Dropping to the ground once more he picked up the trailof the girl and her captors, which he followed easilyalong what appeared to be a well-beaten trail. It wasnot long before he came to a small stream, where he quenchedhis thirst, and thereafter he saw that the trail followed in thegeneral direction of the stream, which ran southwesterly. Hereand there were cross trails and others which joined the mainavenue, and always upon each of them were the tracks andscent of the great cats, of Numa, the lion, and Sheeta, thepanther.

With the exception of a few small rodents there appeared tobe no other wild life on the surface of the valley. There was noindication of Bara, the deer, or Horta, the boar, or of Gorgo,the buffalo, Buto, Tantor, or Duro. Histah, the snake, wasthere. He saw him in the trees in greater numbers than he everhad seen Histah before; and once beside a reedy pool hecaught a scent that could have belonged to none other thanGimla the crocodile, but upon none of these did the Tar-mangani care to feed.

And so, as he craved meat, he turned his attention to thebirds above him. His assailants of the night before had notdisarmed him. Either in the darkness and the rush of thecharging lions the human foe had overlooked him or else theyhad considered him dead; but whatever the reason he stillretained his weapons -- his spear and his long knife, his bowand arrows, and his grass rope.

Fitting a shaft to his bow Tarzan awaited an opportunity tobring down one of the larger birds, and when the opportunityfinally presented itself he drove the arrow straight to its mark.As the gaily plumaged creature fluttered to earth its compan-ions and the little monkeys set up a most terrific chorus ofwails and screaming protests. The whole forest becamesuddenly a babel of hoarse screams and shrill shrieks.

Tarzan would not have been surprised had one or two birdsin the immediate vicinity given voice to terror as they fled, butthat the whole life of the jungle should set up so weird a pro-test filled him with disgust. It was an angry face that he turnedup toward the monkeys and the birds as there suddenly stirredwithin him a savage inclination to voice his displeasure andhis answer to what he considered their challenge. And so itwas that there broke upon this jungle for the first time Tarzan'shideous scream of victory and challenge.

The effect upon the creatures above him was instantaneous.Where before the air had trembled to the din of their voices,now utter silence reigned and a moment later the ape-man wasalone with his puny kill.

The silence following so closely the previous tumult carrieda sinister impression to the ape-man, which still furtheraroused his anger. Picking the bird from where it had fallenhe withdrew his arrow from the body and returned it to hisquiver. Then with his knife he quickly and deftly removed theskin and feathers together. He ate angrily, growling as thoughactually menaced by a near-by foe, and perhaps, too, hisgrowls were partially induced by the fact that he did not carefor the flesh of birds. Better this, however, than nothing andfrom what his senses had told him there was no flesh in thevicinity such as he was accustomed to and cared most for.How he would have enjoyed a juicy haunch from Pacco, thezebra, or a steak from the loin of Gorgo, the buffalo! The verythought made his mouth water and increased his resentmentagainst this unnatural forest that harbored no such deliciousquarry.

He had but partially consumed his kill when he suddenlybecame aware of a movement in the brush at no great distancefrom him and downwind, and a moment later his nostrilspicked up the scent of Numa from the opposite direction, andthen upon either side he caught the fall of padded feet and thebrushing of bodies against leafy branches. The ape-mansmiled. What stupid creature did they think him, to be sur-prised by such clumsy stalkers? Gradually the sounds andscents indicated that lions were moving upon him from alldirections, that he was in the center of a steadily convergingcircle of beasts. Evidently they were so sure of their prey thatthey were making no effort toward stealth, for he heard twigscrack beneath their feet, and the brushing of their bodiesagainst the vegetation through which they forced their way.

He wondered what could have brought them. It seemedunreasonable to believe that the cries of the birds and themonkeys should have summoned them, and yet, if not, it wasindeed a remarkable coincidence. His judgment told him thatthe death of a single bird in this forest which teemed withbirds could scarce be of sufficient moment to warrant thatwhich followed. Yet even in the face of reason and past experi-ence he found that the whole affair perplexed him.

He stood in the center of the trail awaiting the coming ofthe lions and wondering what would be the method of theirattack or if they would indeed attack. Presently a maned lioncame into view along the trail below him. At sight of him thelion halted. The beast was similar to those that had attackedhim earlier in the day, a trifle larger and a trifle darker thanthelions of his native jungles, but neither so large nor so black asNuma of the pit.

Presently he distinguished the outlines of other lions in thesurrounding brush and among the trees. Each of them haltedas it came within sight of the ape-man and there they stoodregarding him in silence. Tarzan wondered how long it wouldbe before they charged and while he waited he resumed hisfeeding, though with every sense constantly alert.

