belly with a huge buckle of ornate design that scintillated as with
precious stones.

Closer and closer crept Numa, the lion, to his intended victim,
and that the latter was not entirely unaware of his danger was
evidenced by the increasing frequency with which he turned his
ear and his sharp black eyes in the direction of the cat upon his
trail. He did not greatly increase his speed, a long swinging walk
where the open places permitted, but he loosened the knife in its
scabbard and at all times kept his club in readiness for instant
action.

Forging at last through a narrow strip of dense jungle vegetation
the man-thing broke through into an almost treeless area of
considerable extent. For an instant he hesitated, glancing quickly
behind him and then up at the security of the branches of the great
trees waving overhead, but some greater urge than fear or caution
influenced his decision apparently, for he moved off again across
the little plain leaving the safety of the trees behind him.
At greater or less intervals leafy sanctuaries dotted the grassy
expanse ahead of him and the route he took, leading from one to
another, indicated that he had not entirely cast discretion to the
winds. But after the second tree had been left behind the distance
to the next was considerable, and it was then that Numa walked from
the concealing cover of the jungle and, seeing his quarry apparently
helpless before him, raised his tail stiffly erect and charged.

Two months--two long, weary months filled with hunger, with thirst,
with hardships, with disappointment, and, greater than all, with
gnawing pain--had passed since Tarzan of the Apes learned from