Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-09
By Edgar Rice Burroughs

dHSTny lUI HlOHltHJ dhu bllSn iN-
sumed their feeding or their mapping
which he had interrupted, and he,
having had his little joke, made his
way to the hollow tree where he kept
his treasures hid from the mis-
chievous little manus. Here he with
drew a closely rolled hide-the hide
of Numa with the head on; a clever
bit of primitive curing and mounting
which had once been the property of
the witch-doctor, Rabba Kega, until
Tarzan had stolen it from the village.
With this he made his way back
through the jungle toward the village
of the blacks, stopping to hunt and
feed upon the way, and, in the after
noon, even mapping for an hour, so
that it was already dusk when he en-
tered the great tree which overhung
the palisade and gave him a view
of the entire village. He saw that
| Numa was still alive and that the
guards were even doing beside the
cage. A lion is no great novelty to
black man in the lion country, and
/ the first keen edge of their desire to
worry the brute having worn off, the
villagers paid little or no attention to
the great cat, preferring now to
wait the grand event of the night.
Nor was it long after dark before
the festivities commenced. To the
beating Of tom-toms, a lone warrior,
crouched half doubled, leaped into
the freight in the center of a great
circle of other warriors, behind whom
stood or squatted the women and the
children. The dancer was painted
and armed for the hunt and his move
ments and gestures suggested the
search for the spoor of game. Bend
ing low, sometimes resting for mo-
ment on one knee, he searched the
ground for signs of the quarry; again
he poised, statuesque, listening. The
warrior was young and 1.-THE and
graceful; he was full-muscled and
arrow-straight The freight glis
tened upon his ebon body and brought
out into bold relief the grotesque de-
signs painted upon his face, breasts
and abdomen.
Presently he bent low to the earth,
then leaped high in air. Every line
of face and body showed that he had
struck the scent. Immediately he
leaped toward the circle of warriors
about him, telling them of his find
and summoning them to the hunt. 1t
was all in pantomime, but so truly
done that even Tarzan could follow
it all to the least detail.
He saw the other warriors grasp
their hunting spears and leap to their
feet to join in the graceful, stealthy
Stalking dance" 1t was very in
teresting, but Tarzan realized that
if he was to carry his design to a
successful conclusion he must act
quickly. He had seen these dances
before and knew that after the stalk
would come the game at bay and
then the kill, during which Numa
would be surrounded by warriors and
unapproachable.
With the lions skin under one
arm the ape-man dropped to the
ground in the dense shadows beneath
the tree and then circled behind the
huts until he came out directly in
the rear of the cage, in which Numa
paced nervously to and fro. The
cage was now unguarded, the two
warriors having left it to take their
places among the other dancers.
Behind the cage Tarzan adjusted
the lions skin about him, just as he
had upon that memorable occasion
when the apes of Kerchak, failing
to pierce his disguise, had all but
slain him. Then, on hands and
knees, he crept forward, emerged
from between the two huts and stood
a few PAGES back of the dusky au-
dience, whose whole attention was
centered upon the dancers before
them.
Tarzan saw that the blacks had
now worked themselves to a proper
pitch of nervous excitement to be
ripe for the lion. In a moment the
ring of spectators would break at a
point nearest the Gagged lion and the
victim would be rolled into the center
Of the circle. 1t was for this moment
that Tarzan waited
At last it came. A signal was
given by Mbonga, the chief, at which
the women and children Immediately
in front of Tarzan rose and moved
to one side, leaving a broad path
opening toward the Gagged lion. At
the same instant Tarzan gave voice
to the low, coughing roar of an angry
lion and skunk slowly forward
through the open lane toward the
frenzied dancers.
A woman saw him first and
screamed. Instantly there was a
panic in the immediate vicinity of
the ape-man. The strong light from
the fire fell full upon the lion head
and the blacks leaped to the con-
clusion, as Tarzan had known they
would, that their captive had escaped
his cage.
With another roar Tarzan moved
forward. The dancing warriors
paused but an instant They had been
hunting lion securely housed with