he edge of the roofs, footsteps
approaching in one direction or another deterred him until at last
he had almost come to the conclusion that he would have to wait
for the entire city to sleep before continuing his flight.

But finally came a moment which he felt propitious and though
with inward qualms, it was with outward calm that he commenced the
descent to the street below.

When at last he stood beneath the arcade he was congratulating
himself upon the success that had attended his efforts up to this
point when, at a slight sound behind him, he turned to see a tall
figure in the yellow tunic of a warrior confronting him.

Chapter XXII

Out of the Niche

Numa, the lion, growled futilely in baffled rage as he slipped
back to the ground at the foot of the wall after his unsuccessful
attempt to drag down the fleeing ape-man. He poised to make a
second effort to follow his escaping quarry when his nose picked
up a hitherto unnoticed quality in the scent spoor of his intended
prey. Sniffing at the ground that Tarzan's feet had barely touched,
Numa's growl changed to a low whine, for he had recognized the
scent spoor of the man-thing that had rescued him from the pit of
the Wamabos.

What thoughts passed through that massive head? Who may say? But
now there was no indication of baffled rage as the great lion turned
and moved majestically eastward along the wall. At the eastern end
of the city he turned toward the south, continuing his way to the
south side of the wall along which were the pens and corrals where
the herbivorous flocks were fattened for the herds of domesticated
lions within the city. The great black lions of the forest fed
with almost equal impartiality upon the flesh of the grass-eaters
and man. Like Numa of the pit they occasionally made excursions across
the desert to the fertile valley of the Wamabos, but principally
they took their toll of meat from the herds of the walled city of
Herog, the mad king, or seized upon some of his luckless subjects.

Numa of the pit was in some respect an exception to the rule which
guided his fellows of the forest in that as a cub he had been
trapped and carried into the city, where he was kept for breeding
purposes, only to escape in his second year. They had tried to teach
him in the city of maniacs that he must not eat the flesh of man,
and the result of their schooling was that only when aroused to
anger or upon that one occasion that he had been i