The next few days were occupied by Tarzan in completinghis weapons and exploring the jungle. He strung hisbow with tendons from the buck upon which he had dinedhis first evening upon the new shore, and though he wouldhave preferred the gut of Sheeta for the purpose, he wascontent to wait until opportunity permitted him to killone of the great cats.

He also braided a long grass rope--such a rope as he hadused so many years before to tantalize the ill-natured Tublat,and which later had developed into a wondrous effectiveweapon in the practised hands of the little ape-boy.

A sheath and handle for his hunting-knife he fashioned,and a quiver for arrows, and from the hide of Bara a beltand loin-cloth. Then he set out to learn something of thestrange land in which he found himself. That it was not hisold familiar west coast of the African continent he knew fromthe fact that it faced east--the rising sun came up out of thesea before the threshold of the jungle.

But that it was not the east coast of Africa he was equallypositive, for he felt satisfied that the Kincaid had notpassed through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and the Red Sea,nor had she had time to round the Cape of Good Hope. So he wasquite at a loss to know where he might be.

Sometimes he wondered if the ship had crossed the broadAtlantic to deposit him upon some wild South Americanshore; but the presence of Numa, the lion, decided him thatsuch could not be the case.

As Tarzan made his lonely way through the jungle parallelingthe shore, he felt strong upon him a desire for companionship,so that gradually he commenced to regret that he had not casthis lot with the apes. He had seen nothing of them since thatfirst day, when the influences of civilization were stillparamount within him.

Now he was more nearly returned to the Tarzan of old,and though he appreciated the fact that there could belittle in common between himself and the great anthropoids,still they were better than no company at all.

Moving leisurely, sometimes upon the ground and againamong the lower branches of the trees, gathering an occasionalfruit or turning over a fallen log in search of the largerbugs, which he still found as palatable as of old, Tarzan hadcovered a mile or more when his attention was attracted bythe scent of Sheeta up-wind ahead of him.

Now Sheeta, the panther, was one of whom Tarzan was exceptionallyglad to fall in with, for he had it in mind not only to utilizethe great cat's strong gut for his bow, but also to fashiona new quiver and loin-cloth from pieces of his hide. So, whereas the ape-man had gone carelessly before,he now became the personification of noiseless stealth.

Swiftly and silently he glided through the forest in the wakeof the savage cat, nor was the pursuer, for all his noble birth,one whit less savage than the wild, fierce thing he stalked.

As he came closer to Sheeta he became aware that the pantheron his part was stalking game of his own, and even as he realizedthis fact there came to his nostrils, wafted from his right by avagrant breeze, the strong odour of a company of great apes.

The panther had taken to a large tree as Tarzan came withinsight of him, and beyond and below him Tarzan saw the tribeof Akut lolling in a little, natural clearing. Some of themwere dozing against the boles of trees, while others roamedabout turning over bits of bark from beneath which theytransferred the luscious grubs and beetles to their mouths.

Akut was the closest to Sheeta.

The great cat lay crouched upon a thick limb, hidden fromthe ape's view by dense foliage, waiting patiently until theanthropoid should come within range of his spring.

Tarzan cautiously gained a position in the same tree with thepanther and a little above him. In his left hand he graspedhis slim stone blade. He would have preferred to use his noose,but the foliage surrounding the huge cat precluded the possibilityof an accurate throw with the rope.

Akut had now wandered quite close beneath the tree whereinlay the waiting death. Sheeta slowly edged his hind pawsalong the branch still further beneath him, and then witha hideous shriek he launched himself toward the great ape. The barest fraction of a second before his spring anotherbeast of prey above him leaped, its weird and savage crymingling with his.

As the startled Akut looked up he saw the panther almostabove him, and already upon the panther's back the whiteape that had bested him that day near the great water.

The teeth of the ape-man were buried in the back of Sheeta'sneck and his right arm was round the fierce throat, whilethe left hand, grasping a slender piece of stone, rose and fellin mighty blows upon the panther's side behind the left shoulder.

Akut had just time to leap to one side to avoid beingpinioned beneath these battling monsters of the jungle.

With a crash they came to earth at his feet. Sheeta was screaming,snarling, and roaring horribly; but the white ape clungtenaciously and in silence to the thrashing body of his quarry.

Steadily and remorselessly the stone knife was driven homethrough the glossy hide--time and again it drank deep, untilwith a final agonized lunge and shriek the great feline rolledover upon its side and, save for the spasmodic jerking of itsmuscles, lay quiet and still in death.

Then the ape-man raised his head, as he stood over thecarcass of his kill, and once again through the jungle ranghis wild and savage victory challenge.

Akut and the apes of Akut stood looking in startled wonderat the dead body of Sheeta and the lithe, straight figure ofthe man who had slain him.

Tarzan was the first to speak.

He had saved Akut's life for a purpose, and, knowing thelimitations of the ape intellect, he also knew that he mustmake this purpose plain to the anthropoid if it were to servehim in the way he hoped.

