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There was no beating of tom-toms now, nor blare of native horn, for Kaviri was a crafty warrior, and it was in his mind to take no chances, if they could be avoided. He would swoop noiselessly down with his seven canoes upon the single one of the white man, and before the guns of the latter could inflict much damage upon his people he would have overwhelmed the enemy by force of numbers.
"Your people have returned, my brother," he said, "and now you may select those who are to accompany me and paddle my canoe." Tremblingly Kaviri tottered to his feet, calling to his people to come from their huts; but none responded to his summons. "Tell them," suggested Tarzan, "that if they do not come I shall send my people in after them."
The man was wielding a paddle, while directly behind him Kaviri saw some of his own warriors similarly engaged. Back of them again squatted several of the hairy apes. Tarzan, seeing that the chief had regained consciousness, addressed him. "Your warriors tell me that you are the chief of a numerous people, and that your name is Kaviri," he said. "Yes," replied the black. "Why did you attack me?
Tarzan could not repress a smile. "They do not seem anxious to accompany us," he said; "but just remain quietly here, Kaviri, and presently you shall see your people flocking to your side." Then the ape-man rose, and, calling his pack about him, commanded that Mugambi remain with Kaviri, and disappeared in the jungle with Sheeta and the apes at his heels.
They come in a great war-canoe to kill and rob as did the black-bearded one who has just left us." Kaviri leaped to his feet. He had but recently had a taste of the white man's medicine, and his savage heart was filled with bitterness and hate. In another moment the rumble of the war-drums rose from the village, calling in the hunters from the forest and the tillers from the fields.
"Was there a little white child with him?" asked Tarzan, his heart almost stopped as he awaited the black's answer. "No, bwana," replied Kaviri, "the white child was not with this man's party it was with the other party." "Other party!" exclaimed Tarzan. "What other party?" "With the party that the very bad white man was pursuing.
But a moment later, when Kaviri was able to realize the nature of the crew that manned the white man's dugout, he would have given all the beads and iron wire that he possessed to have been safely within his distant village.
Kaviri battled bravely against his antagonist, for he felt that death had already claimed him, and so the least that he could do would be to sell his life as dearly as possible; but it was soon evident that his best was quite futile when pitted against the superhuman brawn and agility of the creature that at last found his throat and bent him back into the bottom of the canoe.
"It is Bwana Tarzan and his people," replied Mugambi. "But what they are doing I know not, unless it be that they are devouring your people who ran away." Kaviri shuddered and rolled his eyes fearfully toward the jungle. In all his long life in the savage forest he had never heard such an awful, fearsome din.
Kaviri was so busily engaged with the demons that had entered his own craft that he could offer no assistance to his warriors in the other. A giant of a white devil had wrested his spear from him as though he, the mighty Kaviri, had been but a new-born babe.
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