NUMA, THE LION, crouched behind a thorn bush close besidethe drinking pool where the river eddied just below the bend. There was a ford there and on either bank a well-worn trail,broadened far out at the river's brim, where, for countlesscenturies, the wild things of the jungle and of the plainsbeyond had come down to drink, the carnivora with boldand fearless majesty, the herbivora timorous, hesitating,fearful.

Numa, the lion, was hungry, he was very hungry, and so hewas quite silent now. On his way to the drinking placehe had moaned often and roared not a little; but as heneared the spot where he would lie in wait for Bara,the deer, or Horta, the boar, or some other of the manyluscious-fleshed creatures who came hither to drink,he was silent. It was a grim, a terrible silence,shot through with yellow-green light of ferocious eyes,punctuated with undulating tremors of sinuous tail.

It was Pacco, the zebra, who came first, and Numa, the lion,could scarce restrain a roar of anger, for of all theplains people, none are more wary than Pacco, the zebra. Behind the black-striped stallion came a herd of thirtyor forty of the plump and vicious little horselike beasts. As he neared the river, the leader paused often,cocking his ears and raising his muzzle to sniff thegentle breeze for the tell-tale scent spoor of the dreadflesh-eaters.

Numa shifted uneasily, drawing his hind quarters farbeneath his tawny body, gathering himself for the suddencharge and the savage assault. His eyes shot hungry fire. His great muscles quivered to the excitement of the moment.

Pacco came a little nearer, halted, snorted, and wheeled. There was a pattering of scurrying hoofs and the herd was gone;but Numa, the lion, moved not. He was familiar with theways of Pacco, the zebra. He knew that he would return,though many times he might wheel and fly before hesummoned the courage to lead his harem and his offspringto the water. There was the chance that Pacco might befrightened off entirely. Numa had seen this happen before,and so he became almost rigid lest he be the one to sendthem galloping, waterless, back to the plain.

Again and again came Pacco and his family, and againand again did they turn and flee; but each time they camecloser to the river, until at last the plump stalliondipped his velvet muzzle daintily into the water. The others, stepping warily, approached their leader. Numa selected a sleek, fat filly and his flaming eyes burnedgreedily as they feasted upon her, for Numa, the lion,loves scarce anything better than the meat of Pacco,perhaps because Pacco is, of all the grass-eaters, the mostdifficult to catch.

Slowly the lion rose, and as he rose, a twig snapped beneathone of his great, padded paws. Like a shot from a riflehe charged upon the filly; but the snapped twig had beenenough to startle the timorous quarry, so that theywere in instant flight simultaneously with Numa's charge.

The stallion was last, and with a prodigious leap,the lion catapulted through the air to seize him;but the snapping twig had robbed Numa of his dinner,though his mighty talons raked the zebra's glossy rump,leaving four crimson bars across the beautiful coat.

It was an angry Numa that quitted the river and prowled,fierce, dangerous, and hungry, into the jungle. Far from particular now was his appetite. Even Dango,the hyena, would have seemed a tidbit to that ravenous maw. And in this temper it was that the lion came upon the tribeof Kerchak, the great ape.

One does not look for Numa, the lion, this late in the morning. He should be lying up asleep beside his last night'skill by now; but Numa had made no kill last night. He was still hunting, hungrier than ever.

The anthropoids were idling about the clearing, the firstkeen desire of the morning's hunger having been satisfied. Numa scented them long before he saw them. Ordinarily hewould have turned away in search of other game, for evenNuma respected the mighty muscles and the sharp fangsof the great bulls of the tribe of Kerchak, but today hekept on steadily toward them, his bristled snout wrinkledinto a savage snarl.

Without an instant's hesitation, Numa charged the momenthe reached a point from where the apes were visibleto him. There were a dozen or more of the hairy,manlike creatures upon the ground in a little glade. In a tree at one side sat a brown-skinned youth. He saw Numa's swift charge; he saw the apes turn and flee,huge bulls trampling upon little balus; only a single sheheld her ground to meet the charge, a young she inspiredby new motherhood to the great sacrifice that her balumight escape.

