midnight
Night came and he settled himself in an ample tree to rest until morning ; but sleep would not come . Instead came the vision of a white girl being beaten by black women , and again of the same girl at the mercy of the warriors somewhere in that dark and forbidding jungle . With a growl of anger and self-contempt Tarzan arose , shook himself , and swung from his tree to that adjoining , and thus , through the lower terraces , he followed the trail that Usanga 's party had taken earlier in the afternoon . He had little difficulty as the band had followed a well-beaten path and when toward midnight the stench of a native village assailed his delicate nostrils he guessed that his goal was near and that presently he should find her whom he sought . Prowling stealthily as prowls Numa , the lion , stalking a wary prey , Tarzan moved noiselessly about the palisade , listening and sniffing . At the rear of the village he discovered a tree whose branches extended over the top of the palisade and a moment later he had dropped quietly into the village . From hut to hut he went searching with keen ears and nostrils some confirming evidence of the presence of the girl , and at last , faint and almost obliterated by the odor of the Gomangani , he found it hanging like a delicate vapor about a small hut .