Just before dark that evening, an almost exhausted flierentered the headquarters of Colonel Capell of the SecondRhodesians and saluted.

"Well, Thompson," asked the superior, "what luck? Theothers have all returned. Never saw a thing of Oldwick or hisplane. I guess we shall have to give it up unless you weremore successful."

"I was," replied the young officer. "I found the plane."

"No!" ejaculated Colonel Capell. "Where was it? Any signof Oldwick?"

"It is in the rottenest hole in the ground you ever saw, quitea bit inland. Narrow gorge. Saw the plane all right but can'treach it. There was a regular devil of a lion wandering aroundit. I landed near the edge of the cliff and was going to climbdown and take a look at the plane. But this fellow hungaround for an hour or more and I finally had to give it up."

"Do you think the lions got Oldwick?" asked the colonel.

"I doubt it," replied Lieutenant Thompson, "from the factthat there was no indication that the lion had fed anywhereabout the plane. I arose after I found it was impossible to getdown around the plane and reconnoitered up and down thegorge. Several miles to the south I found a small, woodedvalley in the center of which -- please don't think me crazy, sir-- is a regular city -- streets, buildings, a central plaza withalagoon, good-sized buildings with domes and minarets andall that sort of stuff."

The elder officer looked at the younger compassionately."You're all wrought up, Thompson," he said. "Go and take agood sleep. You have been on this job now for a long whileand it must have gotten on your nerves."

The young man shook his head a bit irritably. "Pardon me,sir," he said, "but I am telling you the truth. I am not mis-taken. I circled over the place several times. It may be thatOldwick has found his way there -- or has been captured bythese people."

"Were there people in the city?" asked the colonel.

"Yes, I saw them in the streets."

"Do you think cavalry could reach the valley?" asked thecolonel.

"No," replied Thompson, "the country is all cut up withthese deep gorges. Even infantry would have a devil of atime of it, and there is absolutely no water that I could dis-cover for at least a two days' march."

It was at this juncture that a big Vauxhall drew up in frontof the headquarters of the Second Rhodesians and a momentlater General Smuts alighted and entered. Colonel Capell arosefrom his chair and saluted his superior, and the young lieu-tenant saluted and stood at attention.

"I was passing," said the general, "and I thought I wouldstop for a chat. By the way, how is the search for LieutenantSmith-Oldwick progressing? I see Thompson here and I believehe was one of those detailed to the search."

"Yes," said Capell, "he was. He is the last to come in. Hefound the lieutenant's ship," and then he repeated what Lieu-tenant Thompson had reported to him. The general sat downat the table with Colonel Capell, and together the two officers,with the assistance of the flier, marked the approximate loca-tion of the city which Thompson had reported he'd discovered.

"It's a mighty rough country," remarked Smuts, "but wecan't leave a stone unturned until we have exhausted every re-source to find that boy. We will send out a small force; a smallone will be more likely to succeed than a large one. About onecompany, Colonel, or say two, with sufficient motor lorries fortransport of rations and water. Put a good man in commandand let him establish a base as far to the west as the motorscan travel. You can leave one company there and send theother forward. I am inclined to believe you can establish yourbase within a day's march of the city and if such is the case theforce you send ahead should have no trouble on the score oflack of water as there certainly must be water in the valleywhere the city lies. Detail a couple of planes for reconnais-sance and messenger service so that the base can keep in touchat all times with the advance party. When can your forcemove out?"

"We can load the lorries tonight," replied Capell, "andmarch about one o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Good," said the general, "keep me advised," and returningthe others' salutes he departed.

As Tarzan leaped for the vines he realized that the lion wasclose upon him and that his life depended upon the strengthof the creepers clinging to the city walls; but to his intenserelief he found the stems as large around as a man's arm, andthe tendrils which had fastened themselves to the wall sofirmly fixed, that his weight upon the stem appeared to haveno appreciable effect upon them.

He heard Numa's baffled roar as the lion slipped downwardclawing futilely at the leafy creepers, and then with the agilityof the apes who had reared him, Tarzan bounded nimbly aloftto the summit of the wall.

A few feet below him was the flat roof of the adjoiningbuilding and as he dropped to it his back was toward the nichefrom which an embrasure looked out upon the gardens andthe forest beyond, so that he did not see the figure crouchingthere in the dark shadow. But if he did not see he was notlong in ignorance of the fact that he was not alone, for scarcelyhad his feet touched the roof when a heavy body leaped uponhim from behind and brawny arms encircled him about thewaist.

Taken at a disadvantage and lifted from his feet, the ape-man was, for the time being, helpless. Whatever the creaturewas that had seized him, it apparently had a well-definedpurpose in mind, for it walked directly toward the edge of theroof so that it was soon apparent to Tarzan that he was to behurled to the pavement below -- a most efficacious manner ofdisposing of an intruder. That he would be either maimed orkilled the ape-man was confident; but he had no intentionof permitting his assailant to carry out the plan.

