www.freeclassicebooks.com

Smith-Oldwick saw the raking talons of the panther searching for the flesh of the

man and the man on his part straining every muscle and using every artifice to

keep his body out of range of them. The muscles of his arms knotted under the

brown hide. The veins stood out upon his neck and forehead as with ever-

increasing power he strove to crush the life from the great cat. The ape-man's

teeth were fastened in the back of Sheeta's neck and now he succeeded in

encircling the beast's torso with his legs which he crossed and locked beneath the

cat's belly. Leaping and snarling, Sheeta sought to dislodge the ape-man's hold

upon him. He hurled himself upon the ground and rolled over and over. He

reared upon his hind legs and threw himself backwards but always the savage

creature upon his back clung tenaciously to him, and always the mighty brown

arms crushed tighter and tighter about his chest.

And then the girl, panting from her quick run, returned with the short spear

Tarzan had left her as her sole weapon of protection. She did not wait to hand it

to the Englishman who ran forward to receive it, but brushed past him and

leaped into close quarters beside the growling, tumbling mass of yellow fur and

smooth brown hide. Several times she attempted to press the point home into the

cat's body, but on both occasions the fear of endangering the ape-man caused her

to desist, but at last the two lay motionless for a moment as the carnivore sought

a moment's rest from the strenuous exertions of battle, and then it was that

Bertha Kircher pressed the point of the spear to the tawny side and drove it deep

into the savage heart.

Tarzan rose from the dead body of Sheeta and shook himself after the manner of

beasts that are entirely clothed with hair. Like many other of his traits and

mannerisms this was the result of environment rather than heredity or reversion,

and even though he was outwardly a man, the Englishman and the girl were both

impressed with the naturalness of the act. It was as though Numa, emerging

from a fight, had shaken himself to straighten his rumpled mane and coat, and

yet, too, there was something uncanny about it as there had been when the

savage growls and hideous snarls issued from those clean-cut lips.

Tarzan looked at the girl, a quizzical expression upon his face. Again had she

placed him under obligations to her, and Tarzan of the Apes did not wish to be

obligated to a German spy; yet in his honest heart he could not but admit a

certain admiration for her courage, a trait which always greatly impressed the

ape-man, he himself the personification of courage.

"Here is the kill," he said, picking the carcass of Bara from the ground. "You will

want to cook your portion, I presume, but Tarzan does not spoil his meat with

fire."

116

Tarzan the Untamed