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Chapter XXII - Out of the Niche
Numa, the lion, growled futilely in baffled rage as he slipped back to the ground
at the foot of the wall after his unsuccessful attempt to drag down the fleeing ape-
man. He poised to make a second effort to follow his escaping quarry when his
nose picked up a hitherto unnoticed quality in the scent spoor of his intended
prey. Sniffing at the ground that Tarzan's feet had barely touched, Numa's growl
changed to a low whine, for he had recognized the scent spoor of the man-thing
that had rescued him from the pit of the Wamabos.
What thoughts passed through that massive head? Who may say? But now there
was no indication of baffled rage as the great lion turned and moved majestically
eastward along the wall. At the eastern end of the city he turned toward the
south, continuing his way to the south side of the wall along which were the pens
and corrals where the herbivorous flocks were fattened for the herds of
domesticated lions within the city. The great black lions of the forest fed with
almost equal impartiality upon the flesh of the grass-eaters and man. Like Numa
of the pit they occasionally made excursions across the desert to the fertile valley
of the Wamabos, but principally they took their toll of meat from the herds of the
walled city of Herog, the mad king, or seized upon some of his luckless subjects.
Numa of the pit was in some respect an exception to the rule which guided his
fellows of the forest in that as a cub he had been trapped and carried into the
city, where he was kept for breeding purposes, only to escape in his second year.
They had tried to teach him in the city of maniacs that he must not eat the flesh
of man, and the result of their schooling was that only when aroused to anger or
upon that one occasion that he had been impelled by the pangs of hunger, did he
ever attack man.
The animal corrals of the maniacs are protected by an outer wall or palisade of
upright logs, the lower ends of which are imbedded in the ground, the logs
themselves being placed as close together as possible and further reinforced and
bound together by withes. At intervals there are gates through which the flocks
are turned on to the grazing land south of the city during the daytime. It is at
such times that the black lions of the forest take their greatest toll from the
herds, and it is infrequent that a lion attempts to enter the corrals at night. But
Numa of the pit, having scented the spoor of his benefactor, was minded again to
pass into the walled city, and with that idea in his cunning brain he crept
stealthily along the outer side of the palisade, testing each gateway with a padded
foot until at last he discovered one which seemed insecurely fastened. Lowering
his great head he pressed against the gate, surging forward with all the weight of
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