Moved by these vague yet all-powerful urgings theape-man lay awake one night in the little thorn bomathat protected, in a way, his party from the depredationsof the great carnivora of the jungle. A single warriorstood sleepy guard beside the fire that yellow eyesout of the darkness beyond the camp made imperative.The moans and the coughing of the big cats mingled withthe myriad noises of the lesser denizens of the jungleto fan the savage flame in the breast of this savageEnglish lord. He tossed upon his bed of grasses,sleepless, for an hour and then he rose, noiseless as awraith, and while the Waziri's back was turned, vaultedthe boma wall in the face of the flaming eyes, swungsilently into a great tree and was gone.

For a time in sheer exuberance of animal spirit heraced swiftly through the middle terrace, swingingperilously across wide spans from one jungle giant tothe next, and then he clambered upward to the swaying,lesser boughs of the upper terrace where the moon shonefull upon him and the air was stirred by little breezesand death lurked ready in each frail branch. Here hepaused and raised his face to Goro, the moon.With uplifted arm he stood, the cry of the bull apequivering upon his lips, yet he remained silent lest hearouse his faithful Waziri who were all too familiarwith the hideous challenge of their master.

And then he went on more slowly and with greaterstealth and caution, for now Tarzan of the Apes wasseeking a kill. Down to the ground he came in theutter blackness of the close-set boles and theoverhanging verdure of the jungle. He stooped from timeto time and put his nose close to earth. He sought andfound a wide game trail and at last his nostrils wererewarded with the scent of the fresh spoor of Bara, thedeer. Tarzan's mouth watered and a low growl escapedhis patrician lips. Sloughed from him was the lastvestige of artificial caste--once again he was theprimeval hunter--the first man--the highest caste typeof the human race. Up wind he followed the elusivespoor with a sense of perception so transcending thatof ordinary man as to be inconceivable to us. Throughcounter currents of the heavy stench of meat eaters hetraced the trail of Bara; the sweet and cloying stinkof Horta, the boar, could not drown his quarry's scent--the permeating, mellow musk of the deer's foot.

Presently the body scent of the deer told Tarzan thathis prey was close at hand. It sent him into the treesagain--into the lower terrace where he could watch theground below and catch with ears and nose the firstintimation of actual contact with his quarry. Nor wasit long before the ape-man came upon Bara standingalert at the edge of a moon-bathed clearing.Noiselessly Tarzan crept through the trees until he wasdirectly over the deer. In the ape-man's right handwas the long hunting knife of his father and in hisheart the blood lust of the carnivore. Just for aninstant he poised above the unsuspecting Bara and thenhe launched himself downward upon the sleek back. Theimpact of his weight carried the deer to its knees andbefore the animal could regain its feet the knife hadfound its heart. As Tarzan rose upon the body of hiskill to scream forth his hideous victory cry into theface of the moon the wind carried to his nostrilssomething which froze him to statuesque immobility andsilence. His savage eyes blazed into the directionfrom which the wind had borne down the warning to himand a moment later the grasses at one side of theclearing parted and Numa, the lion, strode majesticallyinto view. His yellow-green eyes were fastened uponTarzan as he halted just within the clearing and glaredenviously at the successful hunter, for Numa had had noluck this night.

From the lips of the ape-man broke a rumbling growl ofwarning. Numa answered but he did not advance.Instead he stood waving his tail gently to and fro,and presently Tarzan squatted upon his kill and cut agenerous portion from a hind quarter. Numa eyed himwith growing resentment and rage as, between mouthfuls,the ape-man growled out his savage warnings. Now thisparticular lion had never before come in contact withTarzan of the Apes and he was much mystified. Here wasthe appearance and the scent of a man-thing and Numahad tasted of human flesh and learned that though notthe most palatable it was certainly by far the easiestto secure, yet there was that in the bestial growls ofthe strange creature which reminded him of formidableantagonists and gave him pause, while his hunger andthe odor of the hot flesh of Bara goaded him almost tomadness. Always Tarzan watched him, guessing what waspassing in the little brain of the carnivore and wellit was that he did watch him, for at last Numa couldstand it no longer. His tail shot suddenly erect andat the same instant the wary ape-man, knowing all toowell what the signal portended, grasped the remainderof the deer's hind quarter between his teeth and leapedinto a nearby tree as Numa charged him with all thespeed and a sufficient semblance of the weight of anexpress train.

Tarzan's retreat was no indication that he felt fear.Jungle life is ordered along different lines than oursand different standards prevail. Had Tarzan beenfamished he would, doubtless, have stood his ground andmet the lion's charge. He had done the thing beforeupon more than one occasion, just as in the past he hadcharged lions himself; but tonight he was far fromfamished and in the hind quarter he had carried offwith him was more raw flesh than he could eat; yet itwas with no equanimity that he looked down upon Numarending the flesh of Tarzan's kill. The presumption ofthis strange Numa must be punished! And forthwithTarzan set out to make life miserable for the big cat.Close by were many trees bearing large, hard fruits andto one of these the ape-man swung with the agility of asquirrel. Then commenced a bombardment which broughtforth earthshaking roars from Numa. One after anotheras rapidly as he could gather and hurl them, Tarzanpelted the hard fruit down upon the lion. It wasimpossible for the tawny cat to eat under that hail ofmissiles--he could but roar and growl and dodge andeventually he was driven away entirely from the carcassof Bara, the deer. He went roaring and resentful; butin the very center of the clearing his voice wassuddenly hushed and Tarzan saw the great head lower andflatten out, the body crouch and the long tail quiver,as the beast slunk cautiously toward the trees upon theopposite side.

