k done the sailors returned to the small boat, and pulled off
rapidly toward the Arrow.
The breeze had increased considerably, and as the smoke upon the
horizon was now plainly discernible in considerable volume, the
mutineers lost no time in getting under full sail and bearing away
toward the southwest.
Tarzan, an interested spectator of all that had taken place, sat
speculating on the strange actions of these peculiar creatures.
Men were indeed more foolish and more cruel than the beasts of the
jungle! How fortunate was he who lived in the peace and security of
the great forest!
Tarzan wondered what the chest they had buried contained. If they did
not want it why did they not merely throw it into the water? That
would have been much easier.
Ah, he thought, but they do want it. They have hidden it here because
they intend returning for it later.
Tarzan dropped to the ground and commenced to examine the earth about
the excavation. He was looking to see if these creatures had dropped
anything which he might like to own. Soon he discovered a spade hidden
by the underbrush which they had laid upon the grave.
He seized it and attempted to use it as he had seen the sailors do. It
was awkward work and hurt his bare feet, but he persevered until he had
partially uncovered the body. This he dragged from the grave and laid
to one side.
Then he continued digging until he had unearthed the chest. This also
he dragged to the side of the corpse. Then he filled in the smaller
hole below the grave, replaced the body and the earth around and above
it, covered it over with underbrush, and returned to the chest.
Four sailors had sweated beneath the burden of its weight--Tarzan of
the Apes picked it up as though it had been an empty packing case, and
with the spade slung to his back by a piece of rope, carried it off
into the densest part of the jungle.
He could not well negotiate the trees with his awkward burden, but he
kept to the trails, and so made fairly good time.
For several hours he traveled a little north of east until he came to
an impenetrable wall of matted and tangled vegetation. Then he took to
the lower branches, and in another fifteen minutes he emerged into the
amphitheater of the apes, where they met in council, or to celebrate
the rites of the Dum-Dum.
Near the center of the clearing, and not far from the drum, or altar,
he commenced to dig. This was harder work than turning up th
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