Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-05

night, the cries and lamentations of
Momaya growing fainter in the dis
tance.
AS Tarzan followed the fresh
spoor of Horta, the boar, the fol-
lowing morning, he came upon the
tracks of two Gomangani, a large
one and a small one. The ape-man,
accustomed as he was to question
ing closely all that fell to his per-
ceptions, paused to read the story
written in the soft mud of the game
trail. You or | would have seen
little of interest there, even if, by
chance, we could have seen aught.
| Perhaps had one been there to point
them out to us, we might have noted
indentations in the mud. but there
were countless indentations, one
overlapping another into confu-
sion that would have been entirely
meaningless to us. To Tarzan each
told its own story. Tantor, the
elephant, had passed that way as
recently as three suns since. Numa
had hunted here the night just gone,
and Horta, the boar, had walked
slowly along the trail within an
hour; but what held Tarzan's at
tention was the spoor tale of the
Gomangani. 1t told him that the day
before an old man had gone toward
the north in company with little
boy, and that with them had been
two hyenas.
Tarzan scratched his head In
puzzled incredulity. He could see
by the overlapping of the footprints
that the beasts had not been follow
ing the two, for sometimes one was
ahead of them and one behind, and
again both were in advance, or both
were in the rear. 1t was very
strange and quite inexplicable,
especially where the spoor showed
where the hyenas in the wider por-
tions of the path had walked one on
either side of the human pair, quite
close to them. Then Tarzan read in
the spoor of the smaller Gomangani
a shrinking terror of the beast that
brushed his side, but in that of the
old man was no sign of fear.
At first Tarzan had been solely
occupied by the remarkable juxta-
position of the spoor of Dango and
Gomangani, but now his keen eyes
caught something in the spoor of
the little Gomangani which brought
him to sudden stop. 1t was as
though, finding a letter in the road,
you suddenly had discovered in it
the familiar handwriting Of
friend.
"Go-bu-balu" exclaimed the ape
man, and at once memory flashed
upon the screen of recollection the
supplicating attitude of Momaya as
she had hurled herself before him
in the village of Mbonga the night
before. Instantly all was ex-
plained-the wailing and lamenta-
ton, the pleading of the black
mother, the sympathetic bowling of
the shes about the fire. Little Co.
bu-balu had been stolen again, and
this time by another than Tarzan
Doubtless the mother had thought
that he was again in the power of
Tarzan of the Apes, and she had
been beseeching him to return her
balu to her.
1t had all happened to little Tibo
very suddenly and Unexpectedly
within the brief span of two suns.
First had come Bukawai, the witch
doctor-Bukawai, the unclean-
with the ragged bit Of flesh which
still clung to his rotting face. He
had come alone and by day to the
place at the river where Momaya
went daily to wash her body and
that of Tibo, her little boy. He had
stepped out from behind a great
bush quite close to Momaya, fright
ening little Tibo so that he ran
screaming to his mothers protecting
arms.
But Momaya, though startled, had
wheeled to face the fearsome thing
with all the savage ferocity of a
she-tiger at bay. When she saw who
it was, she breathed sigh of partial
relief, though she still clung tightly
to Tibo.
81 have come" said Bukawai
without preliminary, "for the three
fat goats, the new sleeping mat, and
the bit of copper wire as long as a
tall mans arm"
Il have no goats for you" snap
ped Momaya, NOR a sleeping mat,
nor any wire. Your medicine was
never made. The white jungle god
gave me back my Tibo. You had
nothing to do with it.
But l did," mumbled Bukawai
through his feshless jaws. 1T was
l who commanded the white jungle
god to give back your Tibo."
Momaya laughed in his face.
Speaker of lies," she cried, "go
back to your foul den and your
hyenas. Go back and hide your
sinking face in the belly of the
mountain, lest the sun, seeing it,
J cover his face with a black cloud"
81 have come" reiterated Buka-
wal, "for the three fat goats, the
; new sleeping mat, and the bit of
copper wire the length of a tall
mans arm, which you were to pay
me for the return of your Tibo."
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