Tarzan leaped from his perch, screaming at the flyingbulls beneath and at those who squatted in the safetyof surrounding trees. Had the bulls stood their ground,Numa would not have carried through that charge unlessgoaded by great rage or the gnawing pangs of starvation. Even then he would not have come off unscathed.

If the bulls heard, they were too slow in responding,for Numa had seized the mother ape and dragged her intothe jungle before the males had sufficiently collected theirwits and their courage to rally in defense of their fellow. Tarzan's angry voice aroused similar anger in the breastsof the apes. Snarling and barking they followed Numainto the dense labyrinth of foliage wherein he soughtto hide himself from them. The ape-man was in the lead,moving rapidly and yet with caution, depending even moreupon his ears and nose than upon his eyes for informationof the lion's whereabouts.

The spoor was easy to follow, for the dragged body of thevictim left a plain trail, blood-spattered and scentful. Even such dull creatures as you or I might easily havefollowed it. To Tarzan and the apes of Kerchak it wasas obvious as a cement sidewalk.

Tarzan knew that they were nearing the great cat evenbefore he heard an angry growl of warning just ahead. Calling to the apes to follow his example, he swung intoa tree and a moment later Numa was surrounded by a ringof growling beasts, well out of reach of his fangs and talonsbut within plain sight of him. The carnivore crouchedwith his fore-quarters upon the she-ape. Tarzan could seethat the latter was already dead; but something withinhim made it seem quite necessary to rescue the uselessbody from the clutches of the enemy and to punish him.

He shrieked taunts and insults at Numa, and tearingdead branches from the tree in which he danced,hurled them at the lion. The apes followed his example. Numa roared out in rage and vexation. He was hungry,but under such conditions he could not feed.

The apes, if they had been left to themselves,would doubtless soon have left the lion to peacefulenjoyment of his feast, for was not the she dead? Theycould not restore her to life by throwing sticks at Numa,and they might even now be feeding in quiet themselves;but Tarzan was of a different mind. Numa must be punishedand driven away. He must be taught that even thoughhe killed a Mangani, he would not be permitted to feedupon his kill. The man-mind looked into the future,while the apes perceived only the immediate present. They would be content to escape today the menace of Numa,while Tarzan saw the necessity, and the means as well,of safeguarding the days to come.

So he urged the great anthropoids on until Numa wasshowered with missiles that kept his head dodgingand his voice pealing forth its savage protest;but still he clung desperately to his kill.

The twigs and branches hurled at Numa, Tarzan soon realized,did not hurt him greatly even when they struck him,and did not injure him at all, so the ape-man looked aboutfor more effective missiles, nor did he have to look long. An out-cropping of decomposed granite not far from Numasuggested ammunition of a much more painful nature. Calling to the apes to watch him, Tarzan slipped tothe ground and gathered a handful of small fragments. He knew that when once they had seen him carry out hisidea they would be much quicker to follow his lead thanto obey his instructions, were he to command them toprocure pieces of rock and hurl them at Numa, for Tarzanwas not then king of the apes of the tribe of Kerchak. That came in later years. Now he was but a youth, though onewho already had wrested for himself a place in the councilsof the savage beasts among whom a strange fate had cast him. The sullen bulls of the older generation still hatedhim as beasts hate those of whom they are suspicious,whose scent characteristic is the scent characteristicof an alien order and, therefore, of an enemy order. The younger bulls, those who had grown up throughchildhood as his playmates, were as accustomed to Tarzan'sscent as to that of any other member of the tribe. They felt no greater suspicion of him than of any otherbull of their acquaintance; yet they did not love him,for they loved none outside the mating season, and theanimosities aroused by other bulls during that season lastedwell over until the next. They were a morose and peevishband at best, though here and there were those among themin whom germinated the primal seeds of humanity--reversionsto type, these, doubtless; reversions to the ancientprogenitor who took the first step out of ape-hoodtoward humanness, when he walked more often upon his hindfeet and discovered other things for idle hands to do.

So now Tarzan led where he could not yet command. He had long since discovered the apish propensity formimicry and learned to make use of it. Having filledhis arms with fragments of rotted granite, he clamberedagain into a tree, and it pleased him to see that the apeshad followed his example.

