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general direction, but it seems that you volplaned a considerable distance toward

the south after you disappeared from my view behind the hills. I have been

looking for you further toward the north. I was just about to turn back when I

heard your pistol shot. Is your ship beyond repair?"

"Yes," replied Smith-Oldwick, "it is hopeless."

"What are your plans, then? What do you wish to do?" Tarzan directed his

question to the girl.

"We want to reach the coast," she said, "but it seems impossible now."

"I should have thought so a little while ago," replied the ape-man, "but if Numa is

here there must be water within a reasonable distance. I ran across this lion two

days ago in the Wamabo country. I liberated him from one of their pits. To have

reached this spot he must have come by some trail unknown to me--at least I

crossed no game trail and no spoor of any animal after I came over the hills out of

the fertile country. From which direction did he come upon you?"

"It was from the south," replied the girl. "We thought, too, that there must be

water in that direction."

Let's find out then," said Tarzan.

But how about the lion?" asked Smith-Oldwick.

That we will have to discover," replied the ape-man, "and we can only do so if you

will come down from your perch."

The officer shrugged his shoulders. The girl turned her gaze upon him to note the

effect of Tarzan's proposal. The Englishman grew suddenly very white, but there

was a smile upon his lips as without a word he slipped over the edge of the plane

and clambered to the ground behind Tarzan.

Bertha Kircher realized that the man was afraid nor did she blame him, and she

also realized the remarkable courage that he had shown in thus facing a danger

that was very real to him.

Numa standing close to Tarzan's side raised his head and glared at the young

Englishman, growled once, and looked up at the ape-man. Tarzan retained a hold

upon the beast's mane and spoke to him in the language of the great apes. To the

girl and Smith-Oldwick the growling gutturals falling from human lips sounded

uncanny in the extreme, but whether Numa understood them or not they

appeared to have the desired effect upon him, as he ceased growling, and as

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Tarzan the Untamed