As the last of the three entered, Tarzan leaped upon him. Powerful fingers closed about the fellow's throat; and simultaneously the other two were dragged down by Muviro and a couple of his warriors. There was no outcry; there was only the subdued sound of the shuffling feet of struggling men, and that for but a moment.
Quickly the three were bound and gagged; then the Waziri, headed by Tarzan, carried them to the tree beside the chiefs hut, where a corner of the latter concealed them from the sight of the drunken natives assembled in the street in front.
Shouldering one of the warriors, Tarzan swarmed up into the tree; then after he had deposited his burden safely where it would not fall, the Waziri handed the other two up to him.
Taking his victims up into the denser foliage where they would not be visible from the ground, Tarzan laid them side by side across the huge branch that projected out over the Negroes assembled below.
Tarzan ran his rope through the bonds that encircled the ankles of one of the prisoners. Then he removed the gag from the fellow's mouth and lowered him, head foremost, toward the ground; but before the fellow's head broke through the foliage and came in sight of those below, Tarzan voiced the warning cry of the bull ape. Instantly the dancing stopped; the natives looked around them in evident terror; the sound was very close; it seemed right beside them, but as yet they had been unable to locate it.
Silence followed; and then the head of one of their fellows broke through the foliage above them, and slowly his body descended.
The blacks were already on the verge of panic, for this was a mysterious, supernatural occurrence for which they could find no explanation in their past experience; yet they hesitated, perhaps fascinated and momentarily incapable of movement.
The deep voice rang out above them. "I am Tarzan of the Apes. Let those beware who would harm Tarzan or his Waziri. Open the gates and let my people go in peace, or many of you shall die by the hand of Tarzan."
The victim hanging head downward found his tongue. "Open the gates," he screamed. "Let them go before they kill me."
Still the blacks hesitated.
"The time is short," said Tarzan, and then he started to drag the warrior back up into the tree again.
"Do you promise that none of us will be harmed if we open the gates?" demanded Udalo.
"None will be harmed if you open the gates and let us go in peace, returning their weapons to my Waziri."
"It shall be done," said Udalo. "Fetch the weapons of the Waziri; open the gates; let them go, and may they never return."
Tarzan drew the warrior back up into the tree and laid him beside his fellows.
"Keep still," he warned them, "and I shall kill none of you." Then he dropped to the ground and joined the Waziri.
Fearlessly they walked around the end of the hut; and the blacks gave way fearfully, opening a path before them. Some little boys ran timidly forward with their weapons, for the warriors had not dared to do so. The gates were opened, and Tarzan led his Waziri toward them.
"Where are my three warriors?" demanded Udalo. "You have not kept your word."
"You will find your three warriors alive in the tree above your hut," replied the ape-man. He halted and turned toward the chief. "And now, Udalo, when strangers come to your kraal, treat them well, and especially Tarzan and the Waziri." A moment later the black jungle night beyond the palisade had swallowed them.
Little Naika, the daughter of Gupingu, the witch-doctor danced up and down and clapped her hands. "It is he!" she cried. "It is the white warrior who saved me. I am glad that he and his Waziri got away before we killed them. I told you not to do it."
"Shut up," cried Udalo, "and go to your hut. I never want to hear that white man spoken of again."
"I thought that it was the end," said Muviro, as they crossed the clearing toward the forest.
"Thanks to Nkima's bad memory, it came very near being the end," replied the ape-man. Then he voiced a strange, weird note; and an answer came from the blackness of the jungle trees.
"He is still there," said the ape-man to Muviro.
"Hurry, hurry," cried the monkey. "Little Nkima is fighting with Sheeta, the panther; he is beating him on the head with a stick; he is pounding him on the nose. Sheeta is very frightened."
Tarzan grinned and walked on slowly through the forest, and when he came under the first tree, the little monkey dropped down upon his shoulder. "Where is Sheeta?" demanded Tarzan.
"Little Nkima beat him so hard on the face that he ran away."
"Little Nkima is very brave," said the ape-man.
"Yes," replied the monkey, "little Nkima is a mighty fighter, a mighty hunter."
The following day, Tarzan and the Waziri moved slowly toward the north, resting often, for the latter were still suffering from the effects of the drug that had been administered to them by Gupingu, the witch-doctor. Finally, when Tarzan realized their condition more fully, he ordered a halt; and the party went into camp upon the banks of a river.
As time had never been a matter of consequence to the ape-man, delays, except in cases of immediate emergency, gave him no concern. He could wait there for one day, or two days, or as long as was necessary while his warriors recuperated; nor would he leave them while they needed someone to hunt for them. He made them rest therefore while he foraged for food.
The day after they had left the village of Udalo , a lone warrior trotted into the clearing and approached the gates of the kraal. The white plume of the Waziri waved above his head; and in his hand he carried a split stick, in the end of which an envelope was inserted.
When warriors met him at the gates, he asked to see the chief; and they took him to Udalo, but not without misgivings; for he bore a marked resemblance to the ten prisoners who had escaped them.
Udalo eyed the warrior sullenly. "Who are you?" he demanded, "and what do you want in the village of Udalo ?
"I am a Waziri," replied the man. "I bear a message for the big bwana, Tarzan. The sun has risen many times since he left his country to come here in search of the Kavuru. I have followed to bring this message to him. Have you seen him?"
"He has been here, but he has gone," said Udalo, sullenly.
"When did he go, and in which direction?" asked the messenger.
"He went away yesterday with ten Waziri warriors. They took the trail toward the north. You will follow him?"
"Yes."
"I will give you food before you go, and when you find Tarzan tell him that Udalo treated you well." The fear of the Lord of the Jungle was in the heart of Udalo, the chief.
It was mid-day of the following day. The Waziri lay resting in their camp beside the river. Tarzan squatted at the base of a tree fashioning arrows for his quiver. Little Nkima perched upon one of his shoulders, busily occupied by that age-old simian pastime of searching for fleas upon his belly. He was vastly contented.
Presently the ape-man raised his head and looked toward the south where the trail debauched upon the clearing where they were encamped.
"Someone comes," he said.
The Waziri stirred themselves. Some of them seized their weapons and started to rise, but Tarzan reassured them.
"There is no danger," he said; "there is only one. He comes boldly, and not by stealth."
"Who could it be?" asked Muviro. "We have seen no one in all this lonely country since we left the Bukena village."
The ape-man shrugged. "We shall have to wait," he said, "until our eyes tell us, for he is down-wind from us."
Little Nkima, noting the listening attitudes of the others, abandoned the pursuit of a singularly notable specimen and following the example of the Waziri, stared intently toward the south.
"Something comes?" he asked Tarzan.