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Like an answering challenge came suddenly to the ears of the ape-man the
thunderous roar of a lion, a hideous angry roar in which Tarzan thought that he
discerned a note of surprise and terror. In the breast of the wild things of the
jungle, as in the breasts of their more enlightened brothers and sisters of the
human race, the characteristic of curiosity is well developed. Nor was Tarzan far
from innocent of it. The peculiar note in the roar of his hereditary enemy aroused
a desire to investigate, and so, throwing the carcass of Bara, the deer, across his
shoulder, the ape-man took to the lower terraces of the forest and moved quickly
in the direction from which the sound had come, which was in line with the trail
he had set out upon.
As the distance lessened, the sounds increased in volume, which indicated that
he was approaching a very angry lion and presently, where a jungle giant
overspread the broad game trail that countless thousands of hoofed and padded
feet had worn and trampled into a deep furrow during perhaps countless ages, he
saw beneath him the lion pit of the Wamabos and in it, leaping futilely for
freedom such a lion as even Tarzan of the Apes never before had beheld. A mighty
beast it was that glared up at the ape-man--large, powerful and young, with a
huge black mane and a coat so much darker than any Tarzan ever had seen that
in the depths of the pit it looked almost black--a black lion!
Tarzan who had been upon the point of taunting and reviling his captive foe was
suddenly turned to open admiration for the beauty of the splendid beast. What a
creature! How by comparison the ordinary forest lion was dwarfed into
insignificance! Here indeed was one worthy to be called king of beasts. With his
first sight of the great cat the ape-man knew that he had heard no note of terror
in that initial roar; surprise doubtless, but the vocal chords of that mighty throat
never had reacted to fear.
With growing admiration came a feeling of quick pity for the hapless situation of
the great brute rendered futile and helpless by the wiles of the Gomangani.
Enemy though the beast was, he was less an enemy to the ape-man than those
blacks who had trapped him, for though Tarzan of the Apes claimed many fast
and loyal friends among certain tribes of African natives, there were others of
degraded character and bestial habits that he looked upon with utter loathing,
and of such were the human flesh-eaters of Numabo the chief. For a moment
Numa, the lion, glared ferociously at the naked man-thing upon the tree limb
above him. Steadily those yellow-green eyes bored into the clear eyes of the ape-
man, and then the sensitive nostrils caught the scent of the fresh blood of Bara
and the eyes moved to the carcass lying across the brown shoulder, and there
came from the cavernous depths of the savage throat a low whine.
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