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no less did he acknowledge it and as he watched the two, the rueful expression
upon his face was lightened by a smile as he thought of the helplessness of them.
What a puny thing, indeed, was man! How ill equipped to combat the savage
forces of nature and of nature's jungle. Why, even the tiny balu of the tribe of Go-
lat, the great ape, was better fitted to survive than these, for a balu could at least
escape the numerous creatures that menaced its existence, while with the
possible exception of Kota, the tortoise, none moved so slowly as did helpless and
feeble man.
Without him these two doubtless would starve in the midst of plenty, should they
by some miracle escape the other forces of destruction which constantly
threatened them. That morning Tarzan had brought them fruit, nuts, and
plantain, and now he was bringing them the flesh of his kill, while the best that
they might do was to fetch water from the river. Even now, as they walked across
the clearing toward the boma, they were in utter ignorance of the presence of
Tarzan near them. They did not know that his sharp eyes were watching them,
nor that other eyes less friendly were glaring at them from a clump of bushes
close beside the boma entrance. They did not know these things, but Tarzan did.
No more than they could he see the creature crouching in the concealment of the
foliage, yet he knew that it was there and what it was and what its intentions,
precisely as well as though it had been lying in the open.
A slight movement of the leaves at the top of a single stem had apprised him of
the presence of a creature there, for the movement was not that imparted by the
wind. It came from pressure at the bottom of the stem which communicates a
different movement to the leaves than does the wind passing among them, as
anyone who has lived his lifetime in the jungle well knows, and the same wind
that passed through the foliage of the bush brought to the ape-man's sensitive
nostrils indisputable evidence of the fact that Sheeta, the panther, waited there
for the two returning from the river.
They had covered half the distance to the boma entrance when Tarzan called to
them to stop. They looked in surprise in the direction from which his voice had
come to see him drop lightly to the ground and advance toward them.
"Come slowly toward me," he called to them. "Do not run for if you run Sheeta
will charge."
They did as he bid, their faces filled with questioning wonderment.
"
What do you mean?" asked the young Englishman. "Who is Sheeta?" but for
answer the ape-man suddenly hurled the carcass of Bara, the deer, to the ground
and leaped quickly toward them, his eyes upon something in their rear; and then
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