Then it was that Numa charged.

Numa, the lion, can run swiftly for a short distance, but he lacks
endurance. For the period of an ordinary charge he can cover the
ground with greater rapidity possibly than any other creature in
the world. Tarzan, on the other hand, could run at great speed for
long distances, though never as rapidly as Numa when the latter
charged.

The question of his fate, then, rested upon whether, with his start
he could elude Numa for a few seconds; and, if so, if the lion would
then have sufficient stamina remaining to pursue him at a reduced
gait for the balance of the distance to the wall.

Never before, perhaps, was staged a more thrilling race, and yet it
was run with only the moon and stars to see. Alone and in silence
the two beasts sped across the moonlit clearing. Numa gained with
appalling rapidity upon the fleeing man, yet at every bound Tarzan
was nearer to the vine-clad wall. Once the ape-man glanced back.
Numa was so close upon him that it seemed inevitable that at the
next bound he should drag him down; so close was he that the ape-man
drew his knife as he ran, that he might at least give a good account
of himself in the last moments of his life.

But Numa had reached the limit of his speed and endurance. Gradually
he dropped behind but he did not give up the pursuit, and now Tarzan
realized how much hinged upon the strength of the untested vines.

If, at the inception of the race, only Goro and the stars had looked
down upon the contestants, such was not the case at its finish,
since from an embrasure near the summit of the wall two close-set
black eyes peered down upon the two. Tarzan was a dozen yards
ahead of Numa when he reached the wall. There was no time to stop
and institute a search for sturdy stems and safe handholds. His
fate was in the hands of chance and with the realization he gave a
final spurt and running catlike up the side of the wall among the
vines, sought with his hands for something that would sustain his
weight. Below him Numa leaped also.

Chapter XVIII

Among the Maniacs

As the lions swarmed over her protectors, Bertha Kircher shrank
back in the cave in a momentary paralysis of fright super-induced,
perhaps, by the long days of terrific nerve strain which she had
undergone.

Mingled with the roars of the lions had been the voices of men,
and presently out of the confusion and turmoil she felt the near
presence of a human being, and