is quite another. There are so many things to distract one's
attention along the way.

Chulk was, at first, for rushing rapidly ahead as though the
village of the raiders lay but an hour's march before them instead
of several days; but within a few minutes a fallen tree attracted
his attention with its suggestion of rich and succulent forage
beneath, and when Tarzan, missing him, returned in search, he found
Chulk squatting beside the rotting bole, from beneath which he was
assiduously engaged in digging out the grubs and beetles, whose
kind form a considerable proportion of the diet of the apes.

Unless Tarzan desired to fight there was nothing to do but wait
until Chulk had exhausted the storehouse, and this he did, only to
discover that Taglat was now missing. After a considerable search,
he found that worthy gentleman contemplating the sufferings of
an injured rodent he had pounced upon. He would sit in apparent
indifference, gazing in another direction, while the crippled
creature, wriggled slowly and painfully away from him, and then,
just as his victim felt assured of escape, he would reach out a
giant palm and slam it down upon the fugitive. Again and again he
repeated this operation, until, tiring of the sport, he ended the
sufferings of his plaything by devouring it.

Such were the exasperating causes of delay which retarded Tarzan's
return journey toward the village of Achmet Zek; but the ape-man
was patient, for in his mind was a plan which necessitated the
presence of Chulk and Taglat when he should have arrived at his
destination.