Chapter IV
When the Lion Fed
Kudu, the sun, was well up in the heavens when Tarzan awoke. Theape-man stretched his giant limbs, ran his fingers through his thickhair, and swung lightly down to earth. Immediately he took up thetrail he had come in search of, following it by scent down intoa deep ravine. Cautiously he went now, for his nose told him thatthe quarry was close at hand, and presently from an overhangingbough he looked down upon Horta, the boar, and many of his kinsmen.Un-slinging his bow and selecting an arrow, Tarzan fitted the shaftand, drawing it far back, took careful aim at the largest of thegreat pigs. In the ape-man's teeth were other arrows, and no soonerhad the first one sped, than he had fitted and shot another bolt.Instantly the pigs were in turmoil, not knowing from whence thedanger threatened. They stood stupidly at first and then commencedmilling around until six of their number lay dead or dying aboutthem; then with a chorus of grunts and squeals they started off ata wild run, disappearing quickly in the dense underbrush.
Tarzan then descended from the tree, dispatched those that were notalready dead and proceeded to skin the carcasses. As he worked,rapidly and with great skill, he neither hummed nor whistled asdoes the average man of civilization. It was in numerous littleways such as these that he differed from other men, due, probably,to his early jungle training. The beasts of the jungle that he hadbeen reared among were playful to maturity but seldom thereafter.His fellow-apes, especially the bulls, became fierce and surly asthey grew older. Life was a serious matter during lean seasons--onehad to fight to secure one's share of food then, and the habit onceformed became lifelong. Hunting for food was the life labor of thejungle bred, and a life labor is a thing not to be approached withlevity nor prosecuted lightly. So all work found Tarzan serious,though he still retained what the other beasts lost as they grewolder--a sense of humor, which he gave play to when the mood suitedhim. It was a grim humor and sometimes ghastly; but it satisfiedTarzan.
Then, too, were one to sing and whistle while working on the ground,concentration would be impossible. Tarzan possessed the ability toconcentrate each of his five senses upon its particular business.Now he worked at skinning the six pigs and his eyes and his fingersworked as though there was naught else in all the world than thesesix carcasses; but his ears and his nose were as busily engagedelsewhere--the former ranging the forest all about and the latterassaying each passing zephyr. It was his nose that first discoveredthe approach of Sabor, the lioness, when the wind shifted for amoment.
As clearly as though he had seen her with his eyes, Tarzan knewthat the lioness had caught the scent of the freshly killed pigsand immediately had moved down wind in their direction. He knewfrom the strength of the scent spoor and the rate of the wind abouthow 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 peltslay close at hand--he had been careful to keep them thus togetherand 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 soundof her nearer approach. When the final skin had been removed herose. Now he heard Sabor in the bushes to his rear, but not yettoo close. Leisurely he gathered up the six pelts and one of thecarcasses, and as the lioness appeared between the boles of twotrees he swung upward into the branches above him. Here he hungthe hides over a limb, seated himself comfortably upon another withhis back against the bole of the tree, cut a hind quarter fromthe carcass he had carried with him and proceeded to satisfy hishunger. Sabor slunk, growling, from the brush, cast a wary eyeupward toward the ape-man and then fell upon the nearest carcass.
Tarzan looked down upon her and grinned, recalling an argument hehad once had with a famous big-game hunter who had declared thatthe king of beasts ate only what he himself had killed. Tarzan knewbetter for he had seen Numa and Sabor stoop even to carrion.
Having filled his belly, the ape-man fell to work upon the hides--alllarge and strong. First he cut strips from them about half an inchwide. When he had sufficient number of these strips he sewed two ofthe hides together, afterwards piercing holes every three or fourinches around the edges. Running another strip through theseholes gave him a large bag with a drawstring. In similar fashion heproduced four other like bags, but smaller, from the four remaininghides and had several strips left over.
All this done he threw a large, juicy fruit at Sabor, cached theremainder of the pig in a crotch of the tree and swung off towardthe southwest through the middle terraces of the forest, carryinghis five bags with him. Straight he went to the rim of the gulchwhere he had imprisoned Numa, the lion. Very stealthily he approachedthe edge and peered over. Numa was not in sight. Tarzan sniffedand listened. He could hear nothing, yet he knew that Numa must bewithin the cave. He hoped that he slept--much depended upon Numanot discovering him.
