"Run along, my friend," Tarzan said in the language of the great apes. "Spare me an arrow. This antelope is mine."

The leopard turned, ducked through the brush, and was gone.

Tarzan jerked the arrow from the carcass of the antelope, swung the animal to a shoulder, and took to the trees.

Hanson and Jean sat on the fallen tree, waiting, but with little expectation that the wild man with the stilted English would return.

"If he does come back," said Jean, "I suppose he'll bring us fruit and nuts. I'm fed up on fruit and nuts, even though we haven't had enough of those to keep a canary alive."

"He brings fruit and nuts," Hanson said, "I'll eat fruit and nuts. What I think is, he's probably forgotten about us."

"Maybe not," Jean said.

Hanson glanced up to see Tarzan swing from the branches of a tree with the carcass of his kill and land less than three feet from them. Hanson and Jean stood up. "That didn't take long," said Hanson.

Tarzan grunted and tossed the antelope on the ground. "After you have dressed it and cut off what you want to eat tonight, carry it up into a tree where the beasts won't get it. Can you make fire?"

"I have a few matches left," said Hanson.

"Keep them," said Tarzan. He unsheathed his hunting knife and removed the viscera from the carcass. Then he turned to them with a question. "How much can you eat tonight? I'll carve it, then start your fire."

"How about the whole thing?" Jean said. "I could eat it raw."

The suggestion of a smile moved the ape-man's lips, as he cut a generous portion from a flank. Then he gathered dry leaves and grasses, tinder, and larger pieces of wood, carried it some distance from the viscera.

"You'll have visitors tonight," he said, "but by morning all the antelope's innards will be gone. It will keep them busy. Less interested in you. I suppose I need not suggest you get into a tree early-and stay there."

Tarzan arranged the leaves, grasses, and tinder and made fire after the manner of the jungle people, then he straightened up.

"I will go after your safari now," he said. "Stay here until I come back."

"Why are you doing this?" Jean asked. "Not that I want to discourage you, but why?"

"Because it needs to be done," Tarzan said. "Here, keep this until you see me next," he said, and handed her his huge knife. Then he swung into a tree and disappeared.

"How in hell does he do that?" Hanson said. "I couldn't climb that tree with a ladder, let alone swing through it."

"Who is he?" demanded Jean.

"I don't know," said Hanson, "but God must have sent him."

"How can he recover our safari by himself?" said Jean.

Hanson shook his head. "He can't."

"That's what we thought about his getting food for us," Jean said.

"Dealing with those men, that's another thing. In fact, I feel awful that he might try. If something happened to him in the process, I'll feel responsible."

"There's nothing we can do about it one wav or another now, Jean said. "Let's eat. I'm so hungry my stomach thinks my throat is cut."

"You cook the meat, I'll build a platform," Hanson said.

The meat was partially burned and almost raw, but they wolfed it down. Jean's fingers and face were covered with burned meat and grease as she looked up at her father and grinned.