As the British plane piloted by Lieutenant Harold PercySmith-Oldwick rose above the jungle wilderness whereBertha Kircher's life had so often been upon the pointof extinction, and sped toward the east, the girl felt a suddencontraction of the muscles of her throat. She tried very hardto swallow something that was not there. It seemed strange toher that she should feel regret in leaving behind her suchhideous perils, and yet it was plain to her that such was thefact, for she was also leaving behind something beside thedangers that had menaced her -- a unique figure that had en-tered her life, and for which she felt an unaccountable at-traction.

Before her in the pilot's seat sat an English officer and gen-tleman whom, she knew, loved her, and yet she dared to feelregret in his company at leaving the stamping ground of awild beast!

Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick, on his part, was in the seventhheaven of elation. He was in possession again of his belovedship, he was flying swiftly in the direction of his comrades andhis duty, and with him was the woman he loved. The fly inthe ointment, however, was the accusation Tarzan had madeagainst this woman. He had said that she was a German, anda spy, and from the heights of bliss the English officer wasoccasionally plunged to the depths of despair in contempla-tion of the inevitable, were the ape-man's charges to provetrue. He found himself torn between sentiments of love andhonor. On the one hand he could not surrender the woman heloved to the certain fate that must be meted out to her if shewere in truth an enemy spy, while on the other it would beequally impossible for him as an Englishman and an officerto give her aid or protection.

The young man contented himself therefore with repeatedmental denials of her guilt. He tried to convince himself thatTarzan was mistaken, and when he conjured upon the screenof recollection the face of the girl behind him, he was doublyreassured that those lines of sweet femininity and character,those clear and honest eyes, could not belong to one of thehated alien race.

And so they sped toward the east, each wrapped in his ownthoughts. Below them they saw the dense vegetation of thejungle give place to the scantier growth upon the hillside, andthen before them there spread the wide expanse of arid waste-lands marked by the deep scarring of the narrow gorges thatlong-gone rivers had cut there in some forgotten age.

Shortly after they passed the summit of the ridge whichformed the boundary between the desert and the fertile coun-try, Ska, the vulture, winging his way at a high altitude towardhis aerie, caught sight of a strange new bird of gigantic pro-portions encroaching upon the preserves of his aerial domain.Whether with intent to give battle to the interloper or merelyimpelled by curiosity, Ska rose suddenly upward to meet theplane. Doubtless he misjudged the speed of the newcomer,but be that as it may, the tip of the propeller blade touchedhim and simultaneously many things happened. The lifelessbody of Ska, torn and bleeding, dropped plummet-like towardthe ground; a bit of splintered spruce drove backward to strikethe pilot on the forehead; the plane shuddered and trembledand as Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick sank forwardin momentary unconsciousness the ship dived headlong towardthe earth.

Only for an instant was the pilot unconscious, but that in-stant almost proved their undoing. When he awoke to a reali-zation of their peril it was also to discover that his motor hadstalled. The plane had attained frightful momentum, and theground seemed too close for him to hope to flatten out in timeto make a safe landing. Directly beneath him was a deep rift inthe plateau, a narrow gorge, the bottom of which appearedcomparatively level and sand covered.

In the brief instant in which he must reach a decision, thesafest plan seemed to attempt a landing in the gorge, and thishe did, but not without considerable damage to the plane anda severe shaking-up for himself and his passenger.

Fortunately neither of them was injured but their conditionseemed indeed a hopeless one. It was a grave question as towhether the man could repair his plane and continue the jour-ney, and it seemed equally questionable as to their abilityeither to proceed on foot to the coast or retrace their way tothe country they had just left. The man was confident thatthey could not hope to cross the desert country to the east inthe face of thirst and hunger, while behind them in the valleyof plenty lay almost equal danger in the form of carnivoresand the warlike natives.

After the plane came to its sudden and disastrous stop,Smith-Oldwick turned quickly to see what the effect of theaccident had been on the girl. He found her pale but smiling,and for several seconds the two sat looking at each other insilence.

"This is the end?" the girl asked.

The Englishman shook his head. "It is the end of the firstleg, anyway," he replied.

"But you can't hope to make repairs here," she said du-biously.

"No," he said, "not if they amount to anything, but I maybe able to patch it up. I will have to look her over a bit first.Let us hope there is nothing serious. It's a long, long way tothe Tanga railway."

"We would not get far," said the girl, a slight note of hope-lessness in her tone. "Entirely unarmed as we are, it wouldbe little less than a miracle if we covered even a small fractionof the distance."

