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As clearly as though he had seen her with his eyes, Tarzan knew that the lioness

had caught the scent of the freshly killed pigs and immediately had moved down

wind in their direction. He knew from the strength of the scent spoor and the rate

of the wind about how far away she was and that she was approaching from

behind him. He was finishing the last pig and he did not hurry. The five pelts lay

close at hand-he had been careful to keep them thus together and near him--an

ample tree waved its low branches above him.

He did not even turn his head for he knew she was not yet in sight; but he bent

his ears just a bit more sharply for the first sound of her nearer approach. When

the final skin had been removed he rose. Now he heard Sabor in the bushes to

his rear, but not yet too close. Leisurely he gathered up the six pelts and one of

the carcasses, and as the lioness appeared between the boles of two trees he

swung upward into the branches above him. Here he hung the hides over a limb,

seated himself comfortably upon another with his back against the bole of the

tree, cut a hind quarter from the carcass he had carried with him and proceeded

to satisfy his hunger. Sabor slunk, growling, from the brush, cast a wary eye

upward toward the ape-man and then fell upon the nearest carcass.

Tarzan looked down upon her and grinned, recalling an argument he had once

had with a famous big-game hunter who had declared that the king of beasts ate

only what he himself had killed. Tarzan knew better for he had seen Numa and

Sabor stoop even to carrion.

Having filled his belly, the ape-man fell to work upon the hides--all large and

strong. First he cut strips from them about half an inch wide. When he had

sufficient number of these strips he sewed two of the hides together, afterwards

piercing holes every three or four inches around the edges. Running another

strip through these holes gave him a large bag with a drawstring. In similar

fashion he produced four other like bags, but smaller, from the four remaining

hides and had several strips left over.

All this done he threw a large, juicy fruit at Sabor, cached the remainder of the

pig in a crotch of the tree and swung off toward the southwest through the middle

terraces of the forest, carrying his five bags with him. Straight he went to the rim

of the gulch where he had imprisoned Numa, the lion. Very stealthily he

approached the edge and peered over. Numa was not in sight. Tarzan sniffed and

listened. He could hear nothing, yet he knew that Numa must be within the cave.

He hoped that he slept--much depended upon Numa not discovering him.

Cautiously he lowered himself over the edge of the cliff, and with utter

noiselessness commenced the descent toward the bottom of the gulch. He

stopped often and turned his keen eyes and ears in the direction of the cave's

Tarzan the Untamed