the police that a man was committing murder on the third floor

of Rue Maule, 27. When the officers arrived they found three men

groaning on the floor, a frightened woman lying upon a filthy bed,

her face buried in her arms, and what appeared to be a well-dressed

young gentleman standing in the center of the room awaiting the

reenforcements which he had thought the footsteps of the officers

hurrying up the stairway had announced--but they were mistaken in

the last; it was a wild beast that looked upon them through those

narrowed lids and steel-gray eyes. With the smell of blood the

last vestige of civilization had deserted Tarzan, and now he stood

at bay, like a lion surrounded by hunters, awaiting the next overt

act, and crouching to charge its author.

"What has happened here?" asked one of the policemen.

Tarzan explained briefly, but when he turned to the woman for

confirmation of his statement he was appalled by her reply.

"He lies!" she screamed shrilly, addressing the policeman. "He

came to my room while I was alone, and for no good purpose. When

I repulsed him he would have killed me had not my screams attracted

these gentlemen, who were passing the house at the time. He is a

devil, monsieurs; alone he has all but killed ten men with his bare

hands and his teeth."

So shocked was Tarzan by her ingratitude that for a moment he was

struck dumb. The police were inclined to be a little skeptical,

for they had had other dealings with this same lady and her lovely

coterie of gentlemen friends. However, they were policemen, not

judges, so they decided to place all the inmates of the room under

arrest, and let another, whose business it was, separate the innocent

from the guilty.

But they found that it was one thing to tell this well-dressed young

man that he was under arrest, but quite another to enforce it.

"I am guilty of no offense," he said quietly. "I have but sought

to defend myself. I do not know why the woman has told you what

she has. She can have no enmity against me, for never until I came

to this room in response to her cries for help had I seen her."

"Come, come," said one of the officers; "there are judges to

listen to all that," and he advanced to lay his hand upon Tarzan's

shoulder. An instant later he lay crumpled in a corner of the