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Once he looked down into her eyes and smiled, and the girl had to close her own to shut out the vision
of that handsome, winning face.
Presently Tarzan took to the trees, and Jane, wondering that she felt no fear, began to realize that in
many respects she had never felt more secure in her whole life than now as she lay in the arms of this
strong, wild creature, being borne, God alone knew where or to what fate, deeper and deeper into the
savage fastness of the untamed forest.
When, with closed eyes, she commenced to speculate upon the future, and terrifying fears were
conjured by a vivid imagination, she had but to raise her lids and look upon that noble face so close to
hers to dissipate the last remnant of apprehension.
No, he could never harm her; of that she was convinced when she translated the fine features and the
frank, brave eyes above her into the chivalry which they proclaimed.
On and on they went through what seemed to Jane a solid mass of verdure, yet ever there appeared to
open before this forest god a passage, as by magic, which closed behind them as they passed.
Scarce a branch scraped against her, yet above and below, before and behind, the view presented
naught but a solid mass of inextricably interwoven branches and creepers.
As Tarzan moved steadily onward his mind was occupied with many strange and new thoughts. Here
was a problem the like of which he had never encountered, and he felt rather than reasoned that he must
meet it as a man and not as an ape.
The free movement through the middle terrace, which was the route he had followed for the most part,
had helped to cool the ardor of the first fierce passion of his new found love.
Now he discovered himself speculating upon the fate which would have fallen to the girl had he not
rescued her from Terkoz.
He knew why the ape had not killed her, and he commenced to compare his intentions with those of
Terkoz.
True, it was the order of the jungle for the male to take his mate by force; but could Tarzan be guided by
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the laws of the beasts? Was not Tarzan a Man? But what did men do? He was puzzled; for he did not
know.
He wished that he might ask the girl, and then it came to him that she had already answered him in the
futile struggle she had made to escape and to repulse him.
But now they had come to their destination, and Tarzan of the Apes with Jane in his strong arms, swung
lightly to the turf of the arena where the great apes held their councils and danced the wild orgy of the
Dum-Dum.
Though they had come many miles, it was still but midafternoon, and the amphitheater was bathed in the
half light which filtered through the maze of encircling foliage.
The green turf looked soft and cool and inviting. The myriad noises of the jungle seemed far distant and
hushed to a mere echo of blurred sounds, rising and falling like the surf upon a remote shore.
A feeling of dreamy peacefulness stole over Jane as she sank down upon the grass where Tarzan had
placed her, and as she looked up at his great figure towering above her, there was added a strange sense
of perfect security.
As she watched him from beneath half-closed lids, Tarzan crossed the little circular clearing toward the
trees upon the further side. She noted the graceful majesty of his carriage, the perfect symmetry of his
magnificent figure and the poise of his well-shaped head upon his broad shoulders.
What a perfect creature! There could be naught of cruelty or baseness beneath that godlike exterior.
Never, she thought had such a man strode the earth since God created the first in his own image.
With a bound Tarzan sprang into the trees and disappeared. Jane wondered where he had gone. Had he
left her there to her fate in the lonely jungle?
She glanced nervously about. Every vine and bush seemed but the lurking-place of some huge and
horrible beast waiting to bury gleaming fangs into her soft flesh. Every sound she magnified into the
stealthy creeping of a sinuous and malignant body.
How different now that he had left her!
For a few minutes that seemed hours to the frightened girl, she sat with tense nerves waiting for the
spring of the crouching thing that was to end her misery of apprehension.
She almost prayed for the cruel teeth that would give her unconsciousness and surcease from the agony
of fear.
She heard a sudden, slight sound behind her. With a cry she sprang to her feet and turned to face her
end.
There stood Tarzan, his arms filled with ripe and luscious fruit.
Jane reeled and would have fallen, had not Tarzan, dropping his burden, caught her in his arms. She did
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