ich his guide
plunged, taking nimbly to the branches of the trees through which he
made his way with the celerity of long habitude and hereditary
instinct, but though aided by a prehensile tail, fingers, and toes, the
man-thing moved through the forest with no greater ease or surety than
did the giant ape-man.

It was during this journey that Tarzan recalled the wound in his side
inflicted upon him the previous night by the raking talons of Numa, the
lion, and examining it was surprised to discover that not only was it
painless but along its edges were no indications of inflammation, the
results doubtless of the antiseptic powder his strange companion had
sprinkled upon it.

They had proceeded for a mile or two when Tarzan's companion came to
earth upon a grassy slope beneath a great tree whose branches overhung
a clear brook. Here they drank and Tarzan discovered the water to be
not only deliciously pure and fresh but of an icy temperature that
indicated its rapid descent from the lofty mountains of its origin.

Casting aside his loin cloth and weapons Tarzan entered the little pool
beneath the tree and after a moment emerged, greatly refreshed and
filled with a keen desire to breakfast. As he came out of the pool he
noticed his companion examining him with a puzzled expression upon his
face. Taking the ape-man by the shoulder he turned him around so that
Tarzan's back was toward him and then, touching the end of Tarzan's
spine with his forefinger, he curled his own tail up over his shoulder
and, wheeling the ape-man about again, pointed first at Tarzan and then
at his own caudal appendage, a look of puzzlement upon his face, the
while he jabbered excitedly in his strange tongue.

The ape-man realized that probably for the first time his companion had
discovered that he was tailless by nature rather than by accident, and
so he called attention to his own great toes and thumbs to further
impress upon the creature that they were of different species.

The fellow shook his head dubiously as though entirely unable to
comprehend why Tarzan should differ so from him but at last, apparently
giving the problem up with a shrug, he laid aside his own harness,
skin, and weapons and entered the pool.

His ablutions completed and his meager apparel redonned he seated
himself at the foot of the tree and motioning Tarzan to a place beside
him, opened the pouch that hung at his right side taking from it strips
of dried flesh an