was hungry.

The circling Ska suggested that this Tarmangani might be helpless
and upon the point of dying, else Ska would not have been interested
in him, and so easy prey for Sheeta. With this thought in mind the
cat resumed his stalking. Presently he pushed through the thick
bush and his yellow-green eyes rested gloatingly upon the body of
an almost naked Tarmangani lying face down in a narrow game trail.

Numa, sated, rose from the carcass of Bertha Kircher's horse and
seized the partially devoured body by the neck and dragged it into
the bush; then he started east toward the lair where he had left
his mate. Being uncomfortably full he was inclined to be sleepy
and far from belligerent. He moved slowly and majestically with no
effort at silence or concealment. The king walked abroad, unafraid.

With an occasional regal glance to right or left he moved along a
narrow game trail until at a turn he came to a sudden stop at what
lay revealed before him--Sheeta, the panther, creeping stealthily
upon the almost naked body of a Tarmangani lying face down in the
deep dust of the pathway. Numa glared intently at the quiet body
in the dust. Recognition came. It was his Tarmangani. A low growl
of warning rumbled from his throat and Sheeta halted with one paw
upon Tarzan's back and turned suddenly to eye the intruder.

What passed within those savage brains? Who may say? The panther
seemed debating the wisdom of defending his find, for he growled
horribly as though warning Numa away from the prey. And Numa? Was
the idea of property rights dominating his thoughts? The Tarmangani
was his, or he was the Tarmangani's. Had not the Great White Ape
mastered and subdued him and, too, had he not fed him? Numa recalled
the fear that he had felt of this man-thing and his cruel spear;
but in savage brains fear is more likely to engender respect than
hatred and so Numa found that he respected the creature who had
subdued and mastered him. He saw Sheeta, upon whom he looked with
contempt, daring to molest the master of the lion. Jealousy and
greed alone might have been sufficient to prompt Numa to drive Sheeta
away, even though the lion was not sufficiently hungry to devour
the flesh that he thus wrested from the lesser cat; but then, too,
there was in the little brain within the massive head a sense of
loyalty, and perhaps this it was that sent Numa quickly forward,
growling, toward the spitting Sheeta.

For a moment the latter st