During the brief respite while they were gatheringtheir ammunition, Numa had settled himself to feed;but scarce had he arranged himself and his kill whena sharp piece of rock hurled by the practiced hand ofthe ape-man struck him upon the cheek. His sudden roarof pain and rage was smothered by a volley from the apes,who had seen Tarzan's act. Numa shook his massivehead and glared upward at his tormentors. For a halfhour they pursued him with rocks and broken branches,and though he dragged his kill into densest thickets,yet they always found a way to reach him with their missiles,giving him no opportunity to feed, and driving him on and on.

The hairless ape-thing with the man scent was worst of all,for he had even the temerity to advance upon the groundto within a few yards of the Lord of the Jungle, that hemight with greater accuracy and force hurl the sharp bitsof granite and the heavy sticks at him. Time and againdid Numa charge--sudden, vicious charges--but the lithe,active tormentor always managed to elude him and with suchinsolent ease that the lion forgot even his great hungerin the consuming passion of his rage, leaving his meatfor considerable spaces of time in vain efforts to catchhis enemy.

The apes and Tarzan pursued the great beast to a naturalclearing,where Numa evidently determined to make a last stand,taking up his position in the center of the open space,which was far enough from any tree to render him practicallyimmune from the rather erratic throwing of the apes, thoughTarzan still found him with most persistent and aggravatingfrequency.

This, however, did not suit the ape-man, since Numa nowsuffered an occasional missile with no more than a snarl,while he settled himself to partake of his delayed feast. Tarzan scratched his head, pondering some more effectivemethod of offense, for he had determined to prevent Numafrom profiting in any way through his attack upon the tribe. The man-mind reasoned against the future, while theshaggy apes thought only of their present hatred of thisancestral enemy. Tarzan guessed that should Numa find itan easy thing to snatch a meal from the tribe of Kerchak,it would be but a short time before their existence wouldbe one living nightmare of hideous watchfulness and dread. Numa must be taught that the killing of an ape broughtimmediate punishment and no rewards. It would take buta few lessons to insure the former safety of the tribe. This must be some old lion whose failing strength andagility had forced him to any prey that he could catch;but even a single lion, undisputed, could exterminatethe tribe, or at least make its existence so precariousand so terrifying that life would no longer be apleasant condition.

"Let him hunt among the Gomangani," thought Tarzan. "He will find them easier prey. I will teach ferociousNuma that he may not hunt the Mangani."

But how to wrest the body of his victim from thefeeding lion was the first question to be solved. At last Tarzan hit upon a plan. To anyone but Tarzanof the Apes it might have seemed rather a risky plan,and perhaps it did even to him; but Tarzan rather likedthings that contained a considerable element of danger. At any rate, I rather doubt that you or I would have chosena similar plan for foiling an angry and a hungry lion.

Tarzan required assistance in the scheme he had hit uponand his assistant must be equally as brave and almostas active as he. The ape-man's eyes fell upon Taug,the playmate of his childhood, the rival in his first loveand now, of all the bulls of the tribe, the only onethat might be thought to hold in his savage brain anysuch feeling toward Tarzan as we describe among ourselvesas friendship. At least, Tarzan knew, Taug was courageous,and he was young and agile and wonderfully muscled.

"Taug!" cried the ape-man. The great ape looked up from a deadlimb he was attempting to tear from a lightning-blasted tree. "Go close to Numa and worry him," said Tarzan. "Worry himuntil he charges. Lead him away from the body of Mamka. Keep him away as long as you can."

Taug nodded. He was across the clearing from Tarzan. Wresting the limb at last from the tree he dropped to theground and advanced toward Numa, growling and barking outhis insults. The worried lion looked up and rose to his feet. His tail went stiffly erect and Taug turned in flight,for he knew that warming signal of the charge.

From behind the lion, Tarzan ran quickly toward the centerof the clearing and the body of Mamka. Numa, all hiseyes for Taug, did not see the ape-man. Instead he shotforward after the fleeing bull, who had turned in flightnot an instant too soon, since he reached the nearesttree but a yard or two ahead of the pursuing demon. Like a cat the heavy anthropoid scampered up the boleof his sanctuary. Numa's talons missed him by littlemore than inches.

