looked upon with utter loathing,
and of such were the human flesh-eaters of Numabo the chief. For
a moment Numa, the lion, glared ferociously at the naked man-thing
upon the tree limb above him. Steadily those yellow-green eyes
bored into the clear eyes of the ape-man, and then the sensitive
nostrils caught the scent of the fresh blood of Bara and the eyes
moved to the carcass lying across the brown shoulder, and there
came from the cavernous depths of the savage throat a low whine.

Tarzan of the Apes smiled. As unmistakably as though a human voice
had spoken, the lion had said to him "I am hungry, even more than
hungry. I am starving," and the ape-man looked down upon the lion
beneath him and smiled, a slow quizzical smile, and then he shifted
the carcass from his shoulder to the branch before him and, drawing
the long blade that had been his father's, deftly cut off a hind
quarter and, wiping the bloody blade upon Bara's smooth coat, he
returned it to its scabbard. Numa, with watering jaws, looked up
at the tempting meat and whined again and the ape-man smiled down
upon him his slow smile and, raising the hind quarter in his strong
brown hands buried his teeth in the tender, juicy flesh.

For the third time Numa, the lion, uttered that low pleading whine
and then, with a rueful and disgusted shake of his head, Tarzan of
the Apes raised the balance of the carcass of Bara, the deer, and
hurled it to the famished beast below.

"Old woman," muttered the ape-man. "Tarzan has become a weak old
woman. Presently he would shed tears because he has killed Bara,
the deer. He cannot see Numa, his enemy, go hungry, because Tarzan's
heart is turning to water by contact with the soft, weak creatures
of civilization." But yet he smiled, nor was he sorry that he had
given way to the dictates of a kindly impulse.

As Tarzan tore the flesh from that portion of the kill he had retained
for himself his eyes were taking in each detail of the scene below.
He saw the avidity with which Numa devoured the carcass; he noted
with growing admiration the finer points of the beast, and also
the cunning construction of the trap. The ordinary lion pit with
which Tarzan was familiar had stakes imbedded in the bottom, upon
whose sharpened points the hapless lion would be impaled, but this
pit was not so made. Here the short stakes were set at intervals of
about a foot around the walls near the top, their sharpened points
inclining downward so t