"Do not kill him," commanded La in cold tones. "Bring the great
Tarmangani to me alive and unhurt. The vengeance is La's. Go; but
make no sound!" and she waved her hands to include all her followers.

Cautiously the weird party crept through the jungle in the wake of
the great ape until at last he halted them with a raised hand and
pointed upward and a little ahead. There they saw the giant form
of the ape-man stretched along a low bough and even in sleep one
hand grasped a stout limb and one strong, brown leg reached out
and overlapped another. At ease lay Tarzan of the Apes, sleeping
heavily upon a full stomach and dreaming of Numa, the lion, and
Horta, the boar, and other creatures of the jungle. No intimation
of danger assailed the dormant faculties of the ape-man--he saw no
crouching hairy figures upon the ground beneath him nor the three
apes that swung quietly into the tree beside him.

The first intimation of danger that came to Tarzan was the impact
of three bodies as the three apes leaped upon him and hurled him to
the ground, where he alighted half stunned beneath their combined
weight and was immediately set upon by the fifty hairy men or as
many of them as could swarm upon his person. Instantly the ape-man
became the center of a whirling, striking, biting maelstrom of
horror. He fought nobly but the odds against him were too great.
Slowly they overcame him though there was scarce one of them that
did not feel the weight of his mighty fist or the rending of his
fangs.