ad
upon one side, and contemplated it gravely for several minutes. Then
he carefully re-covered it, arranging the earth as neatly as had the
blacks. This done, he swung himself back among the branches of the
trees and moved off in search of his hairy fellows, the great apes of
the tribe of Kerchak.

Once he crossed the trail of Numa, the lion, pausing for a moment to
hurl a soft fruit at the snarling face of his enemy, and to taunt and
insult him, calling him eater of carrion and brother of Dango, the
hyena. Numa, his yellow-green eyes round and burning with concentrated
hate, glared up at the dancing figure above him. Low growls vibrated
his heavy jowls and his great rage transmitted to his sinuous tail a
sharp, whiplike motion; but realizing from past experience the futility
of long distance argument with the ape-man, he turned presently and
struck off into the tangled vegetation which hid him from the view of
his tormentor. With a final scream of jungle invective and an apelike
grimace at his departing foe, Tarzan continued along his way.

Another mile and a shifting wind brought to his keen nostrils a
familiar, pungent odor close at hand, and a moment later there loomed
beneath him a huge, gray-black bulk forging steadily along the jungle
trail. Tarzan seized and broke a small tree limb, and at the sudden
cracking sound the ponderous figure halted. Great ears were thrown
forward, and a long, supple trunk rose quickly to wave to and fro in
search of the scent of an enemy, while two weak, little eyes peered
suspiciously and futilely about in quest of the author of the noise
which had disturbed his peaceful way.

Tarzan laughed aloud and came closer above the head of the pachyderm.

"Tantor! Tantor!" he cried. "Bara, the deer, is less fearful than
you--you, Tantor, the elephant, greatest of the jungle folk with the
strength of as many Numas as I have toes upon my feet and fingers upon
my hands. Tantor, who can uproot great trees, trembles with fear at
the sound of a broken twig."

A rumbling noise, which might have been either a sign of contempt or a
sigh of relief, was Tantor's only reply as the uplifted trunk and ears
came down and the beast's tail dropped to normal; but his eyes still
roved about in search of Tarzan. He was not long kept in suspense,
however, as to the whereabouts of the ape-man, for a second later the
youth dropped lightly to the broad head of his old friend. Then
stretching himsel