ttle pain as possible.
No one can prophesy what a lion will do in any given emergency.
This one glared and growled at the girl for a moment and then fell
to feeding upon the dead horse. Fraulein Kircher wondered for an
instant and then attempted to draw her leg cautiously from beneath
the body of her mount; but she could not budge it. She increased
the force of her efforts and Numa looked up from his feeding to
growl again. The girl desisted. She hoped that he might satisfy
his hunger and then depart to lie up, but she could not believe
that he would leave her there alive. Doubtless he would drag the
remains of his kill into the bush for hiding and, as there could
be no doubt that he considered her part of his prey, he would
certainly come back for her, or possibly drag her in first and kill
her.
Again Numa fell to feeding. The girl's nerves were at the breaking
point. She wondered that she had not fainted under the strain
of terror and shock. She recalled that she often had wished she
might see a lion, close to, make a kill and feed upon it. God! how
realistically her wish had been granted.
Again she bethought herself of her pistol. As she had fallen, the
holster had slipped around so that the weapon now lay beneath her.
Very slowly she reached for it; but in so doing she was forced to
raise her body from the ground. Instantly the lion was aroused.
With the swiftness of a cat he reached across the carcass of the
horse and placed a heavy, taloned paw upon her breast, crushing her
back to earth, and all the time he growled and snarled horribly.
His face was a picture of frightful rage incarnate. For a moment
neither moved and then from behind her the girl heard a human voice
uttering bestial sounds.
Numa suddenly looked up from the girl's face at the thing beyond
her. His growls increased to roars as he drew back, ripping the
front of the girl's waist almost from her body with his long talons,
exposing her white bosom, which through some miracle of chance the
great claws did not touch.
Tarzan of the Apes had witnessed the entire encounter from the
moment that Numa had leaped upon his prey. For some time before,
he had been watching the girl, and after the lion attacked her he
had at first been minded to let Numa have his way with her. What
was she but a hated German and a spy besides? He had seen her at
General Kraut's headquarters, in conference with the German staff
and again he had seen her within the B
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