Immediately Tarzan was alert. He lifted his head andsniffed the slow, jungle breeze. What was it that hadattracted Numa's attention and taken him soft-footedand silent away from the scene of his discomfiture?Just as the lion disappeared among the trees beyond theclearing Tarzan caught upon the down-coming wind theexplanation of his new interest--the scent spoor of manwas wafted strongly to the sensitive nostrils. Cachingthe remainder of the deer's hind quarter in the crotchof a tree the ape-man wiped his greasy palms upon hisnaked thighs and swung off in pursuit of Numa. Abroad, well-beaten elephant path led into the forestfrom the clearing. Parallel to this slunk Numa, whileabove him Tarzan moved through the trees, the shadow ofa wraith. The savage cat and the savage man saw Numa'squarry almost simultaneously, though both had knownbefore it came within the vision of their eyes that itwas a black man. Their sensitive nostrils had toldthem this much and Tarzan's had told him that the scentspoor was that of a stranger--old and a male, for raceand sex and age each has its own distinctive scent.It was an old man that made his way alone through thegloomy jungle, a wrinkled, dried up, little old manhideously scarred and tattooed and strangely garbed,with the skin of a hyena about his shoulders and thedried head mounted upon his grey pate. Tarzanrecognized the ear-marks of the witch-doctor andawaited Numa's charge with a feeling of pleasurableanticipation, for the ape-man had no love forwitch-doctors; but in the instant that Numa did charge,the white man suddenly recalled that the lion had stolenhis kill a few minutes before and that revenge issweet.

The first intimation the black man had that he was indanger was the crash of twigs as Numa charged throughthe bushes into the game trail not twenty yards behindhim. Then he turned to see a huge, black-maned lionracing toward him and even as he turned, Numa seizedhim. At the same instant the ape-man dropped from anoverhanging limb full upon the lion's back and as healighted he plunged his knife into the tawny sidebehind the left shoulder, tangled the fingers of hisright hand in the long mane, buried his teeth in Numa'sneck and wound his powerful legs about the beast'storso. With a roar of pain and rage, Numa reared upand fell backward upon the ape-man; but still themighty man-thing clung to his hold and repeatedly thelong knife plunged rapidly into his side. Over andover rolled Numa, the lion, clawing and biting at theair, roaring and growling horribly in savage attempt toreach the thing upon its back. More than once wasTarzan almost brushed from his hold. He was batteredand bruised and covered with blood from Numa and dirtfrom the trail, yet not for an instant did he lessenthe ferocity of his mad attack nor his grim hold uponthe back of his antagonist. To have loosened for aninstant his grip there, would have been to bring himwithin reach of those tearing talons or rending fangs,and have ended forever the grim career of this jungle-bredEnglish lord. Where he had fallen beneath thespring of the lion the witch-doctor lay, torn andbleeding, unable to drag himself away and watched theterrific battle between these two lords of the jungle.His sunken eyes glittered and his wrinkled lips movedover toothless gums as he mumbled weird incantations tothe demons of his cult.

For a time he felt no doubt as to the outcome--thestrange white man must certainly succumb to terribleSimba--whoever heard of a lone man armed only with aknife slaying so mighty a beast! Yet presently the oldblack man's eyes went wider and he commenced to havehis doubts and misgivings. What wonderful sort ofcreature was this that battled with Simba and held hisown despite the mighty muscles of the king of beastsand slowly there dawned in those sunken eyes, gleamingso brightly from the scarred and wrinkled face, thelight of a dawning recollection. Gropingly backwardinto the past reached the fingers of memory, until atlast they seized upon a faint picture, faded and yellowwith the passing years. It was the picture of a lithe,white-skinned youth swinging through the trees incompany with a band of huge apes, and the old eyesblinked and a great fear came into them--thesuperstitious fear of one who believes in ghosts andspirits and demons.

And came the time once more when the witch-doctor nolonger doubted the outcome of the duel, yet his firstjudgment was reversed, for now he knew that the junglegod would slay Simba and the old black was even moreterrified of his own impending fate at the hands of thevictor than he had been by the sure and sudden deathwhich the triumphant lion would have meted out to him.He saw the lion weaken from loss of blood. He saw themighty limbs tremble and stagger and at last he saw thebeast sink down to rise no more. He saw the forest godor demon rise from the vanquished foe, and placing afoot upon the still quivering carcass, raise his faceto the moon and bay out a hideous cry that froze theebbing blood in the veins of the witch-doctor.