"But we are not unarmed," replied the man. "I have anextra pistol here, that the beggars didn't discover," and, re-moving the cover of a compartment, he drew forth an auto-matic.

Bertha Kircher leaned back in her seat and laughed aloud,a mirthless, half-hysterical laugh. "That popgun!" she ex-claimed. "What earthly good would it do other than to in-furiate any beast of prey you might happen to hit with it?"

Smith-Oldwick looked rather crestfallen. "But it is a weap-on," he said. "You will have to admit that, and certainly Icould kill a man with it."

"You could if you happened to hit him," said the girl, "orthe thing didn't jam. Really, I haven't much faith in an auto-matic. I have used them myself."

"Oh, of course," he said ironically, "an express rifle wouldbe better, for who knows but we might meet an elephant herein the desert."

The girl saw that he was hurt, and she was sorry, for sherealized that there was nothing he would not do in her serviceor protection, and that it was through no fault of his that hewas so illy armed. Doubtless, too, he realized as well as shethe futility of his weapon, and that he had only called attentionto it in the hope of reassuring her and lessening her anxiety.

"Forgive me," she said. "I did not mean to be nasty, butthis accident is the proverbial last straw. It seems to me thatI have borne all that I can. Though I was willing to give mylife in the service of my country, I did not imagine that mydeath agonies would be so long drawn out, for I realize nowthat I have been dying for many weeks."

"What do you mean!" he exclaimed; "what do you mean bythat! You are not dying. There is nothing the matter with you."

"Oh, not that," she said, "I did not mean that. What I meanis that at the moment the black sergeant, Usanga, and his rene-gade German native troops captured me and brought me in-land, my death warrant was signed. Sometimes I have imaginedthat a reprieve has been granted. Sometimes I have hopedthat I might be upon the verge of winning a full pardon, butreally in the depths of my heart I have known that I shouldnever live to regain civilization. I have done my bit for mycountry, and though it was not much I can at least go with therealization that it was the best I was able to offer. All that Ican hope for now, all that I ask for, is a speedy fulfillment ofthe death sentence. I do not wish to linger any more to faceconstant terror and apprehension. Even physical torture wouldbe preferable to what I have passed through. I have no doubtthat you consider me a brave woman, but really my terror hasbeen boundless. The cries of the carnivores at night fill mewith a dread so tangible that I am in actual pain. I feel therending talons in my flesh and the cruel fangs munching uponmy bones -- it is as real to me as though I were actuallyenduring the horrors of such a death. I doubt if you can under-stand it -- men are so different."

"Yes," he said, "I think I can understand it, and because Iunderstand I can appreciate more than you imagine the hero-ism you have shown in your endurance of all that you havepassed through. There can be no bravery where there is nofear. A child might walk into a lion's den, but it would takea very brave man to go to its rescue."

"Thank you," she said, "but I am not brave at all, and nowI am very much ashamed of my thoughtlessness for your ownfeelings. I will try and take a new grip upon myself and wewill both hope for the best. I will help you all I can if youwill tell me what I may do."

"The first thing," he replied, "is to find out just how seriousour damage is, and then to see what we can do in the way ofrepairs."

For two days Smith-Oldwick worked upon the damagedplane -- worked in the face of the fact that from the first herealized the case was hopeless. And at last he told her.

'I knew it," she said, "but I believe that I felt much as youmust have; that however futile our efforts here might be, itwould be infinitely as fatal to attempt to retrace our way tothe jungle we just left or to go on toward the coast. You knowand I know that we could not reach the Tanga railway on foot.We should die of thirst and starvation before we had coveredhalf the distance, and if we return to the jungle, even were weable to reach it, it would be but to court an equally certain,though different, fate."

"So we might as well sit here and wait for death as to use-lessly waste our energies in what we know would be a futileattempt at escape?" he asked.

"No," she replied, "I shall never give up like that. What Imeant was that it was useless to attempt to reach either of theplaces where we know that there is food and water in abun-dance, so we must strike out in a new direction. Somewherethere may be water in this wilderness and if there is, the bestchance of our finding it would be to follow this gorge down-ward. We have enough food and water left, if we are carefulof it, for a couple of days and in that time we might stumbleupon a spring or possibly even reach the fertile country whichI know lies to the south. When Usanga brought me to theWamabo country from the coast he took a southerly routealong which there was usually water and game in plenty. Itwas not until we neared our destination that the country be-came overrun with carnivores. So there is hope if we can reachthe fertile country south of us that we can manage to pullthrough to the coast."

