Tarzan was indeed an ape again.

At last Werper succeeded in leading his companion toward the
distant hills which mark the northwestern boundary of the valley,
and together the two set out in the direction of the Greystoke
bungalow.

What purpose prompted the Belgian in leading the victim of his
treachery and greed back toward his former home it is difficult to
guess, unless it was that without Tarzan there could be no ransom
for Tarzan's wife.

That night they camped in the valley beyond the hills, and as they
sat before a little fire where cooked a wild pig that had fallen
to one of Tarzan's arrows, the latter sat lost in speculation. He
seemed continually to be trying to grasp some mental image which
as constantly eluded him.

At last he opened the leathern pouch which hung at his side. From
it he poured into the palm of his hand a quantity of glittering
gems. The firelight playing upon them conjured a multitude of
scintillating rays, and as the wide eyes of the Belgian looked on
in rapt fascination, the man's expression at last acknowledged a
tangible purpose in courting the society of the ape-man.





9