Tarzan's arms and legs were free but he was in such a disad-vantageous position that he could not use them to any goodeffect. His only hope lay in throwing the creature off itsbalance, and to this end Tarzan straightened his body andleaned as far back against his captor as he could, and thensuddenly lunged forward. The result was as satisfactory ashe could possibly have hoped. The great weight of the ape-man thrown suddenly out from an erect position caused theother also to lunge violently forward with the result that tosave himself he involuntarily released his grasp. Catlike inhis movements, the ape-man had no sooner touched the roofthan he was upon his feet again, facing his adversary, a manalmost as large as himself and armed with a saber which henow whipped from its scabbard. Tarzan, however, had nomind to allow the use of this formidable weapon and so hedove for the other's legs beneath the vicious cut that wasdirected at him from the side, and as a football player tacklesan opposing runner, Tarzan tackled his antagonist, carryinghim backward several yards and throwing him heavily to theroof upon his back.

No sooner had the man touched the roof than the ape-manwas upon his chest, one brawny hand sought and found thesword wrist and the other the throat of the yellow-tunickedguardsman. Until then the fellow had fought in silence butjust as Tarzan's fingers touched his throat he emitted a singlepiercing shriek that the brown fingers cut off almost instantly.The fellow struggled to escape the clutch of the naked creatureupon his breast but equally as well might he have fought toescape the talons of Numa, the lion.

Gradually his struggles lessened, his pin-point eyes poppedfrom their sockets, rolling horribly upward, while from hisfoam-flecked lips his swollen tongue protruded. As hisstruggles ceased Tarzan arose, and placing a foot upon thecarcass of his kill, was upon the point of screaming forth hisvictory cry when the thought that the work before himrequired the utmost caution sealed his lips.

Walking to the edge of the roof he looked down into thenarrow, winding street below. At intervals, apparently at eachstreet intersection, an oil flare sputtered dimly from bracketsset in the walls a trifle higher than a man's head. For themost part the winding alleys were in dense shadow and evenin the immediate vicinity of the flares the illumination was farfrom brilliant. In the restricted area of his vision he could seethat there were still a few of the strange inhabitants movingabout the narrow thoroughfares.

To prosecute his search for the young officer and the girlhe must be able to move about the city as freely as possible,but to pass beneath one of the corner flares, naked as he wasexcept for a loin cloth, and in every other respect markedlydifferent from the inhabitants of the city, would be but to courtalmost immediate discovery. As these thoughts flashedthrough his mind and he cast about for some feasible plan ofaction, his eyes fell upon the corpse upon the roof near him,and immediately there occurred to him the possibility ofdisguising himself in the raiment of his conquered adversary.

It required but a few moments for the ape-man to clothehimself in the tights, sandals, and parrot emblazoned yellowtunic of the dead soldier. Around his waist he buckled thesaber belt but beneath the tunic he retained the hunting knifeof his dead father. His other weapons he could not lightly dis-card, and so, in the hope that he might eventually recoverthem, he carried them to the edge of the wall and droppedthem among the foliage at its base. At the last moment hefound it difficult to part with his rope, which, with his knife,was his most accustomed weapon, and one which he had usedfor the greatest length of time. He found that by removing thesaber belt he could wind the rope about his waist beneath histunic, and then replacing the belt still retain it entirely con-cealed from chance observation.

At last, satisfactorily disguised, and with even his shock ofblack hair adding to the verisimilitude of his likeness to thenatives of the city, he sought for some means of reaching thestreet below. While he might have risked a drop from theeaves of the roof he feared to do so lest he attract theattentionof passers-by, and probable discovery. The roofs of the build-ings varied in height but as the ceilings were all low he foundthat he could easily travel along the roof tops and this he didfor some little distance, until he suddenly discovered justahead of him several figures reclining upon the roof of anear-by building.

He had noticed openings in each roof, evidently givingingress to the apartments below, and now, his advance cut offby those ahead of him, he decided to risk the chance ofreaching the street through the interior of one of the build-ings. Approaching one of the openings he leaned over theblack hole and, listened for sounds of life in the apartmentbelow. Neither his ears nor his nose registered evidence ofthe presence of any living creature in the immediate vicinity,and so without further hesitation the ape-man lowered hisbody through the aperture and was about to drop when hisfoot came in contact with the rung of a ladder, which he im-mediately took advantage of to descend to the floor of theroom below.

Here, all was almost total darkness until his eyes becameaccustomed to the interior, the darkness of which was slightlyalleviated by the reflected light from a distant street flarewhich shone intermittently through the narrow windows front-ing the thoroughfare. Finally, assured that the apartment wasunoccupied, Tarzan sought for a stairway to the ground floor.This he found in a dark hallway upon which the room opened-- a flight of narrow stone steps leading downward towardthe street. Chance favored him so that he reached the shadowsof the arcade without encountering any of the inmates of thehouse.

Once on the street he was not at a loss as to the direction inwhich he wished to go, for he had tracked the two Europeanspractically to the gate, which he felt assured must have giventhem entry to the city. His keen sense of direction and loca-tion made it possible for him to judge with considerable ac-curacy the point within the city where he might hope to pickup the spoor of those whom he sought.

