which was the bole of a young tree about eight inches in diameter. Without difficulty they reached the ground, and again he took her hand and led her to the bank of the river. As they moved down stream parallel with the temple he sought for a canoe, and when they had come opposite the front of the building he could scarce restrain an exclamation of relief and delight when they came suddenly upon one drawn up on the shore, partially out of the water.
Silently they strained to push the heavy craft into the river. At first it seemed that their efforts would prove of no avail; but at last it started to slip gently downward, and once it was loosened from the sticky mud of the bank that same medium became a slipper slide down which it coasted easily.
He helped her in, shoved the canoe out into the sluggish stream, and jumped in after her; then with a silent prayer of thanksgiving they drifted silently down toward the great river.
Chapter 11. Battle
INTO the camp of the sleeping Utengas dropped Muzimo and The Spirit of Nyamwegi an hour after midnight. No sentry had seen them pass, a fact which did not at all surprise the sentries, who knew that spirits pass through the forest unseen at all times if they choose to do so.
Orando, being a good soldier, had just made the rounds of his sentry posts and was still awake when Muzimo located him. 'What news have you brought me, O Muzimo?' demanded the son of Lobongo. 'What word of the enemy?'
'We have been to his village,' replied Muzimo, 'The Spirit of Nyamwegi, Lupingu, and I.'
'And where is Lupingu?'
'He remained there after carrying a message to Gato Mgungu.'
'You gave the traitor his liberty!' exclaimed Orando.
'It will do him little good. He was dead when he entered the village of Gato Mgungu.'
'How then could he carry a message to the chief?'
'He carried a message of terror that the Leopard Men understood. He told them that traitors do not go unpunished. He told them that the power of Orando is great.'
'And what did the Leopard Men do?'
'They fled to their temple to consult the high priest and the Leopard God. We followed them there; but they did not learn much from the high priest or the Leopard God, for they all got very drunk upon beer-all except the Leopard, and he cannot talk when the high priest cannot talk. I came to tell you that their village is now almost deserted except for the women, the children, and a few warriors. This would be a good time to attack it, or to lie in ambush near it awaiting the return of the warriors from the temple. They will be sick, and men do not fight so well when they are sick.'
'Now is a good time,' agreed Orando, clapping his palms together to awaken the sleepers near him.
'In the temple of the Leopard God I saw one whom you know well,' remarked Muzimo as the sleepy headmen aroused their warriors. 'He is a priest of the Leopard God.'
'I know no Leopard Men,' replied Orando.
'You knew Lupingu, although you did not know that he was a Leopard Man,' Muzimo reminded him; 'and you know Sobito. It was he whom I saw behind the mask of a priest. He is a Leopard Man.'
Orando was silent for a moment. 'You are sure?' he asked.
'Yes.'
'When he went to consult the spirits and the demons, and was gone from the village of Tumbai for many days, he was with the Leopard Men instead,' said Orando. 'Sobito is a traitor. He shall die.'
'Yes,' agreed Muzimo, 'Sobito shall die. He should have been killed long ago.'
Along the winding forest trail Muzimo guided the warriors of Orando toward the village of Gato Mgungu. They moved as rapidly as the darkness and the narrow trail would permit, and at length he halted them at the edge of the field of manioc that lies between the forest and the village. After that they crept silently down toward the river when Muzimo had ascertained that the Leopard Men had not returned from the temple. There they waited, hiding among the bushes that grew on either side of the landing place, while Muzimo departed to scout down the river.
He was gone but a short time when he returned with word that he had counted twenty-nine canoes paddling up stream toward the village. 'Though thirty canoes went down river to the temple,' he explained to Orando, 'these must be the Leopard Men returning.'
Orando crept silently among his warriors, issuing instructions, exhorting them to bravery. The canoes were approaching. They could hear the paddles now, dipping, dipping, dipping. The Utengas waited-tensed, eager. The first canoe touched the bank and its warriors leaped out. Before they had drawn their heavy craft out on the shore the second canoe shot in. Still the Utengas awaited the sign of their leader. Now the canoes were grounding in rapid succession. A line of warriors was stringing out toward the village gate. Twenty canoes had been drawn up on the shore when Orando gave the signal, a savage battle cry that was taken up by ninety howling warriors as spears and arrows showered into the ranks of the Leopard Men.
The charging Utengas broke through the straggling line of the enemy. The Leopard Men, taken wholly by surprise, thought only of flight. Those who had been cut off at the river sought to launch their canoes and escape; those who had not yet landed turned their craft down stream. The remainder tried toward the village, closely pursued by the Utengas. At the closed gates, which the defenders feared to open, the fighting was fierce; at the river it was little better than a slaughter as the warriors of Orando cut down the terrified Leopard Men struggling to launch their canoes.
When it was too late the warriors left to guard the village opened the gates with the intention of making a sortie against the Utengas. Already the last of their companions had been killed or had fled, and when the gates swung open a howling band of Utengas swarmed through.
The victory was complete. No living soul was left within the palisaded village of Gato Mgungu when the blood-spattered warriors of Orando put the torch to its thatched huts.
From down the river the escaping Leopard Men saw the light of the flames billowing upward above the trees that lined the bank, saw their reflection on the surface of the broad river behind them, and knew the proportions of the defeat that had overwhelmed them. Gato Mgungu, squatting in the bottom of his canoe, saw the flames from his burning village, saw in them, perhaps the waning of his savage, ruthless power. Bobolo saw them and, reading the same story, knew that Gato Mgungu need no longer be feared. Of all that band of fleeing warriors Bobolo was the least depressed.
By the light of the burning village Orando took stock of his losses, mustering his men and searching out the dead and wounded. From a tree beyond the manioc field a little monkey screamed and chattered. It was The Spirit of Nyamwegi calling to Muzimo, but Muzimo did not answer. Among the dead and wounded Orando found him like mortal clay stretched out upon his back from a blow upon the head.
The son of the chief was surprised and grieved; his followers were shocked. They had been certain that Muzimo was of the spirit world and therefore immune from death. Suddenly they realized that they had won the battle without his aid. He was a fraud. Filled with blood lust, they would have vented their chagrin through spear thrusts into his lifeless body; but Orando stopped them.
'Spirits do not always remain in the same form,' he reminded them. 'Perhaps he has entered another body or, unseen, is watching us from above. If that is so he will avenge any harm that you do this body he has quitted.' In the light of their knowledge this seemed quite possible to the Utengas; so they desisted from their proposed mutilation and viewed the body with renewed awe. 'Furthermore,' continued Orando, 'man or ghost, he was loyal to me; and those of you who saw him fight know that he fought bravely and well.' 'That is so,' agreed a warrior.
'Tarzan! Tarzan!' shrieked The Spirit of Nyamwegi from the tree at the edge of the manioc field. 'Tarzan of the Apes, Nkima is afraid!'
The white man paddled the stolen canoe down the sluggish stream toward the great river depending upon the strong current for aid to carry him and the girl to safety. Kali Bwana sat silent in the bottom of the craft. She had torn the barbaric headdress from her brow and the horrid necklace of human teeth from her throat, but she
