www.freeclassicebooks.com

Could his fellow-peers of the House of Lords have seen him then they would have

held up their noble hands in holy horror.

Silently he crouched in the lower branches of a great forest giant that overhung

the trail, his keen eyes and sensitive ears strained into the distant jungle, from

which he knew his dinner would presently emerge.

Nor had he long to wait.

Scarce had he settled himself to a comfortable position, his lithe, muscular legs

drawn well up beneath him as the panther draws his hindquarters in preparation

for the spring, than Bara, the deer, came daintily down to drink.

But more than Bara was coming. Behind the graceful buck came another which

the deer could neither see nor scent, but whose movements were apparent to

Tarzan of the Apes because of the elevated position of the ape-man's ambush.

He knew not yet exactly the nature of the thing that moved so stealthily through

the jungle a few hundred yards behind the deer; but he was convinced that it was

some great beast of prey stalking Bara for the selfsame purpose as that which

prompted him to await the fleet animal. Numa, perhaps, or Sheeta, the panther.

In any event, Tarzan could see his repast slipping from his grasp unless Bara

moved more rapidly toward the ford than at present.

Even as these thoughts passed through his mind some noise of the stalker in his

rear must have come to the buck, for with a sudden start he paused for an

instant, trembling, in his tracks, and then with a swift bound dashed straight for

the river and Tarzan. It was his intention to flee through the shallow ford and

escape upon the opposite side of the river.

Not a hundred yards behind him came Numa.

Tarzan could see him quite plainly now. Below the ape-man Bara was about to

pass. Could he do it? But even as he asked himself the question the hungry

man launched himself from his perch full upon the back of the startled buck.

In another instant Numa would be upon them both, so if the ape-man were to

dine that night, or ever again, he must act quickly.

Scarcely had he touched the sleek hide of the deer with a momentum that sent

the animal to its knees than he had grasped a horn in either hand, and with a

single quick wrench twisted the animal's neck completely round, until he felt the

vertebrae snap beneath his grip.

The Beasts of Tarzan