But Tarzan did not raise his pistol. Instead, he advanced toward
De Coude, and when D'Arnot and Monsieur Flaubert, misinterpreting
his intention, would have rushed between them, he raised his left
hand in a sign of remonstrance.

"Do not fear," he said to them, "I shall not harm him."

It was most unusual, but they halted. Tarzan advanced until he
was quite close to De Coude.

"There must have been something wrong with monsieur's pistol," he
said. "Or monsieur is unstrung. Take mine, monsieur, and try again,"
and Tarzan offered his pistol, butt foremost, to the astonished De
Coude.

"MON DIEU, monsieur!" cried the latter. "Are you mad?"

"No, my friend," replied the ape-man; "but I deserve to die. It
is the only way in which I may atone for the wrong I have done a
very good woman. Take my pistol and do as I bid."

"It would be murder," replied De Coude. "But what wrong did you
do my wife? She swore to me that--"

"I do not mean that," said Tarzan quickly. "You saw all the wrong
that passed between us. But that was enough to cast a shadow upon
her name, and to ruin the happiness of a man against whom I had no
enmity. The fault was all mine, and so I hoped to die for it this
morning. I am disappointed that monsieur is not so wonderful a
marksman as I had been led to believe."