As the lions swarmed over her protectors, Bertha Kirchershrank back in the cave in a momentary paralysis offright superinduced, perhaps, by the long days of ter-rific nerve strain which she had undergone.

Mingled with the roars of the lions had been the voices ofmen, and presently out of the confusion and turmoil she feltthe near presence of a human being, and then hands reachedforth and seized her. It was dark and she could see but little,nor any sign of the English officer or the ape-man. Theman who seized her kept the lions from her with what ap-peared to be a stout spear, the haft of which he used to beatoff the beasts. The fellow dragged her from the cavern thewhile he shouted what appeared to be commands and warn-ings to the lions.

Once out upon the light sands of the bottom of the gorgeobjects became more distinguishable, and then she saw thatthere were other men in the party and that two half led andhalf carried the stumbling figure of a third, whom she guessedmust be Smith-Oldwick.

For a time the lions made frenzied efforts to reach the twocaptives but always the men with them succeeded in beatingthem off. The fellows seemed utterly unafraid of the greatbeasts leaping and snarling about them, handling them muchthe same as one might handle a pack of obstreperous dogs.Along the bed of the old watercourse that once ran throughthe gorge they made their way, and as the first faint lighteningof the eastern horizon presaged the coming dawn, they pausedfor a moment upon the edge of a declivity, which appeared tothe girl in the strange light of the waning night as a vast,bottomless pit; but, as their captors resumed their way andthe light of the new day became stronger, she saw that theywere moving downward toward a dense forest.

Once beneath the over-arching trees all was again Cim-merian darkness, nor was the gloom relieved until the sunfinally arose beyond the eastern cliffs, when she saw that theywere following what appeared to be a broad and well-beatengame trail through a forest of great trees. The ground wasunusually dry for an African forest and the underbrush, whileheavily foliaged, was not nearly so rank and impenetrable asthat which she had been accustomed to find in similar woods.It was as though the trees and the bushes grew in a waterlesscountry, nor was there the musty odor of decaying vegetationor the myriads of tiny insects such as are bred in damp places.

As they proceeded and the sun rose higher, the voices ofthe arboreal jungle life rose in discordant notes and loudchattering about them. Innumerable monkeys scolded andscreamed in the branches overhead, while harsh-voiced birdsof brilliant plumage darted hither and thither. She noticedpresently that their captors often cast apprehensive glancesin the direction of the birds and on numerous occasionsseemed to be addressing the winged denizens of the forest.

One incident made a marked impression on her. The manwho immediately preceded her was a fellow of powerfulbuild, yet, when a brilliantly colored parrot swooped down-ward toward him, he dropped upon his knees and coveringhis face with his arms bent forward until his head touchedthe ground. Some of the others looked at him and laughednervously. Presently the man glanced upward and seeing thatthe bird had gone, rose to his feet and continued along thetrail.

It was at this brief halt that Smith-Oldwick was brought toher side by the men who had been supporting him. He hadbeen rather badly mauled by one of the lions; but was nowable to walk alone, though he was extremely weak from shockand loss of blood.

"Pretty mess, what?" he remarked with a wry smile, indi-cating his bloody and disheveled state.

"It is terrible," said the girl. "I hope you are not suffering."

"Not as much as I should have expected," he replied, "butI feel as weak as a fool. What sort of creatures are thesebeggars, anyway?"

"I don't know," she replied, "there is something terriblyuncanny about their appearance."

The man regarded one of their captors closely for a mo-ment and then, turning to the girl asked, "Did you ever visita madhouse?"

She looked up at him in quick understanding and with ahorrified expression in her eyes. "That's it!" she cried.

"They have all the earmarks," he said. "Whites of the eyesshowing all around the irises, hair growing stiffly erect fromthe scalp and low down upon the forehead -- even their man-nerisms and their carriage are those of maniacs."

The girl shuddered.

"Another thing about them," continued the Englishman,"that doesn't appear normal is that they are afraid of parrotsand utterly fearless of lions."

"Yes," said the girl; "and did you notice that the birds seemutterly fearless of them -- really seem to hold them in con-tempt? Have you any idea what language they speak?"

