having his way; but this plan he scarcely considered before discarding it. He did not wish Ydeni to know that it was he who took the girl from him, since he realized the possibility of Ydeni being useful to him in the event that he reached the village of the Kavuru, for after all he had saved the man's life; and that was something that only the lowest of beasts might forget.
He waited therefore to see what disposal Ydeni would make of the girl for the night, for he had it in mind now to take her by stealth; and if that failed, the likelihood of Ydeni recognizing him would be greatly lessened after dark; and so he waited, patient as any other beast of prey that watches for the propitious moment to attack.
Seeing that she would be unable to move the Kavuru by her pleas, the girl had lapsed into silence. Her brooding eyes glowered sullenly at her captor. Fear and hate were reflected in them.
Darkness was approaching rapidly when the Kavuru seized the girl and threw her roughly to the ground. She fought like a young lioness, but Ydeni was powerful and soon overcame her. Then he deftly bound her hands behind her back and trussed her legs so tightly that she could scarcely move them. Terrified, she lay trembling.
'Now,' he said, when he had finished, 'you cannot run away. Ydeni can sleep; you had better sleep; we have a long march tomorrow, and Ydeni will not carry you.'
The girl made no reply. The man threw himself upon the ground near her. A silent figure moved stealthily closer in the trees above them. It was very dark and very quiet. Only the roar of a distant lion, coming faintly to their ears, gave evidence of life in the jungle.
Tarzan waited patiently. By the man's regular breathing, he knew that Ydeni slept; but his slumber was not yet deep enough to satisfy the ape-man.
A half hour passed, and then an hour. Ydeni was sleeping very soundly now, but the girl had not yet slept. That was well; it was what Tarzan wished for.
He bent low from the branch where he lay and spoke to the girl in a low whisper. 'Do not cry out,' he said. 'I am coming down to take you back to your people.'
Very gently he lowered himself to the ground. Even the girl beside whom he stood did not know that he had descended from the trees. He stooped over her with a sibilant caution on his lips.
The girl was afraid; but she was more afraid of the Ka-vuru, and so she made no outcry as Tarzan raised her to his shoulder and carried her silently along the jungle trail until he could take to the trees with less likelihood of arousing Ydeni.
At a safe distance from the sleeping man he paused and cut the girl's bonds.
'Who are you?' she whispered.
'I am the man that Udalo would have killed and that your father set free,' replied the ape-man.
She shrank back. 'Then you are a Kavuru, too,' she said. 'I am no Kavuru. I told them that, but they would not believe me. I am Tarzan of the Apes, chief of the Waziri whose country lies many marches toward the rising sun.'
'You are a Kavuru,' she insisted; 'my father said so.'
'I am not, but what difference does it make if I take you back to your father?'
'How do I know that you will take me back?' she demanded. 'Perhaps you are lying to me.'
'If you'd rather,' said the ape-man, 'I will set you free now; but what will you do here alone in the jungle? A lion or a leopard will surely find you; and even if one did not you might never find your way back to your village, because you do not know in what direction the Kavuru carried you while you were unconscious.'
'I will go with you,' said the girl.
Chapter 11 'Seventy Million Dollars'
BROWN and Tibbs followed the game trail in the direction of the uncanny scream that had startled the camp. 'Milady!' shouted Tibbs. 'Milady, where are you? What has happened?'
Brown quickly forged ahead of Tibbs who had not run a hundred feet in ten years. 'Yes, Miss!' he bellowed, 'where are you?'
'Here, follow the trail,' came back the answer in clear, unshaken tones. 'I'm all right; don't get excited.'
Presently Brown came in sight of her. She was withdrawing the last of three arrows from the carcass of a leopard, and just beyond her lay the eviscerated carcass of an antelope.
'What the—what's all this?' demanded Brown.
'I just killed this bush-buck,' explained Jane, 'and Sheeta here tried to take it away from me.'
'You killed him?' demanded Brown. 'You killed him with your arrows?'
'Well, I didn't bite him to death, Brown,' laughed the girl.
'Was it him or you that let out that yell?'
'That was Sheeta. He was charging; and when my first arrow struck him, he didn't seem to like it at all.'
'And one arrow settled him?' asked the pilot.
'I let him have two more. I don't know which one stopped him. All three went into his heart.'
Brown wiped the perspiration from his forehead. 'By golly,' he said, 'I've got to take my hat off to you, Miss.'
'Well, you can put it back on, Brown, and pack that antelope back to camp. I'll like that a whole lot better.'
Tibbs had come up and was standing in wide-eyed astonishment gazing at the dead leopard. 'If I may make so bold, Milady, I might say that it's most extraordinary. I would never have believed it, Milady, upon my honor, I wouldn't. I never thought those little arrows would kill anything bigger than a bird.'
'You'd be surprised, Hibbs,' said Jane.
'I am, Milady.'
'Do we take the cat back to camp, too?' asked Brown.
'No,' replied Jane. 'Saving the pelt is too much of a job; and, besides that, Princess Sborov would probably collapse with fright at sight of it.'
The pilot picked up the carcass of the antelope, and together the three returned to camp.
Annette was standing wide-eyed, awaiting them. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that all three had returned safely.
'Oh,' she cried, 'you really got something to eat. I am so hungry.'
'Where are the prince and princess?' demanded Jane.
Annette snickered, and pointed toward the shelter. 'As soon as Brown and Tibbs left, they ran in there and hid,' she whispered.
Almost immediately the prince appeared. He was very white, and he was also very angry. 'You men had no right running off and leaving this camp unguarded,' he snapped. 'There's no telling what might have happened. Hereafter, see that both of you are never absent at the same time.'
'Oh, Lord, give me strength,' groaned Brown. 'I am long suffering, but I can't stand much more of this bozo.'
'What's that?' demanded Alexis.
'I was just going to say that if you ever shoot off your yap in that tone of voice to me again, I'm going to make a king out of you.'
'What?' demanded Alexis, suspiciously.
'I'm going to crown you.'
'I suppose that is another weird Americanism,' sneered the prince; 'but whatever it is, coming from you, I know it is insulting.'
'And how!' exclaimed Brown.
'Instead of standing around here quarreling,' said Jane, 'let's get busy. Brown, will you and Tibbs build a fire, please. Alexis, you can cut up the antelope. Cut five or six good-sized steaks, and then Annette can cook them. Do you know how to grill them over an open fire, Annette?'
'No, Madame, but I can learn, if you'll just show me once.'
