Page:Tarzan the Untamed.djvu/104

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
90
TARZAN THE UNTAMED

of his prey, he would certainly come back for her, or possibly drag her in first and kill her.

Again Numa fell to feeding. The girl's nerves were at the breaking point. She wondered that she had not fainted under the strain of terror and shock. She recalled that she often had wished she might see a lion, close to, make a kill, and feed upon it. God! how realistically her wish had been granted.

Again she bethought herself of her pistol. As she had fallen the holster had slipped around so that the weapon now lay beneath her. Very slowly she reached for it; but in so doing she was forced to raise her body from the ground. Instantly the lion was aroused. With the swiftness of a cat he reached across the carcass of the horse and placed a heavy, taloned paw upon her breast, crushing her back to earth, and all the time he growled and snarled horribly. His face was a picture of frightful rage incarnate. For a moment neither moved and then from behind her the girl heard a human voice uttering beastial sounds.

Numa suddenly looked up from the girl's face at the thing beyond her. His growls increased to roars as he drew back, ripping the front of the girl's waist almost from her body with his long talons, exposing her white bosom, which through some miracle of chance the great claws did not touch.


Tarzan of the Apes had witnessed the entire encounter from the moment that Numa had leaped upon his prey. For some time before he had been watch-