Cautiously he lowered himself over the edge of the cliff, and withutter noiselessness commenced the descent toward the bottom of thegulch. He stopped often and turned his keen eyes and ears in thedirection of the cave's mouth at the far end of the gulch, somehundred feet away. As he neared the foot of the cliff his dangerincreased greatly. If he could reach the bottom and cover halfthe distance to the tree that stood in the center of the gulch hewould feel comparatively safe for then, even if Numa appeared, hefelt that he could beat him either to the cliff or to the tree,but to scale the first thirty feet of the cliff rapidly enough toelude the leaping beast would require a running start of at leasttwenty feet as there were no very good hand- or footholds closeto the bottom--he had had to run up the first twenty feet likea squirrel running up a tree that other time he had beaten aninfuriated Numa to it. He had no desire to attempt it again unlessthe conditions were equally favorable at least, for he had escapedNuma's raking talons by only a matter of inches on the formeroccasion.
At last he stood upon the floor of the gulch. Silent as a disembodiedspirit he advanced toward the tree. He was half way there and nosign of Numa. He reached the scarred bole from which the famishedlion had devoured the bark and even torn pieces of the wood itselfand yet Numa had not appeared. As he drew himself up to the lowerbranches he commenced to wonder if Numa were in the cave afterall. Could it be possible that he had forced the barrier of rockswith which Tarzan had plugged the other end of the passage whereit opened into the outer world of freedom? Or was Numa dead? Theape-man doubted the verity of the latter suggestion as he had fedthe lion the entire carcasses of a deer and a hyena only a fewdays since--he could not have starved in so short a time, while thelittle rivulet running across the gulch furnished him with watera-plenty.
Tarzan started to descend and investigate the cavern when it occurredto him that it would save effort were he to lure Numa out instead.Acting upon the thought he uttered a low growl. Immediately he wasrewarded by the sound of a movement within the cave and an instantlater a wild-eyed, haggard lion rushed forth ready to face thedevil himself were he edible. When Numa saw Tarzan, fat and sleek,perched in the tree he became suddenly the embodiment of frightfulrage. His eyes and his nose told him that this was the creatureresponsible for his predicament and also that this creature wasgood to eat. Frantically the lion sought to scramble up the bole ofthe tree. Twice he leaped high enough to catch the lowest brancheswith his paws, but both times he fell backward to the earth. Eachtime he became more furious. His growls and roars were incessantand horrible and all the time Tarzan sat grinning down upon him,taunting him in jungle billingsgate for his inability to reachhim and mentally exulting that always Numa was wasting his alreadywaning strength.
Finally the ape-man rose and un-slung his rope. He arranged thecoils carefully in his left hand and the noose in his right, andthen he took a position with each foot on one of two branches thatlay in about the same horizontal plane and with his back pressedfirmly against the stem of the tree. There he stood hurling insultsat Numa until the beast was again goaded into leaping upward athim, and as Numa rose the noose dro
pped quickly over his head andabout his neck. A quick movement of Tarzan's rope hand tightenedthe coil and when Numa slipped backward to the ground only his hindfeet touched, for the ape-man held him swinging by the neck.
Moving slowly outward upon the two branches Tarzan swung Numa outso that he could not reach the bole of the tree with his rakingtalons, then he made the rope fast after drawing the lion clearof the ground, dropped his five pigskin sacks to earth and leapeddown himself. Numa was striking frantically at the grass rope withhis fore claws. At any moment he might sever it and Tarzan must,therefore, work rapidly.
First he drew the larger bag over Numa's head and secured it abouthis neck with the draw string, then he managed, after considerableeffort, during which he barely escaped being torn to ribbons bythe mighty talons, to hog-tie Numa--drawing his four legs togetherand securing them in that position with the strips trimmed fromthe pigskins.
By this time the lion's efforts had almost ceased--it was evidentthat he was being rapidly strangled and as that did not at allsuit the purpose of the Tarmangani the latter swung again into thetree, unfastened the rope from above and lowered the lion to theground where he immediately followed it and loosed the noose aboutNuma's neck. Then he drew his hunting knife and cut two round holesin the front of the head bag opposite the lion's eyes for the doublepurpose of permitting him to see and giving him sufficient air tobreathe.
This done Tarzan busied himself fitting the other bags, one overeach of Numa's formidably armed paws. Those on the hind feet hesecured not only by tightening the draw strings but also riggedgarters that fastened tightly around the legs above the hocks.He secured the front-feet bags in place similarly above the greatknees. Now, indeed, was Numa, the lion, reduced to the harmlessnessof Bara, the deer.
