ulterior designs upon her lord and master
or upon the fruits of their hunting. A lioness is short tempered.
Akut's bellowing annoyed her. She uttered a little rumbling growl,
taking a step toward the boy.

"The tree!" screamed Akut.

The boy turned and fled, and at the same instant the lioness charged.
The tree was but a few paces away. A limb hung ten feet from the
ground, and as the boy leaped for it the lioness leaped for him. Like
a monkey he pulled himself up and to one side. A great forepaw caught
him a glancing blow at the hips--just grazing him. One curved talon
hooked itself into the waist band of his pajama trousers, ripping them
from him as the lioness sped by. Half-naked the lad drew himself to
safety as the beast turned and leaped for him once more.

Akut, from a near-by tree, jabbered and scolded, calling the lioness
all manner of foul names. The boy, patterning his conduct after that
of his preceptor, unstoppered the vials of his invective upon the head
of the enemy, until in realization of the futility of words as weapons
he bethought himself of something heavier to hurl. There was nothing
but dead twigs and branches at hand, but these he flung at the
upturned, snarling face of Sabor just as his father had before him
twenty years ago, when as a boy he too had taunted and tantalized the
great cats of the jungle.

The lioness fretted about the bole of the tree for a short time; but
finally, either realizing the uselessness of her vigil, or prompted by
the pangs of hunger, she stalked majestically away and disappeared in
the brush that hid her lord, who had not once shown himself during the
altercation.

Freed from their retreats Akut and the boy came to the ground, to take
up their interrupted journey once more. The old ape scolded the lad
for his carelessness.

"Had you not been so intent upon the lion behind you you might have
discovered the lioness much sooner than you did."

"But you passed right by her without seeing her," retorted the boy.

Akut was chagrined.

"It is thus," he said, "that jungle folk die. We go cautiously for a
lifetime, and then, just for an instant, we forget, and--" he ground
his teeth in mimicry of the crunching of great jaws in flesh. "It is a
lesson," he resumed. "You have learned that you may not for too long
keep your eyes and your ears and your nose all bent in the same
direction."

That night the son of Tarzan was colder than he ever had been in a