side walked Tarzan.

Presently one of the scouts returned. He had come within sight of
the village.

"They are all within the palisade," he whispered.

"Good!" said Waziri. "We shall rush in upon them and slay them
all," and he made ready to send word along the line that they were
to halt at the edge of the clearing until they saw him rush toward
the village--then all were to follow.

"Wait!" cautioned Tarzan. "If there are even fifty guns within
the palisade we shall be repulsed and slaughtered. Let me go alone
through the trees, so that I may look down upon them from above,
and see just how many there be, and what chance we might have were
we to charge. It were foolish to lose a single man needlessly if
there be no hope of success. I have an idea that we can accomplish
more by cunning than by force. Will you wait, Waziri?"

"Yes," said the old chief. "Go!"

So Tarzan sprang into the trees and disappeared in the direction
of the village. He moved more cautiously than was his wont, for
he knew that men with guns could reach him quite as easily in the
treetops as on the ground. And when Tarzan of the Apes elected to
adopt stealth, no creature in all the jungle could move so silently
or so completely efface himself from the sight of an enemy.

In five minutes he had wormed his way to the great tree that