Finally the ape-man rose and un-slung his rope. He arranged the
coils carefully in his left hand and the noose in his right, and
then he took a position with each foot on one of two branches that
lay in about the same horizontal plane and with his back pressed
firmly against the stem of the tree. There he stood hurling insults
at Numa until the beast was again goaded into leaping upward at
him, and as Numa rose the noose dropped quickly over his head and
about his neck. A quick movement of Tarzan's rope hand tightened
the coil and when Numa slipped backward to the ground only his hind
feet touched, for the ape-man held him swinging by the neck.
Moving slowly outward upon the two branches Tarzan swung Numa out
so that he could not reach the bole of the tree with his raking
talons, then he made the rope fast after drawing the lion clear
of the ground, dropped his five pigskin sacks to earth and leaped
down himself. Numa was striking frantically at the grass rope with
his 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 about
his neck with the draw string, then he managed, after considerable
effort, during which he barely escaped being torn to ribbons by
the mighty talons, to hog-tie Numa--drawing his four legs together
and securing them in that position with the strips trimmed from
the pigskins.
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