Abreast
of the ape-man came the deer; a light-brown body shot from the
concealing verdure of the bush, strong arms encircled the sleek
neck of the young buck and powerful teeth fastened themselves in
the soft flesh. Together the two rolled over in the trail and a
moment later the ape-man rose, and, with one foot upon the carcass
of his kill, raised his voice in the victory cry of the bull ape.
Like an answering challenge came suddenly to the ears of the
ape-man the thunderous roar of a lion, a hideous angry roar in which
Tarzan thought that he discerned a note of surprise and terror. In
the breast of the wild things of the jungle, as in the breasts of
their more enlightened brothers and sisters of the human race, the
characteristic of curiosity is well developed. Nor was Tarzan far
from innocent of it. The peculiar note in the roar of his hereditary
enemy aroused a desire to investigate, and so, throwing the carcass
of Bara, the deer, across his shoulder, the ape-man took to the
lower terraces of the forest and moved quickly in the direction
from which the sound had come, which was in line with the trail he
had set out upon.
As the distance lessened, the sounds increased in volume, which
indicated that he was approaching a very angry lion and presently,
where a jungle giant overspread the broad game trail that countless
thousands of hoofed and padded feet had worn and trampled into a
deep furrow during perhaps countless ages, he saw beneath him the
lion pit of the Wamabos and in it, leaping futilely for freedom
such a lion as even Tarzan of the Apes never before had beheld.
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