'No," said the man, "I have been trying to figure that out.It's not like any of the few native dialects of which I have anyknowledge."

"It doesn't sound at all like the native language," said thegirl, "but there is something familiar about it. You know,every now and then I feel that I am just on the verge ofunderstanding what they are saying, or at least that some-where I have heard their tongue before, but final recognitionalways eludes me."

"I doubt if you ever heard their language spoken," said theman. "These people must have lived in this out-of-the-wayvalley for ages and even if they had retained the originallanguage of their ancestors without change, which is doubt-ful, it must be some tongue that is no longer spoken in theouter world."

At one point where a stream of water crossed the trail theparty halted while the lions and the men drank. They mo-tioned to their captors to drink too, and as Bertha Kircherand Smith-Oldwick, lying prone upon the ground drank fromthe clear, cool water of the rivulet, they were suddenly startledby the thunderous roar of a lion a short distance ahead ofthem. Instantly the lions with them set up a hideous response,moving restlessly to and fro with their eyes always eitherturned in the direction from which the roar had come ortoward their masters, against whom the tawny beasts slunk.The men loosened the sabers in their scabbards, the weaponsthat had aroused Smith-Oldwick's curiosity as they had Tar-zan's, and grasped their spears more firmly.

Evidently there were lions and lions, and while they evincedno fear of the beasts which accompanied them, it was quiteevident that the voice of the newcomer had an entirely differ-ent effect upon them, although the men seemed less terrifiedthan the lions. Neither, however, showed any indication ofan inclination to flee; on the contrary the entire party advancedalong the trail in the direction of the menacing roars, andpresently there appeared in the center of the path a blacklion of gigantic proportions. To Smith-Oldwick and the girlhe appeared to be the same lion that they had encounteredat the plane and from which Tarzan had rescued them. Butit was not Numa of the pit, although he resembled him closely.

The black beast stood directly in the center of the traillashing his tail and growling menacingly at the advancingparty. The men urged on their own beasts, who growled andwhined but hesitated to charge. Evidently becoming impa-tient, and in full consciousness of his might the intruder raisedhis tail stiffly erect and shot forward. Several of the de-fending lions made a half-hearted attempt to obstruct hispassage, but they might as well have placed themselves in thepath of an express train, as hurling them aside the great beastleaped straight for one of the men. A dozen spears werelaunched at him and a dozen sabers leaped from their scab-bards; gleaming, razor-edged weapons they were, but for theinstant rendered futile by the terrific speed of the chargingbeast.

Two of the spears entering his body but served to furtherenrage him as, with demoniacal roars, he sprang upon thehapless man he had singled out for his prey. Scarcely pausingin his charge he seized the fellow by the shoulder and, turningquickly at right angles, leaped into the concealing foliagethat flanked the trail, and was gone, bearing his victim withhim.

So quickly had the whole occurrence transpired that theformation of the little party was scarcely altered. There hadbeen no opportunity for flight, even if it had been contem-plated; and now that the lion was gone with his prey the menmade no move to pursue him. They paused only long enoughto recall the two or three of their lions that had scattered andthen resumed the march along the trail.

"Might be an everyday occurrence from all the effect it hason them," remarked Smith-Oldwick to the girl.

"Yes," she said. "They seem to be neither surprised nordisconcerted, and evidently they are quite sure that the lion,having got what he came for, will not molest them further."

"I had thought," said the Englishman, "that the lions of theWamabo country were about the most ferocious in existence,but they are regular tabby cats by comparison with these bigblack fellows. Did you ever see anything more utterly fear-less or more terribly irresistible than that charge?"

For a while, as they walked side by side, their thoughts andconversation centered upon this latest experience, until thetrail emerging from the forest opened to their view a walledcity and an area of cultivated land. Neither could suppressan exclamation of surprise.

"Why, that wall is a regular engineering job," exclaimedSmith-Oldwick

"And look at the domes and minarets of the city beyond,"cried the girl. "There must be a civilized people beyond thatwall. Possibly we are fortunate to have fallen into their hands."