"I am Tarzan of the Apes," he said, "Mighty hunter. Mighty fighter.By the great water I spared Akut's life when I might have taken itand become king of the tribe of Akut. Now I have saved Akut fromdeath beneath the rending fangs of Sheeta.

"When Akut or the tribe of Akut is in danger, let themcall to Tarzan thus"--and the ape-man raised the hideouscry with which the tribe of Kerchak had been wont to summonits absent members in times of peril.

"And," he continued, "when they hear Tarzan call to them,let them remember what he has done for Akut and come to himwith great speed. Shall it be as Tarzan says?"

"Huh!" assented Akut, and from the members of his tribethere rose a unanimous "Huh."

Then, presently, they went to feeding again as thoughnothing had happened, and with them fed John Clayton,Lord Greystoke.

He noticed, however, that Akut kept always close to him,and was often looking at him with a strange wonder in hislittle bloodshot eyes, and once he did a thing that Tarzanduring all his long years among the apes had never beforeseen an ape do--he found a particularly tender morsel andhanded it to Tarzan.

As the tribe hunted, the glistening body of the ape-manmingled with the brown, shaggy hides of his companions. Oftentimes they brushed together in passing, but the apeshad already taken his presence for granted, so that he wasas much one of them as Akut himself.

If he came too close to a she with a young baby, the formerwould bare her great fighting fangs and growl ominously,and occasionally a truculent young bull would snarl a warningif Tarzan approached while the former was eating. But inthose things the treatment was no different from that whichthey accorded any other member of the tribe.

Tarzan on his part felt very much at home with these fierce,hairy progenitors of primitive man. He skipped nimbly outof reach of each threatening female--for such is the way ofapes, if they be not in one of their occasional fits of bestialrage--and he growled back at the truculent young bulls, baringhis canine teeth even as they. Thus easily he fell back intothe way of his early life, nor did it seem that he hadever tasted association with creatures of his own kind.

For the better part of a week he roamed the jungle withhis new friends, partly because of a desire for companionshipand partially through a well-laid plan to impress himselfindelibly upon their memories, which at best are none too long;for Tarzan from past experience knew that it might serve himin good stead to have a tribe of these powerful and terriblebeasts at his call.

When he was convinced that he had succeeded to some extentin fixing his identity upon them he decided to again take uphis exploration. To this end he set out toward the northearly one day, and, keeping parallel with the shore,travelled rapidly until almost nightfall.

When the sun rose the next morning he saw that it lay almostdirectly to his right as he stood upon the beach insteadof straight out across the water as heretofore, and so hereasoned that the shore line had trended toward the west. All the second day he continued his rapid course, and whenTarzan of the Apes sought speed, he passed through the middleterrace of the forest with the rapidity of a squirrel.

That night the sun set straight out across the water oppositethe land, and then the ape-man guessed at last the truth thathe had been suspecting.

Rokoff had set him ashore upon an island.

He might have known it! If there was any plan that wouldrender his position more harrowing he should have knownthat such would be the one adopted by the Russian, and whatcould be more terrible than to leave him to a lifetime ofsuspense upon an uninhabited island?

Rokoff doubtless had sailed directly to the mainland, whereit would be a comparatively easy thing for him to find themeans of delivering the infant Jack into the hands of the crueland savage foster-parents, who, as his note had threatened,would have the upbringing of the child.

Tarzan shuddered as he thought of the cruel suffering thelittle one must endure in such a life, even though he mightfall into the hands of individuals whose intentions towardhim were of the kindest. The ape-man had had sufficientexperience with the lower savages of Africa to know that eventhere may be found the cruder virtues of charity and humanity;but their lives were at best but a series of terrible privations,dangers, and sufferings.

Then there was the horrid after-fate that awaited the childas he grew to manhood. The horrible practices that wouldform a part of his life-training would alone be sufficientto bar him forever from association with those of his own raceand station in life.

A cannibal! His little boy a savage man-eater! It was toohorrible to contemplate.

The filed teeth, the slit nose, the little face painted hideously. Tarzan groaned. Could he but feel the throat of the Russ fiendbeneath his steel fingers!

And Jane!

What tortures of doubt and fear and uncertainty she mustbe suffering. He felt that his position was infinitely lessterrible than hers, for he at least knew that one of hisloved ones was safe at home, while she had no idea of thewhereabouts of either her husband or her son.

It is well for Tarzan that he did not guess the truth, for theknowledge would have but added a hundredfold to his suffering.

As he moved slowly through the jungle his mind absorbedby his gloomy thoughts, there presently came to his ears astrange scratching sound which he could not translate.

Cautiously he moved in the direction from which it emanated,presently coming upon a huge panther pinned beneath a fallen tree.

As Tarzan approached, the beast turned, snarling, toward him,struggling to extricate itself; but one great limb acrossits back and the smaller entangling branches pinioning itslegs prevented it from moving but a few inches in any direction.

