Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-18

Il found Numa crouching in that ciump
Of bushes where the tall grass grows, anu
Alyut pointed
"a lion?" cried the boy. How do you
know? can see nothing"
"Numa is there though" replied the
great ape. First I heard him sigh. TO
you the sigh of Numa may sound no dit-
ferent from the other noises which the wind
makes among the grasses and the trees, but
later you must learn to know the sigh OF
Numa Then I watched, and at last I saw
the tall grasses moving at one point to
force other than the force of the wind. See,
they are spread there upon either side OF
Numa's great body, and as he breathes-
you see2 You see the little motion ct either
side that is not caused by the wind--the
motion that none of the other grasses
have?"
The boy strained his eyes-better eyes
than the ordinary boy Understand at last
he gave n little exclamation of discovery.
Yes" he said, 81 see. lie lies there"
and he pointed. His head Is toward u.s.
Is he watching us?'
"Numa is watching u.s." replied Akut;
but we are In little danger unless we ap-
proach too close for he Is lying upon his
kill His belly is almost full or we should
hear him crunching the bones. He Is
watching us In silence, merely from
curiosity. Presently he will resume his
feeding. or he will rise and come down to
the water.hole for drink As he neither
fears or desires u.s. he will not try TO hide
his presence from us; but now is an eX-
cellent time to know Numa, for you must
learn to know him we'll IL you would live
long in the jungle. Where the great apes
are many, Numa leaves us alone. our
fangs are long and strong and we can
fight but when we are alone and he is
hungry. we are no match for him.
Come we will circle him and catch his
scent. The sooner you learn to know it the
better but keep close to the trees as we
go around him, for Numa often does that
which he is least expected to do And
keep ears and your syes and your nose
open. Remember always that there may be
an enemy behind every bush, In every tree
and among every clump of jungle.grass.
While you are avoiding Numa, do not run
into the jaws of Sabor, his mate. Follow
me-" and Alut set off in a wide circle about
the waterholc
The boy followed close upon his heels,
his every sense upon the alert, his nerves
Keyed to the highest pitch of excitement.
This was life.
For the instant he forgot his resolution
of few minutes ago to hasten to the
coast at some other point than that at
which he had landed and make his way
Immediately back to London. He thought
now only of the savage JOY of living, and
of pitting ones wits and prowess against
the wiles and might of the savage jungle
brood which haunted the broad plains and
the gloomy forest aisles of the great, un-
tanned continent.
He knew no fear. His father had had
none to transmit to him; but honor and
conscience he did have, and these were to
trouble him many times as they battled
with his inherent love of freedom for pos
session of his soul.
They had passed but II short distance to
the rear of Numa when the hoy caught
the unpleasant odor of the carnivore. His
face lighted with smile. Something told
him that he would have known that scent
among n myriad of others, even IL AlSut
had not told him that n lion lay near.
There was n strange famliarity--a weird
famliarity-in 1t that made the short hairs
rise at the rape of his neck and brought
his upper lip into an involuntary snar
that barred his fighting fangs. There was
n sense of stretching of the skin about his
ears. for all the world as though those
members were natteninE back against his
skull in preparation for deadly combat.
His skin tingled. He was aElow with n
pleasurabe sensation that he never before
had known. He was, upon the instant, an
other creature-wary, alert, ready.
Thus did the scent of Numa, the lion,
transform the boy into n beast.
He had never seen lion-his mother
had gone to too great pains to prevent II,
But he had devoured countless pictures of
them, and now he was ravenous to feast his
eyes upon the king of beasts in the flesh.
AS he trailed Akut he kept an eye cooked
over one shoulder rearward In the hope
| that Numa might rise from his kill and re-
| veal himself Thus II happened that he
| dropped some little way behind Akut and
| the next he knew he was recalled suddenly
to the contemplation of other matters than
the hidden Numa by shrll scream of
warning from the ape
Turning his eye quickly in the direc-
tion of his companion, the boy saw that
standing in the path directly before him
which sent tremors of excitement racing
through is body!