Smith-Oldwick shrugged his shoulders. "I hope so," hesaid, "though I am not at all sure about people who travelabout with lions and are afraid of parrots. There must besomething wrong with them."

The party followed the trail across the field to an archedgateway which opened at the summons of one of their captors,who beat upon the heavy wooden panels with his spear.Beyond, the gate opened into a narrow street which seemedbut a continuation of the jungle trail leading from the forest.Buildings on either hand adjoined the wall and fronted thenarrow, winding street, which was only visible for a shortdistance ahead. The houses were practically all two-storiedstructures, the upper stories flush with the street while thewalls of the first story were set back some ten feet, a series ofsimple columns and arches supporting the front of the secondstory and forming an arcade on either side of the narrowthoroughfare.

The pathway in the center of the street was unpaved, butthe floors of the arcades were cut stone of various shapes andsizes but all carefully fitted and laid without mortar. Thesefloors gave evidence of great antiquity, there being a distinctdepression down the center as though the stone had beenworn away by the passage of countless sandaled feet duringthe ages that it had lain there.

There were few people astir at this early hour, and thesewere of the same type as their captors. At first those whomthey saw were only men, but as they went deeper into thecity they came upon a few naked children playing in the softdust of the roadway. Many they passed showed the greatestsurprise and curiosity in the prisoners, and often made in-quiries of the guards, which the two assumed must have beenin relation to themselves, while others appeared not to noticethem at all.

"I wish we could understand their bally language," ex-claimed Smith-Oldwick.

"Yes," said the girl, "I would like to ask them what theyare going to do with us."

"That would be interesting," said the man. "I have beendoing considerable wondering along that line myself."

"I don't like the way their canine teeth are filed," said thegirl. "It's too suggestive of some of the cannibals I have seen."

"You don't really believe they are cannibals, do you?" askedthe man. "You don't think white people are ever cannibals,do you?"

"Are these people white?" asked the girl.

"They're not Negroes, that's certain," rejoined the man."Their skin is yellow, but yet it doesn't resemble the Chineseexactly, nor are any of their features Chinese."

It was at this juncture that they caught their first glimpse ofa native woman. She was similar in most respects to the menthough her stature was smaller and her figure more symmetri-cal. Her face was more repulsive than that of the men, pos-sibly because of the fact that she was a woman, which ratheraccentuated the idiosyncrasies of eyes, pendulous lip, pointedtusks and stiff, low-growing hair. The latter was longer thanthat of the men and much heavier. It hung about her shoul-ders and was confined by a colored bit of some lacy fabric.Her single garment appeared to be nothing more than a filmyscarf which was wound tightly around her body from belowher naked breasts, being caught up some way at the bottomnear her ankles. Bits of shiny metal resembling gold, orna-mented both the headdress and the skirt. Otherwise the womanwas entirely without jewelry. Her bare arms were slenderand shapely and her hands and feet well proportioned andsymmetrical.

She came close to the party as they passed her, jabberingto the guards who paid no attention to her. The prisonershad an opportunity to observe her closely as she followed attheir side for a short distance.

"The figure of a houri," remarked Smith-Oldwick, "with theface of an imbecile."

The street they followed was intersected at irregular in-tervals by crossroads which, as they glanced down them,proved to be equally as tortuous as that through which theywere being conducted. The houses varied but little in design.Occasionally there were bits of color, or some attempt at otherarchitectural ornamentation. Through open windows and doorsthey could see that the walls of the houses were very thickand that all apertures were quite small, as though the peoplehad built against extreme heat, which they realized musthave been necessary in this valley buried deep in an Africandesert.

Ahead they occasionally caught glimpses of larger struc-tures, and as they approached them, came upon what wasevidently a part of the business section of the city. Therewere numerous small shops and bazaars interspersed amongthe residences, and over the doors of these were signs paintedin characters strongly suggesting Greek origin and yet it wasnot Greek as both the Englishman and the girl knew.

Smith-Oldwick was by this time beginning to feel moreacutely the pain of his wounds and the consequent weaknessthat was greatly aggravated by loss of blood. He staggered nowoccasionally and the girl, seeing his plight, offered him herarm.

