lowly, with the easy grace of a
creature of the wilds and all the quiet dignity that was his birthright.

Numa halted as he saw the man standing at the very spot where the king
would drink. His jaws were parted, and his cruel eyes gleamed. He
growled and advanced slowly. The man growled, too, backing slowly to
one side, and watching, not the lion's face, but its tail. Should that
commence to move from side to side in quick, nervous jerks, it would be
well to be upon the alert, and should it rise suddenly erect, straight
and stiff, then one might prepare to fight or flee; but it did neither,
so Tarzan merely backed away and the lion came down and drank scarce
fifty feet from where the man stood.

Tomorrow they might be at one another's throats, but today there
existed one of those strange and inexplicable truces which so often are
seen among the savage ones of the jungle. Before Numa had finished
drinking, Tarzan had returned into the forest, and was swinging away in
the direction of the village of Mbonga, the black chief.

It had been at least a moon since the ape-man had called upon the
Gomangani. Not since he had restored little Tibo to his grief-stricken
mother had the whim seized him to do so. The incident of the adopted
balu was a closed one to Tarzan. He had sought to find something upon
which to lavish such an affection as Teeka lavished upon her balu, but
a short experience of the little black boy had made it quite plain to
the ape-man that no such sentiment could exist between them.

The fact that he had for a time treated the little black as he might
have treated a real balu of his own had in no way altered the vengeful
sentiments with which he considered the murderers of Kala. The
Gomangani were his deadly enemies, nor could they ever be aught else.
Today he looked forward to some slight relief from the monotony of his
existence in such excitement as he might derive from baiting the blacks.

It was not yet dark when he reached the village and took his place in
the great tree overhanging the palisade. From beneath came a great
wailing out of the depths of a near-by hut. The noise fell
disagreeably upon Tarzan's ears--it jarred and grated. He did not like
it, so he decided to go away for a while in the hopes that it might
cease; but though he was gone for a couple of hours the wailing still
continued when he returned.

With the intention of putting a violent termination to the annoying
sound,