For a moment the lion paused beneath the tree, glaring upat the ape and roaring until the earth trembled, then heturned back again toward his kill, and as he did so,his tail shot once more to rigid erectness and hecharged back even more ferociously than he had come,for what he saw was the naked man-thing running towardthe farther trees with the bloody carcass of his preyacross a giant shoulder.

The apes, watching the grim race from the safety ofthe trees, screamed taunts at Numa and warnings to Tarzan. The high sun, hot and brilliant, fell like a spotlightupon the actors in the little clearing, portraying themin glaring relief to the audience in the leafy shadowsof the surrounding trees. The light-brown body of thenaked youth, all but hidden by the shaggy carcass of thekilled ape, the red blood streaking his smooth hide,his muscles rolling, velvety, beneath. Behind himthe black-maned lion, head flattened, tail extended,racing, a jungle thoroughbred, across the sunlit clearing.

Ah, but this was life! With death at his heels,Tarzan thrilled with the joy of such living as this;but would he reach the trees ahead of the rampant deathso close behind?

Gunto swung from a limb in a tree before him. Gunto wasscreaming warnings and advice.

"Catch me!" cried Tarzan, and with his heavy burden leapedstraight for the big bull hanging there by his hind feetand one forepaw. And Gunto caught them--the big ape-manand the dead weight of the slain she-ape--caught themwith one great, hairy paw and whirled them upward untilTarzan's fingers closed upon a near-by branch.

Beneath, Numa leaped; but Gunto, heavy and awkward as hemay have appeared, was as quick as Manu, the monkey,so that the lion's talons but barely grazed him,scratching a bloody streak beneath one hairy arm.

Tarzan carried Mamka's corpse to a high crotch, where evenSheeta, the panther, could not get it. Numa paced angrilyback and forth beneath the tree, roaring frightfully. He had been robbed of his kill and his revenge also. He was very savage indeed; but his despoilers werewell out of his reach, and after hurling a few tauntsand missiles at him they swung away through the trees,fiercely reviling him.

Tarzan thought much upon the little adventure of that day. He foresaw what might happen should the great carnivoraof the jungle turn their serious attention upon the tribeof Kerchak, the great ape, but equally he thought uponthe wild scramble of the apes for safety when Numa firstcharged among them. There is little humor in the junglethat is not grim and awful. The beasts have littleor no conception of humor; but the young Englishman sawhumor in many things which presented no humorous angleto his associates.

Since earliest childhood he had been a searcher after fun,much to the sorrow of his fellow-apes, and now hesaw the humor of the frightened panic of the apesand the baffled rage of Numa even in this grim jungleadventure which had robbed Mamka of life, and jeopardizedthat of many members of the tribe.

It was but a few weeks later that Sheeta, the panther,made a sudden rush among the tribe and snatched a littlebalu from a tree where it had been hidden while its mothersought food. Sheeta got away with his small prize unmolested. Tarzan was very wroth. He spoke to the bulls of the easewith which Numa and Sheeta, in a single moon, had slaintwo members of the tribe.

"They will take us all for food," he cried. "We huntas we will through the jungle, paying no heed toapproaching enemies. Even Manu, the monkey, does not so. He keeps two or three always watching for enemies. Pacco, the zebra, and Wappi, the antelope, have those aboutthe herd who keep watch while the others feed, while we,the great Mangani, let Numa, and Sabor, and Sheetacome when they will and carry us off to feed their balus.

"Gr-r-rmph," said Numgo.

"What are we to do?" asked Taug.

"We, too, should have two or three always watching for theapproach of Numa, and Sabor, and Sheeta," replied Tarzan. "No others need we fear, except Histah, the snake, and ifwe watch for the others we will see Histah if he comes,though gliding ever so silently."

And so it was that the great apes of the tribe of Kerchakposted sentries thereafter, who watched upon three sideswhile the tribe hunted, scattered less than had beentheir wont.