"No," he expostulated, "you have passed through too muchyourself to have any extra burden imposed upon you." Butthough he made a valiant effort to keep up with their captorshe occasionally lagged, and upon one such occasion the guardsfor the first time showed any disposition toward brutality.

It was a big fellow who walked at Smith-Oldwick's left.Several times he took hold of the Englishman's arm andpushed him forward not ungently, but when the captivelagged again and again the fellow suddenly, and certainlywith no just provocation, flew into a perfect frenzy of rage.He leaped upon the wounded man, striking him viciouslywith his fists and, bearing him to the ground, grasped histhroat in his left hand while with his right he drew his longsharp saber. Screaming terribly he waved the blade above hishead.

The others stopped and turned to look upon the encounterwith no particular show of interest. It was as though one ofthe party had paused to readjust a sandal and the others merelywaited until he was ready to march on again.

But if their captors were indifferent, Bertha Kircher was not.The close-set blazing eyes, the snarling fanged face, and thefrightful screams filled her with horror, while the brutal andwanton attack upon the wounded man aroused within her thespirit of protection for the weak that is inherent in all women.Forgetful of everything other than that a weak and defense-less man was being brutally murdered before her eyes, the girlcast aside discretion and, rushing to Smith-Oldwick's assist-ance, seized the uplifted sword arm of the shrieking creatureupon the prostrate Englishman.

Clinging desperately to the fellow she surged backward withall her weight and strength with the result that she overbal-anced him and sent him sprawling to the pavement upon hisback. In his efforts to save himself he relaxed his grasp uponthe grip of his saber which had no sooner fallen to the groundthan it was seized upon by the girl. Standing erect beside theprostrate form of the English officer Bertha Kircher, the razor-edged weapon grasped firmly in her hand, faced their captors.

She was a brave figure; even her soiled and torn riding togsand disheveled hair detracted nothing from her appearance.The creature she had felled scrambled quickly to his feet andin the instant his whole demeanor changed. From demoniacalrage he became suddenly convulsed with hysterical laughteralthough it was a question in the girl's mind as to which wasthe more terrifying. His companions stood looking on withvacuous grins upon their countenances, while he from whomthe girl had wrested the weapon leaped up and down shriek-ing with laughter. If Bertha Kircher had needed further evi-dence to assure her that they were in the hands of a mentallyderanged people the man's present actions would have beensufficient to convince her. The sudden uncontrolled rage andnow the equally uncontrolled and mirthless laughter but em-phasized the facial attributes of idiocy.

Suddenly realizing how helpless she was in the event anyone of the men should seek to overpower her, and moved bya sudden revulsion of feeling that brought on almost a nauseaof disgust, the girl hurled the weapon upon the ground at thefeet of the laughing maniac and, turning, kneeled beside theEnglishman.

"It was wonderful of you," he said, "but you shouldn't havedone it. Don't antagonize them: I believe that they are allmad and you know they say that one should always humor amadman."

She shook her head. "I couldn't see him kill you," she said.

A sudden light sprang to the man's eyes as he reached outa hand and grasped the girl's fingers. "Do you care a littlenow?" he asked. "Can't you tell me that you do -- just a bit?"

She did not withdraw her hand from his but she shook herhead sadly. "Please don't," she said. "I am sorry that I canonly like you very much."

The light died from his eyes and his fingers relaxed theirgrasp on hers. "Please forgive me," he murmured. "I intendedwaiting until we got out of this mess and you were safe amongyour own people. It must have been the shock or somethinglike that, and seeing you defending me as you did. Anyway, Icouldn't help it and really it doesn't make much difference whatI say now, does it?"

"What do you mean?" she asked quickly.

He shrugged and smiled ruefully. "I will never leave thiscity alive," he said. "I wouldn't mention it except that I real-ize that you must know it as well as I. I was pretty badly tornup by the lion and this fellow here has about finished me.There might be some hope if we were among civilized people,but here with these frightful creatures what care could weget even if they were friendly?"

