THE BLACK WARRIORS labored in the humid heat of the jungle'sstifling shade. With war spears they loosened the thick,black loam and the deep layers of rotting vegetation. With heavy-nailed fingers they scooped away the disintegratedearth from the center of the age-old game trail. Often theyceased their labors to squat, resting and gossiping,with much laughter, at the edge of the pit they were digging.

Against the boles of near-by trees leaned their long,oval shields of thick buffalo hide, and the spearsof those who were doing the scooping. Sweat glistenedupon their smooth, ebon skins, beneath which rolledrounded muscles, supple in the perfection of nature'suncontaminated health.

A reed buck, stepping warily along the trail toward water,halted as a burst of laughter broke upon his startled ears. For a moment he stood statuesque but for his sensitivelydilating nostrils; then he wheeled and fled noiselesslyfrom the terrifying presence of man.

A hundred yards away, deep in the tangle of impenetrablejungle, Numa, the lion, raised his massive head. Numa haddined well until almost daybreak and it had required muchnoise to awaken him. Now he lifted his muzzle and sniffedthe air, caught the acrid scent spoor of the reed buckand the heavy scent of man. But Numa was well filled. With a low, disgusted grunt he rose and slunk away.

Brilliantly plumaged birds with raucous voices darted fromtree to tree. Little monkeys, chattering and scolding,swung through the swaying limbs above the black warriors. Yet they were alone, for the teeming jungle with all itsmyriad life, like the swarming streets of a great metropolis,is one of the loneliest spots in God's great universe.

But were they alone?

Above them, lightly balanced upon a leafy tree limb, a gray-eyedyouth watched with eager intentness their every move. The fire of hate, restrained, smoldered beneath the lad'sevident desire to know the purpose of the black men's labors. Such a one as these it was who had slain his beloved Kala. For them there could be naught but enmity, yet he likedwell to watch them, avid as he was for greater knowledgeof the ways of man.

He saw the pit grow in depth until a great hole yawnedthe width of the trail--a hole which was amply largeenough to hold at one time all of the six excavators. Tarzan could not guess the purpose of so great a labor. And when they cut long stakes, sharpened at their upper ends,and set them at intervals upright in the bottom of the pit,his wonderment but increased, nor was it satisfied withthe placing of the light cross-poles over the pit, or thecareful arrangement of leaves and earth which completelyhid from view the work the black men had performed.

When they were done they surveyed their handiwork withevident satisfaction, and Tarzan surveyed it, too. Even tohis practiced eye there remained scarce a vestige of evidencethat the ancient game trail had been tampered with in any way.

So absorbed was the ape-man in speculation as tothe purpose of the covered pit that he permittedthe blacks to depart in the direction of their villagewithout the usual baiting which had rendered himthe terror of Mbonga's people and had afforded Tarzanboth a vehicle of revenge and a source of inexhaustible delight.

Puzzle as he would, however, he could not solve the mysteryof the concealed pit, for the ways of the blacks were stillstrange ways to Tarzan. They had entered his jungle but ashort time before--the first of their kind to encroach uponthe age-old supremacy of the beasts which laired there. To Numa, the lion, to Tantor, the elephant, to the greatapes and the lesser apes, to each and all of the myriadcreatures of this savage wild, the ways of man were new. They had much to learn of these black, hairless creaturesthat walked erect upon their hind paws--and they werelearning it slowly, and always to their sorrow.

Shortly after the blacks had departed, Tarzan swung easilyto the trail. Sniffing suspiciously, he circled the edgeof the pit. Squatting upon his haunches, he scrapedaway a little earth to expose one of the cross-bars. Hesniffed at this, touched it, cocked his head upon one side,and contemplated it gravely for several minutes. Then hecarefully re-covered it, arranging the earth as neatlyas had the blacks. This done, he swung himself back amongthe branches of the trees and moved off in search of hishairy fellows, the great apes of the tribe of Kerchak.

Once he crossed the trail of Numa, the lion, pausing for amoment to hurl a soft fruit at the snarling face of his enemy,and to taunt and insult him, calling him eater of carrionand brother of Dango, the hyena. Numa, his yellow-greeneyes round and burning with concentrated hate, glared upat the dancing figure above him. Low growls vibrated hisheavy jowls and his great rage transmitted to his sinuoustail a sharp, whiplike motion; but realizing from pastexperience the futility of long distance argument with theape-man, he turned presently and struck off into the tangledvegetation which hid him from the view of his tormentor. With a final scream of jungle invective and an apelikegrimace at his departing foe, Tarzan continued along his way.

Another mile and a shifting wind brought to his keennostrils a familiar, pungent odor close at hand,and a moment later there loomed beneath him a huge,gray-black bulk forging steadily along the jungle trail. Tarzan seized and broke a small tree limb, and at thesudden cracking sound the ponderous figure halted. Great ears were thrown forward, and a long, supple trunkrose quickly to wave to and fro in search of the scentof an enemy, while two weak, little eyes peered suspiciouslyand futilely about in quest of the author of the noisewhich had disturbed his peaceful way.

Tarzan laughed aloud and came closer above the headof the pachyderm.

"Tantor! Tantor!" he cried. "Bara, the deer, is less fearfulthan you--you, Tantor, the elephant, greatest of the junglefolk with the strength of as many Numas as I have toes uponmy feet and fingers upon my hands. Tantor, who can uprootgreat trees, trembles with fear at the sound of a broken twig."

A rumbling noise, which might have been either a signof contempt or a sigh of relief, was Tantor's only replyas the uplifted trunk and ears came down and the beast'stail dropped to normal; but his eyes still roved aboutin search of Tarzan. He was not long kept in suspense,however, as to the whereabouts of the ape-man, for a secondlater the youth dropped lightly