By now Numa was showing signs of returning life. He gasped forbreath and struggled; but the strips of pigskin that held his fourlegs together were numerous and tough. Tarzan watched and was surethat they would hold, yet Numa is mightily muscled and there wasthe chance, always, that he might struggle free of his bonds afterwhich all would depend upon the efficacy of Tarzan's bags and drawstrings.
After Numa had again breathed normally and was able to roarout his protests and his rage, his struggles increased to Titanicproportions for a short time; but as a lion's powers of enduranceare in no way proportionate to his size and strength he soon tiredand lay quietly. Amid renewed growling and another futile attemptto free himself, Numa was finally forced to submit to the furtherindignity of having a rope secured about his neck; but this timeit was no noose that might tighten and strangle him; but a bowlineknot, which does not tighten or slip under strain.
The other end of the rope Tarzan fastened to the stem of the tree,then he quickly cut the bonds securing Numa's legs and leaped asideas the beast sprang to his feet. For a moment the lion stood withlegs far outspread, then he raised first one paw and then another,shaking them energetically in an effort to dislodge the strangefootgear that Tarzan had fastened upon them. Finally he began to pawat the bag upon his head. The ape-man, standing with ready spear,watched Numa's efforts intently. Would the bags hold? He sincerelyhoped so. Or would all his labor prove fruitless?
As the clinging things upon his feet and face resisted his everyeffort to dislodge them, Numa became frantic. He rolled upon theground, fighting, biting, scratching, and roaring; he leaped to hisfeet and sprang into the air; he charged Tarzan, only to be broughtto a sudden stop as the rope securing him to the tree tautened.Then Tarzan stepped in and rapped him smartly on the head with theshaft of his spear. Numa reared upon his hind feet and struck atthe ape-man and in return received a cuff on one ear that sent himreeling sideways. When he returned to the attack he was again sentsprawling. After the fourth effort it appeared to dawn upon the kingof beasts that he had met his master, his head and tail dropped andwhen Tarzan advanced upon him he backed away, though still growling.
Leaving Numa tied to the tree Tarzan entered the tunnel and removedthe barricade from the opposite end, after which he returned tothe gulch and strode straight for the tree. Numa lay in his pathand as Tarzan approached growled menacingly. The ape-man cuffedhim aside and unfastened the rope from the tree. Then ensued ahalf-hour of stubbornly fought battle while Tarzan endeavored todrive Numa through the tunnel ahead of him and Numa persistentlyrefused to be driven. At last, however, by dint of the unrestricteduse of his spear point, the ape-man succeeded in forcing the lionto move ahead of him and eventually guided him into the passageway.Once inside, the problem became simpler since Tarzan followed closelyin the rear with his sharp spear point, an unremitting incentiveto forward movement on the part of the lion. If Numa hesitated hewas prodded. If he backed up the result was extremely painful andso, being a wise lion who was learning rapidly, he decided to keepon going and at the end of the tunnel, emerging into the outerworld, he sensed freedom, raised his head and tail and started offat a run.
Tarzan, still on his hands and knees just inside the entrance, wastaken unaware with the result that he was sprawled forward uponhis face and dragged a hundred yards across the rocky ground beforeNuma was brought to a stand. It was a scratched and angry Tarzanwho scrambled to his feet. At first he was tempted to chastiseNuma; but, as the ape-man seldom permitted his temper to guide himin any direction not countenanced by reason, he quickly abandonedthe idea.
Having taught Numa the rudiments of being driven, he now urged himforward and there commenced as strange a journey as the unrecordedhistory of the jungle contains. The balance of that day was eventfulboth for Tarzan and for Numa. From open rebellion at first the lionpassed through stages of stubborn resistance and grudging obedienceto final surrender. He was a very tired, hungry, and thirsty lionwhen night overtook them; but there was to be no food for him thatday or the next--Tarzan did not dare risk removing the head bag,though he did cut another hole which permitted Numa to quench histhirst shortly after dark. Then he tied him to a tree, sought foodfor himself, and stretched out among the branches above his captivefor a few hours' sleep.
Early the following morning they resumed their journey, winding overthe low foothills south of Kilimanjaro, toward the east. The beastsof the jungle who saw them took one look and fled. The scent spoorof Numa, alone, might have been enough to have provoked flight inmany of the lesser animals, but the sight of this strange apparitionthat smelled like a lion, but looked like nothing they ever hadseen before, being led through the jungles by a giant Tarmanganiwas too much for even the more formidable denizens of the wild.