But Tarzan went abroad alone, for Tarzan was a man-thingand sought amusement and adventure and such humor as the grimand terrible jungle offers to those who know it and do notfear it--a weird humor shot with blazing eyes and dappledwith the crimson of lifeblood. While others soughtonly food and love, Tarzan of the Apes sought food and joy.

One day he hovered above the palisaded village of Mbonga,the chief, the jet cannibal of the jungle primeval. He saw, as he had seen many times before, the witch-doctor,Rabba Kega, decked out in the head and hide of Gorgo,the buffalo. It amused Tarzan to see a Gomangani paradingas Gorgo; but it suggested nothing in particular to himuntil he chanced to see stretched against the side ofMbonga's hut the skin of a lion with the head still on. Then a broad grin widened the handsome face of the savagebeast-youth.

Back into the jungle he went until chance, agility, strength,and cunning backed by his marvelous powers of perception,gave him an easy meal. If Tarzan felt that the worldowed him a living he also realized that it was for himto collect it, nor was there ever a better collector thanthis son of an English lord, who knew even less of the waysof his forbears than he did of the forbears themselves,which was nothing.

It was quite dark when Tarzan returned to the villageof Mbonga and took his now polished perch in the treewhich overhangs the palisade upon one side of thewalled enclosure. As there was nothing in particularto feast upon in the village there was little lifein the single street, for only an orgy of fleshand native beer could draw out the people of Mbonga. Tonight they sat gossiping about their cooking fires,the older members of the tribe; or, if they were young,paired off in the shadows cast by the palm-thatched huts.

Tarzan dropped lightly into the village, and sneakingstealthily in the concealment of the denser shadows,approached the hut of the chief, Mbonga. Here he foundthat which he sought. There were warriors all about him;but they did not know that the feared devil-god slunknoiselessly so near them, nor did they see him possesshimself of that which he coveted and depart from theirvillage as noiselessly as he had come.

Later that night, as Tarzan curled himself for sleep,he lay for a long time looking up at the burning planetsand the twinkling stars and at Goro the moon, and he smiled. He recalled how ludicrous the great bulls had appearedin their mad scramble for safety that day when Numahad charged among them and seized Mamka, and yet he knewthem to be fierce and courageous. It was the suddenshock of surprise that always sent them into a panic;but of this Tarzan was not as yet fully aware. That wassomething he was to learn in the near future.

He fell asleep with a broad grin upon his face.

Manu, the monkey, awoke him in the morning by droppingdiscarded bean pods upon his upturned face from a brancha short distance above him. Tarzan looked up and smiled. He had been awakened thus before many times. He and Manuwere fairly good friends, their friendship operating upona reciprocal basis. Sometimes Manu would come running earlyin the morning to awaken Tarzan and tell him that Bara,the deer, was feeding close at hand, or that Horta,the boar, was asleep in a mudhole hard by, and in returnTarzan broke open the shells of the harder nuts and fruitsfor Manu, or frightened away Histah, the snake, and Sheeta,the panther.

The sun had been up for some time, and the tribe hadalready wandered off in search of food. Manu indicatedthe direction they had taken with a wave of his handand a few piping notes of his squeaky little voice.

"Come, Manu," said Tarzan, "and you will see that whichshall make you dance for joy and squeal your wrinkledlittle head off. Come, follow Tarzan of the Apes."

With that he set off in the direction Manu had indicatedand above him, chattering, scolding and squealing,skipped Manu, the monkey. Across Tarzan's shoulderswas the thing he had stolen from the village of Mbonga,the chief, the evening before.

The tribe was feeding in the forest beside the clearingwhere Gunto, and Taug, and Tarzan had so harassed Numaand finally taken away from him the fruit of his kill. Some of them were in the clearing itself. In peaceand content they fed, for were there not three sentries,each watching upon a different side of the herd? Tarzanhad taught them this, and though he had been away forseveral days hunting alone, as he often did, or visitingat the cabin by the sea, they had not as yet forgottenhis admonitions, and if they continued for a short timelonger to post sentries, it would become a habit of theirtribal life and thus be perpetuated indefinitely.

