"The great Tarmangani lies asleep there," he exclaimed, pointing in thedirection from which he had just come. "Come and we can kill him."

"Do not kill him," commanded La in cold tones. "Bring the greatTarmangani to me alive and unhurt. The vengeance is La's. Go; butmake no sound!" and she waved her arms to include all her followers.

Cautiously the weird party crept through the jungle in the wake ofthe great ape until at last he halted them with a raised hand andpointed upward and a little ahead. There they saw the giant formof the ape-man stretched along a low bough and even in sleep onehand grasped a stout limb and one strong, brown leg reached outand overlapped another. At ease lay Tarzan of the Apes, sleepingheavily upon a full stomach and dreaming of Numa, the lion, andHorta, the boar, and other creatures of the jungle. No intimationof danger assailed the dormant faculties of the ape-man--he saw nocrouching hairy figures upon the ground beneath him nor the threeapes that swung quietly into the tree beside him.

The first intimation of danger that came to Tarzan was the impactof three bodies as the three apes leaped upon him and hurled him tothe ground, where he alighted half stunned beneath their combinedweight and was immediately set upon by the fifty hairy men or asmany of them as could swarm upon his person. Instantly the ape-manbecame the center of a whirling, striking, biting maelstrom ofhorror. He fought nobly but the odds against him were too great.Slowly they overcame him though there was scarce one of them thatdid not feel the weight of his mighty fist or the rending of hisfangs.