ded.
Already Tubuto, young, agile and evil-minded, with face hideously
painted, was practicing the black art upon a sick infant in the fond
hope of succeeding to the office and perquisites of Rabba Kega.
Tonight the women of the old witch-doctor would moan and howl.
Tomorrow he would be forgotten. Such is life, such is fame, such is
power--in the center of the world's highest civilization, or in the
depths of the black, primeval jungle. Always, everywhere, man is man,
nor has he altered greatly beneath his veneer since he scurried into a
hole between two rocks to escape the tyrannosaurus six million years
ago.

The morning following the disappearance of Rabba Kega, the warriors set
out with Mbonga, the chief, to examine the trap they had set for Numa.
Long before they reached the cage, they heard the roaring of a great
lion and guessed that they had made a successful bag, so it was with
shouts of joy that they approached the spot where they should find
their captive.

Yes! There he was, a great, magnificent specimen--a huge, black-maned
lion. The warriors were frantic with delight. They leaped into the
air and uttered savage cries--hoarse victory cries, and then they came
closer, and the cries died upon their lips, and their eyes went wide so
that the whites showed all around their irises, and their pendulous
lower lips drooped with their drooping jaws. They drew back in terror
at the sight within the cage--the mauled and mutilated corpse of what
had, yesterday, been Rabba Kega, the witch-doctor.

The captured lion had been too angry and frightened to feed upon the
body of his kill; but he had vented upon it much of his rage, until it
was a frightful thing to behold.

From his perch in a near-by tree Tarzan of the Apes, Lord Greystoke,
looked down upon the black warriors and grinned. Once again his
self-pride in his ability as a practical joker asserted itself. It had
lain dormant for some time following the painful mauling he had
received that time he leaped among the apes of Kerchak clothed in the
skin of Numa; but this joke was a decided success.

After a few moments of terror, the blacks came closer to the cage, rage
taking the place of fear--rage and curiosity. How had Rabba Kega
happened to be in the cage? Where was the kid? There was no sign nor
remnant of the original bait. They looked closely and they saw, to
their horror, that the corpse of their erstwhile fellow was bound with
the very cord wi