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Numa would not leap out instantly the way to freedom was open, and before the
ape-man could gain the safety of the trees? Regardless of the fact that Tarzan felt
no such fear of the lion as you and I might experience under like circumstances,
he yet was imbued with the sense of caution that is necessary to all creatures of
the wild if they are to survive. Should necessity require, Tarzan could face Numa
in battle, although he was not so egotistical as to think that he could best a full-
grown lion in mortal combat other than through accident or the utilization of the
cunning of his superior man-mind. To lay himself liable to death futilely, he
would have considered as reprehensible as to have shunned danger in time of
necessity; but when Tarzan elected to do a thing he usually found the means to
accomplish it.
He had now fully determined to liberate Numa, and having so determined, he
would accomplish it even though it entailed considerable personal risk. He knew
that the lion would be occupied with his feeding for some time, but he also knew
that while feeding he would be doubly resentful of any fancied interference.
Therefore Tarzan must work with caution.
Coming to the ground at the side of the pit, he examined the stakes and as he did
so was rather surprised to note that Numa gave no evidence of anger at his
approach. Once he turned a searching gaze upon the ape-man for a moment and
then returned to the flesh of Bara. Tarzan felt of the stakes and tested them with
his weight. He pulled upon them with the muscles of his strong arms, presently
discovering that by working them back and forth he could loosen them: and then
a new plan was suggested to him so that he fell to work excavating with his knife
at a point above where one of the stakes was imbedded. The loam was soft and
easily removed, and it was not long until Tarzan had exposed that part of one of
the stakes which was imbedded in the wall of the pit to almost its entire length,
leaving only enough imbedded to prevent the stake from falling into the
excavation. Then he turned his attention to an adjoining stake and soon had it
similarly exposed, after which he threw the noose of his grass rope over the two
and swung quickly to the branch of the tree above. Here he gathered in the slack
of the rope and, bracing himself against the bole of the tree, pulled steadily
upward. Slowly the stakes rose from the trench in which they were imbedded and
with them rose Numa's suspicion and growling.
Was this some new encroachment upon his rights and his liberties? He was
puzzled and, like all lions, being short of temper, he was irritated. He had not
minded it when the Tarmangani squatted upon the verge of the pit and looked
down upon him, for had not this Tarmangani fed him? But now something else
was afoot and the suspicion of the wild beast was aroused. As he watched,
however, Numa saw the stakes rise slowly to an erect position, tumble against
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