Bertha Kircher knew that he spoke the truth, and yet shecould not bring herself to an admission that Smith-Oldwickwould die. She was very fond of him, in fact her great regretwas that she did not love him, but she knew that she did not.

It seemed to her that it could be such an easy thing for anygirl to love Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick -- an Eng-lish officer and a gentleman, the scion of an old family andhimself a man of ample means, young, good-looking and af-fable. What more could a girl ask for than to have such aman love her and that she possessed Smith-Oldwick's lovethere was no doubt in Bertha Kircher's mind.

She sighed, and then, laying her hand impulsively on hisforehead, she whispered, "Do not give up hope, though. Tryto live for my sake and for your sake I will try to love you."

It was as though new life had suddenly been injected intothe man's veins. His face lightened instantly and with strengththat he himself did not know he possessed he rose slowly tohis feet, albeit somewhat unsteadily. The girl helped him andsupported him after he had arisen.

For the moment they had been entirely unconscious of theirsurroundings and now as she looked at their captors she sawthat they had fallen again into their almost habitual mannerof stolid indifference, and at a gesture from one of them themarch was resumed as though no untoward incident hadoccurred.

Bertha Kircher experienced a sudden reaction from the mo-mentary exaltation of her recent promise to the Englishman.She knew that she had spoken more for him than for herselfbut now that it was over she realized, as she had realized themoment before she had spoken, that it was unlikely she wouldever care for him the way he wished. But what had she prom-ised? Only that she would try to love him. "And now?" sheasked herself.

She realized that there might be little hope of their everreturning to civilization. Even if these people should provefriendly and willing to let them depart in peace, how werethey to find their way back to the coast? With Tarzan dead,as she fully believed him after having seen his body lying life-less at the mouth of the cave when she had been dragged forthby her captor, there seemed no power at their command whichcould guide them safely.

The two had scarcely mentioned the ape-man since theircapture, for each realized fully what his loss meant to them.They had compared notes relative to those few exciting mo-ments of the final attack and capture and had found that theyagreed perfectly upon all that had occurred. Smith-Oldwickhad even seen the lion leap upon Tarzan at the instant that theformer was awakened by the roars of the charging beasts, andthough the night had been dark, he had been able to see thatthe body of the savage ape-man had never moved from theinstant that it had come down beneath the beast.

And so, if at other times within the past few weeks BerthaKircher had felt that her situation was particularly hopeless,she was now ready to admit that hope was absolutely extinct.

The streets were beginning to fill with the strange men andwomen of this strange city. Sometimes individuals would noticethem and seem to take a great interest in them, and againothers would pass with vacant stares, seemingly unconsciousof their immediate surroundings and paying no attentionwhatsoever to the prisoners. Once they heard hideous screamsup a side street, and looking they saw a man in the throesof a demoniacal outburst of rage, similar to that which theyhad witnessed in the recent attack upon Smith-Oldwick. Thiscreature was venting his insane rage upon a child which herepeatedly struck and bit, pausing only long enough to shriekat frequent intervals. Finally, just before they passed out ofsight the creature raised the limp body of the child high abovehis head and cast it down with all his strength upon the pave-ment, and then, wheeling and screaming madly at the top ofhis lungs, he dashed headlong up the winding street.

Two women and several men had stood looking on at thecruel attack. They were at too great a distance for the Euro-peans to know whether their facial expressions portrayed pityor rage, but be that as it may, none offered to interfere.

A few yards farther on a hideous hag leaned from a secondstory window where she laughed and jibbered and made hor-rid grimaces at all who passed her. Others went their waysapparently attending to whatever duties called them, as soberlyas the inhabitants of any civilized community.

"God," muttered Smith-Oldwick, "what an awful place!"

The girl turned suddenly toward him. "You still have yourpistol?" she asked him.

"Yes," he replied. "I tucked it inside my shirt. They didnot search me and it was too dark for them to see whether Icarried any weapons or not. So I hid it in the hope that I mightget through with it."

She moved closer to him and took hold of his hand. "Saveone cartridge for me, please?" she begged.

