deep layers of rotting vegetation. With heavy-nailed fingers they
scooped away the disintegrated earth from the center of the age-old
game trail. Often they ceased their labors to squat, resting and
gossiping, with much laughter, at the edge of the pit they were digging.

Against the boles of near-by trees leaned their long, oval shields of
thick buffalo hide, and the spears of those who were doing the
scooping. Sweat glistened upon their smooth, ebon skins, beneath which
rolled rounded muscles, supple in the perfection of nature's
uncontaminated health.

A reed buck, stepping warily along the trail toward water, halted as a
burst of laughter broke upon his startled ears. For a moment he stood
statuesque but for his sensitively dilating nostrils; then he wheeled
and fled noiselessly from the terrifying presence of man.

A hundred yards away, deep in the tangle of impenetrable jungle, Numa,
the lion, raised his massive head. Numa had dined well until almost
daybreak and it had required much noise to awaken him. Now he lifted
his muzzle and sniffed the air, caught the acrid scent spoor of the
reed buck and the heavy scent of man. But Numa was well filled. With
a low, disgusted grunt he rose and slunk away.

Brilliantly plumaged birds with raucous voices darted from tree to
tree. Little monkeys, chattering and scolding, swung through the
swaying limbs above the black warriors. Yet they were alone, for the
teeming jungle with all its myriad life, like the swarming streets of a
great metropolis, is one of the loneliest spots in God's great universe.

But were they alone?

A