rt.

No ordinary man could have escaped those frightful claws when Numa
sprang from so short a distance, but Tarzan was no ordinary man. From
earliest childhood his muscles had been trained by the fierce
exigencies of his existence to act with the rapidity of thought. As
quick as was EL ADREA, Tarzan of the Apes was quicker, and so the great
beast crashed against a tree where he had expected to feel the soft
flesh of man, while Tarzan, a couple of paces to the right, pumped
another bullet into him that brought him clawing and roaring to his
side.

Twice more Tarzan fired in quick succession, and then EL ADREA lay
still and roared no more. It was no longer Monsieur Jean Tarzan; it
was Tarzan of the Apes that put a savage foot upon the body of his
savage kill, and, raising his face to the full moon, lifted his mighty
voice in the weird and terrible challenge of his kind--a bull ape had
made his kill. And the wild things in the wild mountains stopped in
their hunting, and trembled at this new and awful voice, while down in
the desert the children of the wilderness came out of their goatskin
tents and looked toward the mountains, wondering what new and savage
scourge had come to devastate their flocks.

A half mile from the valley in which Tarzan stood, a score of
white-robed figures, bearing long, wicked-looking guns, halted at the
sound, and looked at one another with questioning eyes. But presently,
as it was not repeated, they took up their silent, stealthy way toward
the valley.

Tarzan was now confident that Gernois had no intention of returning for
him, but he could not fathom the object that had prompted the officer
to desert him, yet leave him free to return to camp. His horse gone,
he decided that it would be foolish to remain longer in the mountains,
so he set out toward the desert.

He had scarcely entered the confines of the canon when the first of the
white-robed figures emerged into the valley upon the opposite side.
For a moment they scanned the little depression from behind sheltering
bowlders, but when they had satisfied themselves that it was empty they
advanced across it. Beneath the tree at one side they came upon the
body of EL ADREA. With muttered exclamations they crowded about it.
Then, a moment later, they hurried down the canon which Tarzan was
threading a brief distance in advance of them. They moved cautiously
and in silence, taking advantage of shelter, as men do who are stalking