The man shook his head dubiously. "We can try it," he said."Personally, I do not fancy sitting here waiting for death."

Smith-Oldwick was leaning against the ship, his dejectedgaze directed upon the ground at his feet. The girl was lookingsouth down the gorge in the direction of their one slenderchance of life. Suddenly she touched him on the arm.

"Look," she whispered.

The man raised his eyes quickly in the direction of her gazeto see the massive head of a great lion who was regarding themfrom beyond a rocky projection at the first turning of thegorge.

"Phew!" he exclaimed, "the beggars are everywhere."

"They do not go far from water do they," asked the girlhopefully.

"I should imagine not," he replied; "a lion is not particularlystrong on endurance."

"Then he is a harbinger of hope," she exclaimed.

The man laughed. "Cute little harbinger of hope!" he said."Reminds me of Cock Robin heralding spring."

The girl cast a quick glance at him. "Don't be silly, and Idon't care if you do laugh. He fills me with hope."

"It is probably mutual," replied Smith-Oldwick, "as wedoubtless fill him with hope."

The lion evidently having satisfied himself as to the natureof the creatures before him advanced slowly now in their di-rection.

"Come," said the man, 'let's climb aboard," and he helpedthe girl over the side of the ship.

"Can't he get in here?" she asked.

"I think he can," said the man.

"You are reassuring," she returned.

"I don't feel so." He drew his pistol.

"For heaven's sake," she cried, "don't shoot at him with thatthing. You might hit him."

"I don't intend to shoot at him but I might succeed in fright-ening him away if he attempts to reach us here. Haven't youever seen a trainer work with lions? He carries a silly littlepop-gun loaded with blank cartridges. With that and a kitchenchair he subdues the most ferocious of beasts."

"But you haven't a kitchen chair," she reminded him.

"No," he said, "Government is always muddling things. Ihave always maintained that airplanes should be equippedwith kitchen chairs."

Bertha Kircher laughed as evenly and with as little hysteriaas though she were moved by the small talk of an afternoontea.

Numa, the lion, came steadily toward them; his attitudeseemed more that of curiosity than of belligerency. Close tothe side of the ship he stopped and stood gazing up at them.

"Magnificent, isn't he?" exclaimed the man.

"I never saw a more beautiful creature," she replied, "norone with such a dark coat. Why, he is almost black."

The sound of their voices seemed not to please the lord ofthe jungle, for he suddenly wrinkled his great face into deepfurrows as he bared his fangs beneath snarling lips and gavevent to an angry growl. Almost simultaneously he crouchedfor a spring and immediately Smith-Oldwick discharged hispistol into the ground in front of the lion. The effect of thenoise upon Numa seemed but to enrage him further, and witha horrid roar he sprang for the author of the new and dis-quieting sound that had outraged his ears.

Simultaneously Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwickvaulted nimbly out of the cockpit on the opposite side of hisplane, calling to the girl to follow his example. The girl, real-izing the futility of leaping to the ground, chose the remainingalternative and clambered to the top of the upper plane.

Numa, unaccustomed to the idiosyncrasies of constructionof an airship and having gained the forward cockpit, watchedthe girl clamber out of his reach without at first endeavoringto prevent her. Having taken possession of the plane his angerseemed suddenly to leave him and he made no immediatemove toward following Smith-Oldwick. The girl, realizing thecomparative safety of her position, had crawled to the outeredge of the wing and was calling to the man to try and reachthe opposite end of the upper plane.

It was this scene upon which Tarzan of the Apes looked ashe rounded the bend of the gorge above the plane after thepistol shot had attracted his attention. The girl was so intentupon watching the efforts of the Englishman to reach a placeof safety, and the latter was so busily occupied in attemptingto do so that neither at once noticed the silent approach of theape-man.

It was Numa who first noticed the intruder. The lion imme-diately evinced his displeasure by directing toward him asnarling countenance and a series of warning growls. Hisaction called the attention of the two upon the upper plane tothe newcomer, eliciting a stifled "Thank God!" from the girl,even though she could scarce credit the evidence of her owneyes that it was indeed the savage man, whose presence alwaysassured her safety, who had come so providentially in the nickof time.

Almost immediately both were horrified to see Numa leapfrom the cockpit and advance upon Tarzan. The ape-man,carrying his stout spear in readiness, moved deliberately on-ward to meet the carnivore, which he had recognized as thelion of the Wamabos' pit. He knew from the manner ofNuma's approach what neither Bertha Kircher nor Smith-Oldwick knew -- that there was more of curiosity than bellig-erency in it, and he wondered if in that great head there mightnot be a semblance of gratitude for the kindness that Tarzanhad done him.