The ape-man stood before the helpless cat fitting an arrowto his bow that he might dispatch the beast that otherwisemust die of starvation; but even as he drew back the shaft asudden whim stayed his hand.

Why rob the poor creature of life and liberty, when it wouldbe so easy a thing to restore both to it! He was sure fromthe fact that the panther moved all its limbs in its futilestruggle for freedom that its spine was uninjured, and forthe same reason he knew that none of its limbs were broken.

Relaxing his bowstring, he returned the arrow to the quiver and,throwing the bow about his shoulder, stepped closer tothe pinioned beast.

On his lips was the soothing, purring sound that the greatcats themselves made when contented and happy. It was thenearest approach to a friendly advance that Tarzan couldmake in the language of Sheeta.

The panther ceased his snarling and eyed the ape-man closely. To lift the tree's great weight from the animal it wasnecessary to come within reach of those long, strong talons,and when the tree had been removed the man would be totallyat the mercy of the savage beast; but to Tarzan of the Apesfear was a thing unknown.

Having decided, he acted promptly.

Unhesitatingly, he stepped into the tangle of branches close to thepanther's side, still voicing his friendly and conciliatory purr.The cat turned his head toward the man, eyeing him steadily--questioningly.The long fangs were bared, but more in preparedness than threat.

Tarzan put a broad shoulder beneath the bole of the tree,and as he did so his bare leg pressed against the cat's silken side,so close was the man to the great beast.

Slowly Tarzan extended his giant thews.

The great tree with its entangling branches rose graduallyfrom the panther, who, feeling the encumbering weight diminish,quickly crawled from beneath. Tarzan let the tree fall back to earth,and the two beasts turned to look upon one another.

A grim smile lay upon the ape-man's lips, for he knew that he hadtaken his life in his hands to free this savage jungle fellow;nor would it have surprised him had the cat sprung upon himthe instant that it had been released.

But it did not do so. Instead, it stood a few paces from the treewatching the ape-man clamber out of the maze of fallen branches.

Once outside, Tarzan was not three paces from the panther. He might have taken to the higher branches of the treesupon the opposite side, for Sheeta cannot climb to the heightsto which the ape-man can go; but something, a spirit of bravadoperhaps, prompted him to approach the panther as though todiscover if any feeling of gratitude would prompt the beastto friendliness.

As he approached the mighty cat the creature steppedwarily to one side, and the ape-man brushed past him withina foot of the dripping jaws, and as he continued on throughthe forest the panther followed on behind him, as a houndfollows at heel.

For a long time Tarzan could not tell whether the beastwas following out of friendly feelings or merely stalking himagainst the time he should be hungry; but finally he wasforced to believe that the former incentive it was thatprompted the animal's action.

Later in the day the scent of a deer sent Tarzan into the trees,and when he had dropped his noose about the animal's neck hecalled to Sheeta, using a purr similar to that which he hadutilized to pacify the brute's suspicions earlier in the day,but a trifle louder and more shrill.

It was similar to that which he had heard panthers use aftera kill when they had been hunting in pairs.

Almost immediately there was a crashing of the underbrushclose at hand, and the long, lithe body of his strangecompanion broke into view.

At sight of the body of Bara and the smell of blood the panthergave forth a shrill scream, and a moment later two beasts werefeeding side by side upon the tender meat of the deer.

For several days this strangely assorted pair roamedthe jungle together.

When one made a kill he called the other,and thus they fed well and often.

On one occasion as they were dining upon the carcass of a boarthat Sheeta had dispatched, Numa, the lion, grim and terrible,broke through the tangled grasses close beside them.

With an angry, warning roar he sprang forward to chase themfrom their kill. Sheeta bounded into a near-by thicket,while Tarzan took to the low branches of an overhanging tree.

Here the ape-man unloosed his grass rope from about his neck, andas Numa stood above the body of the boar, challenging head erect,he dropped the sinuous noose about the maned neck,drawing the stout strands taut with a sudden jerk. At the same time he called shrilly to Sheeta, as he drew thestruggling lion upward until only his hind feet touched the ground.

Quickly he made the rope fast to a stout branch, and asthe panther, in answer to his summons, leaped into sight,Tarzan dropped to the earth beside the struggling andinfuriated Numa, and with a long sharp knife sprang upon himat one side even as Sheeta did upon the other.

The panther tore and rent Numa upon the right, while theape-man struck home with his stone knife upon the other,so that before the mighty clawing of the king of beasts hadsucceeded in parting the rope he hung quite dead and harmlessin the noose.

And then upon the jungle air there rose in unison from two savagethroats the victory cry of the bull-ape and the panther,blended into one frightful and uncanny scream.

As the last notes died away in a long-drawn, fearsome wail,a score of painted warriors, drawing their long war-canoeupon the beach, halted to stare in the direction of thejungle and to listen.