Sabor, the lioness, recognizing from a distance the scent of herlord and master intermingled with that of a Tarmangani and thehide of Horta, the boar, trotted through the aisles of the forestto investigate. Tarzan and Numa heard her coming, for she voiceda plaintive and questioning whine as the baffling mixture of odorsaroused her curiosity and her fears, for lions, however terriblethey may appear, are often timid animals and Sabor, being of thegentler sex, was, naturally, habitually inquisitive as well.
Tarzan un-slung his spear for he knew that he might now easily haveto fight to retain his prize. Numa halted and turned his outragedhead in the direction of the coming she. He voiced a throaty growlthat was almost a purr. Tarzan was upon the point of prodding himon again when Sabor broke into view, and behind her the ape-man sawthat which gave him instant pause--four full-grown lions trailingthe lioness.
To have goaded Numa then into active resistance might have broughtthe whole herd down upon him and so Tarzan waited to learn firstwhat their attitude would be. He had no idea of relinquishing hislion without a battle; but knowing lions as he did, he knew thatthere was no assurance as to just what the newcomers would do.
The lioness was young and sleek, and the four males were in theirprime--as handsome lions as he ever had seen. Three of the maleswere scantily maned but one, the foremost, carried a splendid,black mane that rippled in the breeze as he trotted majesticallyforward. The lioness halted a hundred feet from Tarzan, while thelions came on past her and stopped a few fe
et nearer. Their earswere upstanding and their eyes filled with curiosity. Tarzan couldnot even guess what they might do. The lion at his side faced themfully, standing silent now and watchful.
Suddenly the lioness gave vent to another little whine, at whichTarzan's lion voiced a terrific roar and leaped forward straighttoward the beast of the black mane. The sight of this awesomecreature with the strange face was too much for the lion towardwhich he leaped, dragging Tarzan after him, and with a growl thelion turned and fled, followed by his companions and the she.
Numa attempted to follow them; Tarzan held him in leash and whenhe turned upon him in rage, beat him unmercifully across the headwith his spear. Shaking his head and growling, the lion at last movedoff again in the direction they had been traveling; but it was anhour before he ceased to sulk. He was very hungry--half famishedin fact--and consequently of an ugly temper, yet so thoroughlysubdued by Tarzan's heroic methods of lion taming that he waspresently pacing along at the ape-man's side like some huge St.Bernard.
It was dark when the two approached the British right, after aslight delay farther back because of a German patrol it had beennecessary to elude. A short distance from the British line ofout-guard sentinels Tarzan tied Numa to a tree and continued onalone. He evaded a sentinel, passed the out-guard and support, andby devious ways came again to Colonel Capell's headquarters, wherehe appeared before the officers gathered there as a disembodiedspirit materializing out of thin air.
When they saw who it was that came thus unannounced they smiledand the colonel scratched his head in perplexity.
"Someone should be shot for this," he said. "I might just as wellnot establish an out-post if a man can filter through whenever hepleases."
Tarzan smiled. "Do not blame them," he said, "for I am not a man.I am Tarmangani. Any Mangani who wished to, could enter your campalmost at will; but if you have them for sentinels no one couldenter without their knowledge."
"What are the Mangani?" asked the colonel. "Perhaps we might enlista bunch of the beggars."
Tarzan shook his head. "They are the great apes," he explained; "mypeople; but you could not use them. They cannot concentrate longenough upon a single idea. If I told them of this they would bemuch interested for a short time--I might even hold the interestof a few long enough to get them here and explain their duties tothem; but soon they would lose interest and when you needed themmost they might be off in the forest searching for beetles insteadof watching their posts. They have the minds of little children--thatis why they remain what they are."
"You call them Mangani and yourself Tarmangani--what is thedifference?" asked Major Preswick.
"Tar means white," replied Tarzan, "and Mangani, great ape. My name--thename they gave me in the tribe of Kerchak--means White-skin. WhenI was a little balu my skin, I presume, looked very white indeedagainst the beautiful, black coat of Kala, my foster motherand so they called me Tarzan, the Tarmangani. They call you, too,Tarmangani," he concluded, smiling.
Capell smiled. "It is no reproach, Greystoke," he said; "and, byJove, it would be a mark of distinction if a fellow could act thepart. And now how about your plan? Do you still think you can emptythe trench opposite our sector?"