There was no question in Tarzan's mind but that Numarecognized him, for he knew his fellows of the jungle wellenough to know that while they ofttimes forgot certain sensa-tions more quickly than man there are others which remain intheir memories for years. A well-defined scent spoor mightnever be forgotten by a beast if it had first been sensed underunusual circumstances, and so Tarzan was confident thatNuma's nose had already reminded him of all the circum-stances of their brief connection.

Love of the sporting chance is inherent in the Anglo-Saxonrace and it was not now Tarzan of the Apes but rather JohnClayton, Lord Greystoke, who smilingly welcomed the sport-ing chance which he must take to discover how far-reachingwas Numa's gratitude.

Smith-Oldwick and the girl saw the two nearing each other.The former swore softly beneath his breath while he nervouslyfingered the pitiful weapon at his hip. The girl pressed heropen palms to her cheeks as she leaned forward in stony-eyed,horror-stricken silence. While she had every confidence in theprowess of the godlike creature who thus dared brazenly toface the king of beasts, she had no false conception of whatmust certainly happen when they met. She had seen Tarzanbattle with Sheeta, the panther, and she had realized then thatpowerful as the man was, it was only agility, cunning, andchance that placed him upon anywhere near an equal footingwith his savage adversary, and that of the three factors uponhis side chance was the greatest.

She saw the man and the lion stop simultaneously, not morethan a yard apart. She saw the beast's tail whipping from sideto side and she could hear his deep-throated growls rumblingfrom his cavernous breast, but she could read correctly neitherthe movement of the lashing tail nor the notes of the growl.

To her they seemed to indicate nothing but bestial ragewhile to Tarzan of the Apes they were conciliatory and reas-suring in the extreme. And then she saw Numa move forwardagain until his nose touched the man's naked leg and she closedher eyes and covered them with her palms. For what seemedan eternity she waited for the horrid sound of the conflictwhich she knew must come, but all she heard was an explosivesigh of relief from Smith-Oldwick and a half-hysterical "ByJove! Just fancy it!"

She looked up to see the great lion rubbing his shaggy headagainst the man's hip, and Tarzan's free hand entangled inthe black mane as he scratched Numa, the lion, behind a back-laid ear.

Strange friendships are often formed between the loweranimals of different species, but less often between man andthe savage felidae, because of the former's inherent fear ofthe great cats. And so after all, therefore, the friendship sosuddenly developed between the savage lion and the savageman was not inexplicable.

As Tarzan approached the plane Numa walked at his side,and when Tarzan stopped and looked up at the girl and theman Numa stopped also.

"I had about given up hope of finding you," said the ape-man, "and it is evident that I found you just in time."

"But how did you know we were in trouble?" asked theEnglish officer.

"I saw your plane fall," replied Tarzan. "I was watchingyou from a tree beside the clearing where you took off. Ididn't have much to locate you by other than the generaldirection, but it seems that you volplaned a considerable dis-tance toward the south after you disappeared from my viewbehind the hills. I have been looking for you further towardthe north. I was just about to turn back when I heard yourpistol shot. Is your ship beyond repair?"

"Yes," replied Smith-Oldwick, "it is hopeless."

"What are your plans, then? What do you wish to do?"Tarzan directed his question to the girl.

"We want to reach the coast," she said, "but it seems impos-sible now."

"I should have thought so a little while ago," replied the ape-man, "but if Numa is here there must be water within a rea-sonable distance. I ran across this lion two days ago in theWamabo country. I liberated him from one of their pits. Tohave reached this spot he must have come by some trail un-known to me -- at least I crossed no game trail and no spoor ofany animal after I came over the hills out of the fertilecountry.From which direction did he come upon you?"

"It was from the south," replied the girl. "We thought, too,that there must be water in that direction."

"Let's find out then," said Tarzan.

"But how about the lion?" asked Smith-Oldwick.

"That we will have to discover," replied the ape-man, "andwe can only do so if you will come down from your perch."

The officer shrugged his shoulders. The girl turned her gazeupon him to note the effect of Tarzan's proposal. The English-man grew suddenly very white, but there was a smile upon hislips as without a word he slipped over the edge of the planeand clambered to the ground behind Tarzan.

Bertha Kircher realized that the man was afraid nor did sheblame him, and she also realized the remarkable courage thathe had shown in thus facing a danger that was very real to him.

