She heard the angry roaring of the lions
and the cries of the madmen. For several minutes the men seemed to
be investigating the stronghold which their quarry had discovered.
She could hear them both to the north and south and then from
where she lay she saw a lion charging for the ape-man before her.
She saw the giant arm swing back with the curved saber and she
saw it fall with terrific velocity and meet the lion as he rose to
grapple with the man, cleaving his skull as cleanly as a butcher
opens up a sheep.
Then she heard footsteps running rapidly toward Smith-Oldwick and,
as his pistol spoke, there was a scream and the sound of a falling
body. Evidently disheartened by the failure of their first attempt
the assaulters drew off, but only for a short time. Again they came,
this time a man opposing Tarzan and a lion seeking to overcome
Smith-Oldwick. Tarzan had cautioned the young Englishman not
to waste his cartridges upon the lions and it was Otobu with the
Xujan spear who met the beast, which was not subdued until both
he and Smith-Oldwick had been mauled, and the latter had succeeded
in running the point of the saber the girl had carried, into the
beast's heart. The man who opposed Tarzan inadvertently came too
close in an attempt to cut at the ape-man's head, with the result
that an instant later his corpse lay with the neck broken upon the
body of the lion.
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