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which he had left Schneider, and, yielding to a natural curiosity, he scaled the

cliffs and made his way to the edge of the gulch. The tree was empty, nor was

there sign of Numa, the lion. Picking up a rock he hurled it into the gulch, where

it rolled to the very entrance to the cave. Instantly the lion appeared in the

aperture; but such a different-looking lion from the great sleek brute that Tarzan

had trapped there two weeks before. Now he was gaunt and emaciated, and when

he walked he staggered.

"Where is the German?" shouted Tarzan. "Was he good eating, or only a bag of

bones when he slipped and fell from the tree?"

Numa growled. "You look hungry, Numa," continued the ape-man. "You must

have been very hungry to eat all the grass from your lair and even the bark from

the tree as far up as you can reach. Would you like another German?" and

smiling he turned away.

A few minutes later he came suddenly upon Bara, the deer, asleep beneath a tree,

and as Tarzan was hungry he made a quick kill, and squatting beside his prey

proceeded to eat his fill. As he was gnawing the last morsel from a bone his quick

ears caught the padding of stealthy feet behind him, and turning he confronted

Dango, the hyena, sneaking upon him. With a growl the ape-man picked up a

fallen branch and hurled it at the skulking brute. "Go away, eater of carrion!" he

cried; but Dango was hungry and being large and powerful he only snarled and

circled slowly about as though watching for an opportunity to charge. Tarzan of

the Apes knew Dango even better than Dango knew himself. He knew that the

brute, made savage by hunger, was mustering its courage for an attack, that it

was probably accustomed to man and therefore more or less fearless of him and

so he un-slung his heavy spear and laid it ready at his side while he continued

his meal, all the time keeping a watchful eye upon the hyena.

He felt no fear, for long familiarity with the dangers of his wild world had so

accustomed him to them that he took whatever came as a part of each day's

existence as you accept the homely though no less real dangers of the farm, the

range, or the crowded metropolis. Being jungle bred he was ready to protect his

kill from all comers within ordinary limitations of caution. Under favorable

conditions Tarzan would face even Numa himself and, if forced to seek safety by

flight, he could do so without any feeling of shame. There was no braver creature

roamed those savage wilds and at the same time there was none more wise--the

two factors that had permitted him to survive.

Dango might have charged sooner but for the savage growls of the ape-man--

growls which, coming from human lips, raised a question and a fear in the

hyena's heart. He had attacked women and children in the native fields and he

Tarzan the Untamed