"Is it still held by Gomangani?" asked Tarzan.
"What are Gomangani?" inquired the colonel. "It is still held bynative troops, if that is what you mean."
"Yes," replied the ape-man, "the Gomangani are the great blackapes--the Negroes."
"What do you intend doing and what do you want us to do?" askedCapell.
Tarzan approached the table and placed a finger on the map. "Hereis a listening post," he said; "they have a machine gun in it. Atunnel connects it with this trench at this point." His finger movedfrom place to place on the map as he talked. "Give me a bomb andwhen you hear it burst in this listening post let your men startacross No Man's Land slowly. Presently they will hear a commotionin the enemy trench; but they need not hurry, and, whatever theydo, have them come quietly. You might also warn them that I may bein the trench and that I do not care to be shot or bayoneted."
"And that is all?" queried Capell, after directing an officer togive Tarzan a hand grenade; "you will empty the trench alone?"
"Not exactly alone," replied Tarzan with a grim smile; "but I shallempty it, and, by the way, your men may come in through the tunnelfrom the listening post if you prefer. In about half an hour,Colonel," and he turned and left them.
As he passed through the camp there flashed suddenly upon the screenof recollection, conjured there by some reminder of his previousvisit to headquarters, doubtless, the image of the officer he hadpassed as he quit the colonel that other time and simultaneouslyrecognition of the face that had been revealed by the light fromthe fire. He shook his head dubiously. No, it could not be andyet the features of the young officer were identical with those ofFraulein Kircher, the German spy he had seen at German headquartersthe night he took Major Schneider from under the nose of the Hungeneral and his staff.
Beyond the last line of sentinels Tarzan moved quickly in thedirection of Numa, the lion. The beast was lying down as Tarzanapproached, but he rose as the ape-man reached his side. A lowwhine escaped his muzzled lips. Tarzan smiled for he recognized inthe new note almost a supplication--it was more like the whine ofa hungry dog begging for food than the voice of the proud king ofbeasts.
"Soon you will kill--and feed," he murmured in the vernacular ofthe great apes.
He unfastened the rope from about the tree and, with Numa closeat his side, slunk into No Man's Land. There was little rifle fireand only an occasional shell vouched for the presence of artillerybehind the opposing lines. As the shells from both sides werefalling well back of the trenches, they constituted no menace toTarzan; but the noise of them and that of the rifle fire had a markedeffect upon Numa who crouched, trembling, close to the Tarmanganias though seeking protection.
Cautiously the two beasts moved forward toward the listening postof the Germans. In one hand Tarzan carried the bomb the English hadgiven him, in the other was the coiled rope attached to the lion.At last Tarzan could see the position a few yards ahead. His keeneyes picked out the head and shoulders of the sentinel on watch.The ape-man grasped the bomb firmly in his right hand. He measuredthe distance with his eye and gathered his feet beneath him, thenin a single motion he rose and threw the missile, immediatelyflattening himself prone upon the ground.
Five seconds later there was a terrific explosion in the center ofthe listening post. Numa gave a nervous start and attempted to breakaway; but Tarzan held him and, leaping to his feet, ran forward,dragging Numa after him. At the edge of the post he saw below himbut slight evidence that the position had been occupied at all,for only a few shreds of torn flesh remained. About the only thingthat had not been demolished was a machine gun which had beenprotected by sand bags.
There was not an instant to lose. Already a relief might be crawlingthrough the communication tunnel, for it must have been evident tothe sentinels in the Hun trenches that the listening post had beendemolished. Numa hesitated to follow Tarzan into the excavation;but the ape-man, who was in no mood to temporize, jerked him roughlyto the bottom. Before them lay the mouth of the tunnel that ledback from No Man's Land to the German trenches. Tarzan pushed Numaforward until his head was almost in the aperture, then as thoughit were an afterthought, he turned quickly and, taking the machinegun from the parapet, placed it in the bottom of the hole closeat hand, after which he turned again to Numa, and with his knifequickly cut the garters that held the bags upon his front paws.Before the lion could know that a part of his formidable armamentwas again released for action, Tarzan had cut the rope from hisneck and the head bag from his face, and grabbing the lion fromthe rear had thrust him partially into the mouth of the tunnel.
