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"I wish that your Numa would return," said the girl.

"Yes," said Tarzan, "but we shall have to do the best we can without him. I should

like to find some place where we can barricade ourselves against attack from all

sides. Possibly then we might hold them off. Smith-Oldwick is a good shot and if

there are not too many men he might be able to dispose of them provided they

can only come at him one at a time. The lions don't bother me so much.

Sometimes they are stupid animals, and I am sure that these that pursue us, and

who are so dependent upon the masters that have raised and trained them, will

be easily handled after the warriors are disposed of."

You think there is some hope, then?" she asked.

We are still alive," was his only answer.

There," he said presently, "I thought I recalled this very spot." He pointed toward

a fragment that had evidently fallen from the summit of the cliff and which now

lay imbedded in the sand a few feet from the base. It was a jagged fragment of

rock which rose some ten feet above the surface of the sand, leaving a narrow

aperture between it and the cliff behind. Toward this they directed their steps and

when finally they reached their goal they found a space about two feet wide and

ten feet long between the rock and the cliff. To be sure it was open at both ends

but at least they could not be attacked upon all sides at once.

They had scarcely concealed themselves before Tarzan's quick ears caught a

sound upon the face of the cliff above them, and looking up he saw a diminutive

monkey perched upon a slight projection--an ugly-faced little monkey who looked

down upon them for a moment and then scampered away toward the south in the

direction from which their pursuers were coming. Otobu had seen the monkey

too. "He will tell the parrots," said the black, "and the parrots will tell the

madmen."

"It is all the same," replied Tarzan; "the lions would have found us here. We could

not hope to hide from them."

He placed Smith-Oldwick, with his pistol, at the north opening of their haven and

told Otobu to stand with his spear at the Englishman's shoulder, while he himself

prepared to guard the southern approach. Between them he had the girl lie down

in the sand. "You will be safe there in the event that they use their spears," he

said.

The minutes that dragged by seemed veritable eternities to Bertha Kircher and

then at last, and almost with relief, she knew that the pursuers were upon them.

She heard the angry roaring of the lions and the cries of the madmen. For several

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Tarzan the Untamed