But Tarzan, who knew them better than they knew themselves,was confident that they had ceased to place the watchers aboutthem the moment that he had left them, and now he plannednot only to have a little fun at their expense but to teachthem a lesson in preparedness, which, by the way, is evena more vital issue in the jungle than in civilized places. That you and I exist today must be due to the preparednessof some shaggy anthropoid of the Oligocene. Of coursethe apes of Kerchak were always prepared, after their ownway--Tarzan had merely suggested a new and additional safeguard.

Gunto was posted today to the north of the clearing. He squatted in the fork of a tree from where he mightview the jungle for quite a distance about him. It was he who first discovered the enemy. A rustlingin the undergrowth attracted his attention, and a momentlater he had a partial view of a shaggy mane and tawnyyellow back. Just a glimpse it was through the mattedfoliage beneath him; but it brought from Gunto's leathernlungs a shrill "Kreeg-ah!" which is the ape for beware,or danger.

Instantly the tribe took up the cry until "Kreeg-ahs!" rangthrough the jungle about the clearing as apes swung quicklyto places of safety among the lower branches of the treesand the great bulls hastened in the direction of Gunto.

And then into the clearing strode Numa, the lion-- majesticand mighty, and from a deep chest issued the moan and thecough and the rumbling roar that set stiff hairs to bristlingfrom shaggy craniums down the length of mighty spines.

Inside the clearing, Numa paused and on the instantthere fell upon him from the trees near by a showerof broken rock and dead limbs torn from age-old trees. A dozen times he was hit, and then the apes ran downand gathered other rocks, pelting him unmercifully.

Numa turned to flee, but his way was barred by a fusiladeof sharp-cornered missiles, and then, upon the edgeof the clearing, great Taug met him with a huge fragmentof rock as large as a man's head, and down went the Lordof the Jungle beneath the stunning blow.

With shrieks and roars and loud barkings the great apesof the tribe of Kerchak rushed upon the fallen lion. Sticks and stones and yellow fangs menaced the still form. In another moment, before he could regain consciousness,Numa would be battered and torn until only a bloody massof broken bones and matted hair remained of what had once beenthe most dreaded of jungle creatures.

But even as the sticks and stones were raised above himand the great fangs bared to tear him, there descendedlike a plummet from the trees above a diminutivefigure with long, white whiskers and a wrinkled face. Square upon the body of Numa it alighted and there itdanced and screamed and shrieked out its challengeagainst the bulls of Kerchak.

For an instant they paused, paralyzed by the wonder ofthe thing. It was Manu, the monkey, Manu, the little coward,and here he was daring the ferocity of the great Mangani,hopping about upon the carcass of Numa, the lion,and crying out that they must not strike it again.

And when the bulls paused, Manu reached down and seized atawny ear. With all his little might he tugged upon the heavyhead until slowly it turned back, revealing the tousled,black head and clean-cut profile of Tarzan of the Apes.

Some of the older apes were for finishing what they hadcommenced;but Taug, sullen, mighty Taug, sprang quickly to theape-man's side and straddling the unconscious form warnedback those who would have struck his childhood playmate. And Teeka, his mate, came too, taking her place with baredfangs at Taug's side. others followed their example,until at last Tarzan was surrounded by a ring of hairychampions who would permit no enemy to approach him.

It was a surprised and chastened Tarzan who openedhis eyes to consciousness a few minutes later. He looked about him at the surrounding apes and slowlythere returned to him a realization of what had occurred.

Gradually a broad grin illuminated his features. His bruises were many and they hurt; but the good that hadcome from his adventure was worth all that it had cost. He had learned, for instance, that the apes of Kerchakhad heeded his teaching, and he had learned that hehad good friends among the sullen beasts whom he hadthought without sentiment. He had discovered that Manu,the monkey--even little, cowardly Manu--had risked his lifein his defense.

It made Tarzan very glad to know these things;but at the other lesson he had been taught he reddened. He had always been a joker, the only joker in the grimand terrible company; but now as he lay there half deadfrom his hurts, he almost swore a solemn oath foreverto forego practical joking--almost; but not quite.