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The balance of the night the apes sat huddled close to one another for warmth;
while Mugambi built a fire close to them over which he crouched. Tarzan and
Sheeta, however, were of a different mind, for neither of them feared the jungle
night, and the insistent craving of their hunger sent them off into the Stygian
blackness of the forest in search of prey.
Side by side they walked when there was room for two abreast. At other times in
single file, first one and then the other in advance. It was Tarzan who first
caught the scent of meat--a bull buffalo--and presently the two came stealthily
upon the sleeping beast in the midst of a dense jungle of reeds close to a river.
Closer and closer they crept toward the unsuspecting beast, Sheeta upon his
right side and Tarzan upon his left nearest the great heart. They had hunted
together now for some time, so that they worked in unison, with only low, purring
sounds as signals.
For a moment they lay quite silent near their prey, and then at a sign from the
ape-man Sheeta sprang upon the great back, burying his strong teeth in the
bull's neck. Instantly the brute sprang to his feet with a bellow of pain and rage,
and at the same instant Tarzan rushed in upon his left side with the stone knife,
striking repeatedly behind the shoulder.
One of the ape-man's hands clutched the thick mane, and as the bull raced
madly through the reeds the thing striking at his life was dragged beside him.
Sheeta but clung tenaciously to his hold upon the neck and back, biting deep in
an effort to reach the spine.
For several hundred yards the bellowing bull carried his two savage antagonists,
until at last the blade found his heart, when with a final bellow that was half-
scream he plunged headlong to the earth. Then Tarzan and Sheeta feasted to
repletion.
After the meal the two curled up together in a thicket, the man's black head
pillowed upon the tawny side of the panther. Shortly after dawn they awoke and
ate again, and then returned to the beach that Tarzan might lead the balance of
the pack to the kill.
When the meal was done the brutes were for curling up to sleep, so Tarzan and
Mugambi set off in search of the Ugambi River. They had proceeded scarce a
hundred yards when they came suddenly upon a broad stream, which the Negro
instantly recognized as that down which he and his warriors had paddled to the
sea upon their ill-starred expedition.
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