The first need, however, was to discover a street parallelingthe northern wall along which he could make his way in thedirection of the gate he had seen from the forest. Realizingthat his greatest hope of success lay in the boldness of hisoperations he moved off in the direction of the nearest streetflare without making any other attempt at concealment thankeeping in the shadows of the arcade, which he judged woulddraw no particular attention to him in that he saw otherpedestrians doing likewise. The few he passed gave him noheed, and he had almost reached the nearest intersection whenhe saw several men wearing yellow tunics identical to thatwhich he had taken from his prisoner.

They were coming directly toward him and the ape-mansaw that should he continue on he would meet them directlyat the intersection of the two streets in the full light of theflare. His first inclination was to go steadily on, forpersonallyhe had no objection to chancing a scrimmage with them; but asudden recollection of the girl, possibly a helpless prisoner inthe hands of these people, caused him to seek some other andless hazardous plan of action.

He had almost emerged from the shadow of the arcade intothe full light of the flare and the approaching men were but afew yards from him, when he suddenly kneeled and pretendedto adjust the wrappings of his sandals -- wrappings, which, bythe way, he was not at all sure that he had adjusted as theirmakers had intended them to be adjusted. He was still kneel-ing when the soldiers came abreast of him. Like the othershe had passed they paid no attention to him and the momentthey were behind him he continued upon his way, turning tothe right at the intersection of the two streets.

The street he now took was, at this point, so extremelywinding that, for the most part, it received no benefit from theflares at either corner, so that he was forced practically togrope his way in the dense shadows of the arcade. The streetbecame a little straighter just before he reached the next flare,and as he came within sight of it he saw silhouetted against apatch of light the figure of a lion. The beast was comingslowly down the street in Tarzan's direction.

A woman crossed the way directly in front of it and the lionpaid no attention to her, nor she to the lion. An instant later alittle child ran after the woman and so close did he run beforethe lion that the beast was forced to turn out of its way a stepto avoid colliding with the little one. The ape-man grinnedand crossed quickly to the opposite side of the street, for hisdelicate senses indicated that at this point the breeze stirringthrough the city streets and deflected by the opposite wallwould now blow from the lion toward him as the beast passed,whereas if he remained upon the side of the street upon whichhe had been walking when he discovered the carnivore, hisscent would have been borne to the nostrils of the animal, andTarzan was sufficiently jungle-wise to realize that while hemight deceive the eyes of man and beast he could not so easilydisguise from the nostrils of one of the great cats that he was acreature of a different species from the inhabitants of the city,the only human beings, possibly, that Numa was familiar with.In him the cat would recognize a stranger, and, therefore, anenemy, and Tarzan had no desire to be delayed by an en-counter with a savage lion. His ruse worked successfully, thelion passing him with not more than a side glance in hisdirection.

He had proceeded for some little distance and had aboutreached a point where he judged he would find the streetwhich led up from the city gate when, at an intersection of twostreets, his nostrils caught the scent spoor of the girl. Out ofa maze of other scent spoors the ape-man picked the familiarodor of the girl and, a second later, that of Smith-Oldwick.He had been forced to accomplish it, however, by bendingvery low at each street intersection in repeated attention to hissandal wrappings, bringing his nostrils as close to the pave-ment as possible.

As he advanced along the street through which the two hadbeen conducted earlier in the day he noted, as had they, thechange in the type of buildings as he passed from a residencedistrict into that portion occupied by shops and bazaars. Herethe number of flares was increased so that they appeared notonly at street intersections but midway between as well, andthere were many more people abroad. The shops were openand lighted, for with the setting of the sun the intense heat ofthe day had given place to a pleasant coolness. Here also thenumber of lions, roaming loose through the thoroughfares,increased, and also for the first time Tarzan noted the idiosyn-crasies of the people.

Once he was nearly upset by a naked man running rapidlythrough the street screaming at the top of his voice. Andagain he nearly stumbled over a woman who was making herway in the shadows of one of the arcades upon all fours. Atfirst the ape-man thought she was hunting for something shehad dropped, but as he drew to one side to watch her, he sawthat she was doing nothing of the kind -- that she had merelyelected to walk upon her hands and knees rather than erectupon her feet. In another block he saw two creatures strug-gling upon the roof of an adjacent building until finally one ofthem, wrenching himself free from the grasp of the other, gavehis adversary a mighty push which hurled him to the pavementbelow, where he lay motionless upon the dusty road. For aninstant a wild shriek re-echoed through the city from the lungsof the victor and then, without an instant's hesitation, the fel-low leaped headfirst to the street beside the body of hisvictim. A lion moved out from the dense shadows of a door-way and approached the two bloody and lifeless things beforehim. Tarzan wondered what effect the odor of blood wouldhave upon the beast and was surprised to see that the animalonly sniffed at the corpses and the hot red blood and then laydown beside the two dead men.

He had passed the lion but a short distance when his atten-tion was called to the figure of a man lowering himself la-boriously from the roof of a building upon the east side of thethoroughfare. Tarzan's curiosity was aroused.