owly in the direction of the jungle.

"But, papa," cried the girl, "you haven't said anything about it yet."

"Tut, tut, child; tut, tut," responded Professor Porter, in a kindly
and indulgent tone, "do not trouble your pretty head with such weighty
and abstruse problems," and again he wandered slowly off in still
another direction, his eyes bent upon the ground at his feet, his hands
clasped behind him beneath the flowing tails of his coat.

"I reckon the daffy old bounder don't know no more'n we do about it,"
growled the rat-faced sailor.

"Keep a civil tongue in your head," cried the young man, his face
paling in anger, at the insulting tone of the sailor. "You've murdered
our officers and robbed us. We are absolutely in your power, but
you'll treat Professor Porter and Miss Porter with respect or I'll
break that vile neck of yours with my bare hands--guns or no guns," and
the young fellow stepped so close to the rat-faced sailor that the
latter, though he bore two revolvers and a villainous looking knife in
his belt, slunk back abashed.

"You damned coward," cried the young man. "You'd never dare shoot a
man until his back was turned. You don't dare shoot me even then," and
he deliberately turned his back full upon the sailor and walked
nonchalantly away as if to put him to the test.

The sailor's hand crept slyly to the butt of one of his revolvers; his
wicked eyes glared vengefully at the retreating form of the young
Englishman. The gaze of his fellows was upon him, but still he
hesitated. At heart he was even a greater coward than Mr. William
Cecil Clayton had imagined.

Two keen eyes had watched every move of the party from the foliage of a
nearby tree. Tarzan had seen the surprise caused by his notice, and
while he could understand nothing of the spoken language of these
strange people their gestures and facial expressions told him much.

The act of the little rat-faced sailor in killing one of his comrades
had aroused a strong dislike in Tarzan, and now that he saw him
quarreling with the fine-looking young man his animosity was still
further stirred.

Tarzan had never seen the effects of a firearm before, though his books
had taught him something of them, but when he saw the rat-faced one
fingering the butt of his revolver he thought of the scene he had
witnessed so short a time before, and naturally expected to see the
young man murdered as had been the huge sailor earlier in the day.

So