Then Numa balked, only to feel the sharp prick of Tarzan's knifepoint in his hind quarters. Goading him on the ape-man finallysucceeded in getting the lion sufficiently far into the tunnelso that there was no chance of his escaping
other than by goingforward or deliberately backing into the sharp blade at his rear.Then Tarzan cut the bags from the great hind feet, placed hisshoulder and his knife point against Numa's seat, dug his toesinto the loose earth that had been broken up by the explosion ofthe bomb, and shoved.
Inch by inch at first Numa advanced. He was growling now and presentlyhe commenced to roar. Suddenly he leaped forward and Tarzan knewthat he had caught the scent of meat ahead. Dragging the machinegun beside him the ape-man followed quickly after the lion whoseroars he could plainly hear ahead mingled with the unmistakablescreams of frightened men. Once again a grim smile touched the lipsof this man-beast.
"They murdered my Waziri," he muttered; "they crucified Wasimbu,son of Muviro."
When Tarzan reached the trench and emerged into it there was no onein sight in that particular bay, nor in the next, nor the next ashe hurried forward in the direction of the German center; but in thefourth bay he saw a dozen men jammed in the angle of the traverseat the end while leaping upon them and rending with talons and fangswas Numa, a terrific incarnation of ferocity and ravenous hunger.
Whatever held the men at last gave way as they fought madly withone another in their efforts to escape this dread creature thatfrom their infancy had filled them with terror, and again theywere retreating. Some clambered over the parados and some even overthe parapet preferring the dangers of No Man's Land to this othersoul-searing menace.
As the British advanced slowly toward the German trenches, theyfirst met terrified blacks who ran into their arms only too willingto surrender. That pandemonium had broken loose in the Hun trenchwas apparent to the Rhodesians not only from the appearance of thedeserters, but from the sounds of screaming, cursing men which cameclearly to their ears; but there was one that baffled them for itresembled nothing more closely than the infuriated growling of anangry lion.
And when at last they reached the trench, those farthest on the leftof the advancing Britishers heard a machine gun sputter suddenlybefore them and saw a huge lion leap over the German parados withthe body of a screaming Hun soldier between his jaws and vanishinto the shadows of the night, while squatting upon a traverse totheir left was Tarzan of the Apes with a machine gun before himwith which he was raking the length of the German trenches.
The foremost Rhodesians saw something else--they saw a huge Germanofficer emerge from a dugout just in rear of the ape-man. They sawhim snatch up a discarded rifle with bayonet fixed and creep uponthe apparently unconscious Tarzan. They ran forward, shoutingwarnings; but above the pandemonium of the trenches and the machinegun their voices could not reach him. The German leaped upon theparapet behind him--the fat hands raised the rifle butt aloft forthe cowardly downward thrust into the naked back and then, as movesAra, the lightning, moved Tarzan of the Apes.
It was no man who leaped forward upon that Boche officer, strikingaside the sharp bayonet as one might strike aside a straw in ababy's hand--it was a wild beast and the roar of a wild beast wasupon those savage lips, for as that strange sense that Tarzan ownedin common with the other jungle-bred creatures of his wild domainwarned him of the presence behind him and he had whirled to meetthe attack, his eyes had seen the corps and regimental insignia uponthe other's blouse--it was the same as that worn by the murderersof his wife and his people, by the despoilers of his home and hishappiness.
It was a wild beast whose teeth fastened upon the shoulder of theHun--it was a wild beast whose talons sought that fat neck. Andthen the boys of the Second Rhodesian Regiment saw that which willlive forever in their memories. They saw the giant ape-man pickthe heavy German from the ground and shake him as a terrier mightshake a rat--as Sabor, the lioness, sometimes shakes her prey.They saw the eyes of the Hun bulge in horror as he vainly struckwith his futile hands against the massive chest and head of hisassailant. They saw Tarzan suddenly spin the man about and placinga knee in the middle of his back and an arm about his neck bendhis shoulders slowly backward. The German's knees gave and he sankupon them, but still that irresistible force bent him further andfurther. He screamed in agony for a moment--then something snappedand Tarzan cast him aside, a limp and lifeless thing.
The Rhodesians started forward, a cheer upon their lips--a cheerthat never was uttered--a cheer that froze in their throats, forat that moment Tarzan placed a foot upon the carcass of his killand, raising his face to the heavens, gave voice to the weird andterrifying victory cry of the bull ape.
Underlieutenant von Goss was dead.
Without a backward glance at the awe-struck soldiers Tarzan leapedthe trench and was gone.