the open,
where his appearance was greeted by wild shouts from the assembled
villagers.

To the stake they led him, and as they pushed him roughly against it
preparatory to binding him there securely for the dance of death that
would presently encircle him, Tarzan tensed his mighty thews and with a
single, powerful wrench parted the loosened thongs which had secured
his hands. Like thought, for quickness, he leaped forward among the
warriors nearest him. A blow sent one to earth, as, growling and
snarling, the beast-man leaped upon the breast of another. His fangs
were buried instantly in the jugular of his adversary and then a half
hundred black men had leaped upon him and borne him to earth.

Striking, clawing, and snapping, the ape-man fought--fought as his
foster people had taught him to fight--fought like a wild beast
cornered. His strength, his agility, his courage, and his intelligence
rendered him easily a match for half a dozen black men in a
hand-to-hand struggle, but not even Tarzan of the Apes could hope to
successfully cope with half a hundred.

Slowly they were overpowering him, though a score of them bled from
ugly wounds, and two lay very still beneath the trampling feet, and the
rolling bodies of the contestants.

Overpower him they might, but could they keep him overpowered while
they bound him? A half hour of desperate endeavor convinced them that
they could not, and so Mbonga, who, like all good rulers, had circled
in the safety of the background, called to one to work his way in and
spear the victim. Gradually, through the milling, battling men, the
warrior approached the object of his quest.

He stood with poised spear above his head waiting for the instant that
would expose a vulnerable part of the ape-man's body and still not
endanger one of the blacks. Closer and closer he edged about,
following the movements of the twisting, scuffling combatants. The
growls of the ape-man sent cold chills up the warrior's spine, causing
him to go carefully lest he miss at the first cast and lay himself open
to an attack from those merciless teeth and mighty hands.

At last he found an opening. Higher he raised his spear, tensing his
muscles, rolling beneath his glistening, ebon hide, and then from the
jungle just beyond the palisade came a thunderous crashing. The
spear-hand paused, the black cast a quick glance in the direction of
the disturbance, as did the others of the blacks who were not o