www.freeclassicebooks.com

The girl shuddered. "Yes," she said in a dull, hopeless voice, "after it is over it will

be all the same."

Then she went into the cavern and lay down upon the sand. Smith-Oldwick sat

in the entrance and leaned against the cliff. Tarzan squatted on the opposite

side.

May I smoke?" questioned the officer of Tarzan. "I have been hoarding a few

cigarettes and if it won't attract those bouncers out there I would like to have one

last smoke before I cash in. Will you join me?" and he proffered the ape-man a

cigarette.

"No, thanks," said Tarzan, "but it will be all right if you smoke. No wild animal is

particularly fond of the fumes of tobacco so it certainly won't entice them any

closer."

Smith-Oldwick lighted his cigarette and sat puffing slowly upon it. He had

proffered one to the girl but she had refused, and thus they sat in silence for

some time, the silence of the night ruffled occasionally by the faint crunching of

padded feet upon the soft sands of the gorge's floor.

It was Smith-Oldwick who broke the silence. "Aren't they unusually quiet for

lions?" he asked.

"No," replied the ape-man; "the lion that goes roaring around the jungle does not

do it to attract prey. They are very quiet when they are stalking their quarry."

"I wish they would roar," said the officer. "I wish they would do anything, even

charge. Just knowing that they are there and occasionally seeing something like a

shadow in the darkness and the faint sounds that come to us from them are

getting on my nerves. But I hope," he said, "that all three don't charge at once."

Three?" said Tarzan. "There are seven of them out there now."

Good Lord! exclaimed Smith-Oldwick.

Couldn't we build a fire," asked the girl, "and frighten them away?"

I don't know that it would do any good," said Tarzan, "as I have an idea that

these lions are a little different from any that we are familiar with and possibly for

the same reason which at first puzzled me a little--I refer to the apparent docility

in the presence of a man of the lion who was with us today. A man is out there

now with those lions."

It is impossible!" exclaimed Smith-Oldwick. "They would tear him to pieces."

158

Tarzan the Untamed