Smith-Oldwick looked down at her and blinked his eyesvery rapidly. An unfamiliar and disconcerting moisture hadcome into them. He had realized, of course, how bad a plightwas theirs but somehow it had seemed to affect him only:it did not seem possible that anyone could harm this sweetand beautiful girl.

And that she should have to be destroyed -- destroyed byhim! It was too hideous: it was unbelievable, unthinkable! Ifhe had been filled with apprehension before, he was doublyperturbed now.

"I don't believe I could do it, Bertha," he said.

"Not even to save me from something worse?" she asked.

He shook his head dismally. "I could never do it," he re-plied.

The street that they were following suddenly opened upona wide avenue, and before them spread a broad and beautifullagoon, the quiet surface of which mirrored the clear ceruleanof the sky. Here the aspect of all their surroundings changed.The buildings were higher and much more pretentious in de-sign and ornamentation. The street itself was paved in mosaicsof barbaric but stunningly beautiful design. In the ornamen-tation of the buildings there was considerable color and agreat deal of what appeared to be gold leaf. In all the decora-tions there was utilized in various ways the conventional figureof the parrot, and, to a lesser extent, that of the lion and themonkey.

Their captors led them along the pavement beside the la-goon for a short distance and then through an arched doorwayinto one of the buildings facing the avenue. Here, directlywithin the entrance was a large room furnished with massivebenches and tables, many of which were elaborately handcarved with the figures of the inevitable parrot, the lion, orthe monkey, the parrot always predominating.

Behind one of the tables sat a man who differed in no waythat the captives could discover from those who accompaniedthem. Before this person the party halted, and one of the menwho had brought them made what seemed to be an oral report.Whether they were before a judge, a military officer, or a civildignitary they could not know, but evidently he was a manof authority, for, after listening to whatever recital was beingmade to him the while he closely scrutinized the two captives,he made a single futile attempt to converse with them andthen issued some curt orders to him who had made the report.

Almost immediately two of the men approached BerthaKircher and signaled her to accompany them. Smith-Oldwickstarted to follow her but was intercepted by one of theirguards. The girl stopped then and turned back, at the sametime looking at the man at the table and making signs withher hands, indicating, as best she could, that she wished Smith-Oldwick to remain with her, but the fellow only shook hishead negatively and motioned to the guards to remove her.The Englishman again attempted to follow but was restrained.He was too weak and helpless even to make an attempt toenforce his wishes. He thought of the pistol inside his shirtand then of the futility of attempting to overcome an entirecity with the few rounds of ammunition left to him.

So far, with the single exception of the attack made uponhim, they had no reason to believe that they might not receivefair treatment from their captors, and so he reasoned that itmight be wiser to avoid antagonizing them until such a timeas he became thoroughly convinced that their intentions wereentirely hostile. He saw the girl led from the building andjust before she disappeared from his view she turned andwaved her hand to him:

"Good luck!" she cried, and was gone.

The lions that had entered the building with the party had,during their examination by the man at the table, been drivenfrom the apartment through a doorway behind him. Towardthis same doorway two of the men now led Smith-Oldwick.He found himself in a long corridor from the sides of whichother doorways opened, presumably into other apartmentsof the building. At the far end of the corridor he saw a heavygrating beyond which appeared an open courtyard. Into thiscourtyard the prisoner was conducted, and as he entered it withthe two guards he found himself in an opening which wasbounded by the inner walls of the building. It was in the natureof a garden in which a number of trees and flowering shrubsgrew. Beneath several of the trees were benches and therewas a bench along the south wall, but what aroused his mostimmediate attention was the fact that the lions who hadassisted in their capture and who had accompanied themupon the return to the city, lay sprawled about upon theground or wandered restlessly to and fro.

Just inside the gate his guard halted. The two men ex-changed a few words and then turned and reentered thecorridor. The Englishman was horror-stricken as the fullrealization of his terrible plight forced itself upon his tiredbrain. He turned and seized the grating in an attempt to openit and gain the safety of the corridor, but he found it securelylocked against his every effort, and then he called aloud to theretreating figure of the men within. The only reply he receivedwas a high-pitched, mirthless laugh, and then the two passedthrough the doorway at the far end of the corridor and he wasalone with the lions.