Numa standing close to Tarzan's side raised his head andglared at the young Englishman, growled once, and looked upat the ape-man. Tarzan retained a hold upon the beast's maneand spoke to him in the language of the great apes. To the girland Smith-Oldwick the growling gutturals falling from humanlips sounded uncanny in the extreme, but whether Numaunderstood them or not they appeared to have the desiredeffect upon him, as he ceased growling, and as Tarzan walkedto Smith-Oldwick's side Numa accompanied him, nor did heoffer to molest the officer.

"What did you say to him?" asked the girl.

Tarzan smiled. "I told him," he replied, "that I am Tarzanof the Apes, mighty hunter, killer of beasts, lord of the jungle,and that you are my friends. I have never been sure that all ofthe other beasts understand the language of the Mangani. Iknow that Manu, the monkey, speaks nearly the same tongueand I am sure that Tantor, the elephant, understands all thatI say to him. We of the jungle are great boasters. In ourspeech, in our carriage, in every detail of our demeanor wemust impress others with our physical power and our ferocity.That is why we growl at our enemies. We are telling them tobeware or we shall fall upon them and tear them to pieces.Perhaps Numa does not understand the words that I use butI believe that my tones and my manner carry the impressionthat I wish them to convey. Now you may come down and beintroduced."

It required all the courage that Bertha Kircher possessed tolower herself to the ground within reach of the talons andfangs of this untamed forest beast, but she did it. Nor didNuma do more than bare his teeth and growl a little as shecame close to the ape-man.

"I think you are safe from him as long as I am present," saidthe ape-man. "The best thing to do is simply to ignore him.Make no advances, but be sure to give no indication of fearand, if possible always keep me between you and him. He willgo away presently I am sure and the chances are that we shallnot see him again."

At Tarzan's suggestion Smith-Oldwick removed the remain-ing water and provisions from the plane and, distributing theburden among them, they set off toward the south. Numa didnot follow them, but stood by the plane watching until theyfinally disappeared from view around a bend in the gorge.

Tarzan had picked up Numa's trail with the intention offollowing it southward in the belief that it would lead to water.In the sand that floored the bottom of the gorge tracks wereplain and easily followed. At first only the fresh tracks ofNuma were visible, but later in the day the ape-man discoveredthe older tracks of other lions and just before dark he stoppedsuddenly in evident surprise. His two companions looked athim questioningly, and in answer to their implied interroga-tions he pointed at the ground directly in front of him.

"Look at those," he exclaimed.

At first neither Smith-Oldwick nor the girl saw anythingbut a confusion of intermingled prints of padded feet in thesand, but presently the girl discovered what Tarzan had seen,and an exclamation of surprise broke from her lips.

"The imprint of human feet!" she cried.

Tarzan nodded.

"But there are no toes," the girl pointed out.

"The feet were shod with a soft sandal," explained Tarzan.

"Then there must be a native village somewhere in thevicinity," said Smith-Oldwick.

"Yes," replied the ape-man, "but not the sort of nativeswhich we would expect to find here in this part of Africawhere others all go unshod with the exception of a few ofUsanga's renegade German native troops who wear Germanarmy shoes. I don't know that you can notice it, but it isevident to me that the foot inside the sandal that made theseimprints were not the foot of a Negro. If you will examinethem carefully you will notice that the impression of the heeland ball of the foot are well marked even through the sole ofthe sandal. The weight comes more nearly in the center of aNegro's footprint.

"Then you think these were made by a white person?"

"It looks that way," replied Tarzan, and suddenly, to thesurprise of both the girl and Smith-Oldwick, he dropped to hishands and knees and sniffed at the tracks -- again a beastutilizing the senses and woodcraft of a beast. Over an area ofseveral square yards his keen nostrils sought the identity of themakers of the tracks. At length he rose to his feet.

"It is not the spoor of the Gomangani," he said, "nor is itexactly like that of white men. There were three who camethis way. They were men, but of what race I do not know."

There was no apparent change in the nature of the gorgeexcept that it had steadily grown deeper as they followed itdownward until now the rocky and precipitous sides rose farabove them. At different points natural caves, which appearedto have been eroded by the action of water in some forgottenage, pitted the side walls at various heights. Near them wassuch a cavity at the ground's level -- an arched cavern flooredwith white sand. Tarzan indicated it with a gesture of his hand.

"We will lair here tonight," he said, and then with one ofhis rare, slow smiles: "We will CAMP here tonight."

Having eaten their meager supper Tarzan bade the girl enterthe cavern.

"You will sleep inside," he said. "The lieutenant and I willlie outside at the entrance."