One by one the lions lay down, but always their faces weretoward him and their eyes upon him. There had been nogrowling and no roaring -- just the quiet drawing of the silentcircle about him. It was all so entirely foreign to anything thatTarzan ever before had seen lions do that it irritated him sothat presently, having finished his repast, he fell to makinginsulting remarks to first one and then another of the lions,after the habit he had learned from the apes of his childhood.

"Dango, eater of carrion," he called them, and he comparedthem most unfavorably with Histah, the snake, the mostloathed and repulsive creature of the jungle. Finally he threwhandfuls of earth at them and bits of broken twigs, and thenthe lions growled and bared their fangs, but none of themadvanced.

"Cowards," Tarzan taunted them. "Numa with a heart ofBara, the deer." He told them who he was, and after themanner of the jungle folk he boasted as to the horrible thingshe would do to them, but the lions only lay and watched him.

It must have been a half hour after their coming that Tar-zan caught in the distance along the trail the sound of foot-steps approaching. They were the footsteps of a creature whowalked upon two legs, and though Tarzan could catch noscent spoor from that direction he knew that a man wasapproaching. Nor had he long to wait before his judgmentwas confirmed by the appearance of a man who halted in thetrail directly behind the first lion that Tarzan had seen.

At sight of the newcomer the ape-man realized that herewas one similar to those who had given off the unfamiliarscent spoor that he had detected the previous night, and hesaw that not only in the matter of scent did the man differfrom other human beings with whom Tarzan was familiar.

The fellow was strongly built with skin of a leathery ap-pearance, like parchment yellowed with age. His hair, whichwas coal black and three or four inches in length, grew outstiffly at right angles to his scalp. His eyes were close set andthe irises densely black and very small, so that the white ofthe eyeball showed around them. The man's face was smoothexcept for a few straggly hairs on his chin and upper lip.The nose was aquiline and fine, but the hair grew so far downon the forehead as to suggest a very low and brutal type.The upper lip was short and fine while the lower lip wasrather heavy and inclined to be pendulous, the chin beingequally weak. Altogether the face carried the suggestion ofa once strong and handsome countenance entirely altered byphysical violence or by degraded habits and thoughts. Theman's arms were long, though not abnormally so, while hislegs were short, though straight.

He was clothed in tight-fitting nether garments and a loose,sleeveless tunic that fell just below his hips, while his feetwere shod in soft-soled sandals, the wrappings of which ex-tended halfway to his knees, closely resembling a modernspiral military legging. He carried a short, heavy spear, andat his side swung a weapon that at first so astonished the ape-man that he could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses-- a heavy saber in a leather-covered scabbard. The man'stunic appeared to have been fabricated upon a loom -- it wascertainly not made of skins, while the garments that coveredhis legs were quite as evidently made from the hides ofrodents.

Tarzan noted the utter unconcern with which the manapproached the lions, and the equal indifference of Numa tohim. The fellow paused for a moment as though appraisingthe ape-man and then pushed on past the lions, brushingagainst the tawny hide as he passed him in the trail.

About twenty feet from Tarzan the man stopped, addressingthe former in a strange jargon, no syllable of which wasintelligible to the Tarmangani. His gestures indicated numer-ous references to the lions surrounding them, and once hetouched his spear with the forefinger of his left hand andtwice he struck the saber at his hip.

While he spoke Tarzan studied the fellow closely, with theresult that there fastened itself upon his mind a strange con-viction -- that the man who addressed him was what mightonly be described as a rational maniac. As the thought cameto the ape-man he could not but smile, so paradoxical thedescription seemed. Yet a closer study of the man's features,carriage, and the contour of his head carried almost incon-trovertibly the assurance that he was insane, while the tonesof his voice and his gestures resembled those of a sane andintelligent mortal.

Presently the man had concluded his speech and appearedto be waiting questioningly Tarzan's reply. The ape-manspoke to the other first in the language of the great apes, buthe soon saw that the words carried no conviction to hislistener. Then with equal futility he tried several nativedialects but to none of these did the man respond.

By this time Tarzan began to lose patience. He had wastedsufficient time by the road, and as he had never dependedmuch upon speech in the accomplishment of his ends, he nowraised his spear and advanced toward the other. This, evi-dently, was a language common to both, for instantly thefellow raised his own weapon and at the same time a lowcall broke from his lips, a call which instantly brought toaction every lion in the hitherto silent circle. A volley ofroars shattered the silence of the forest and simultaneouslylions sprang into view upon all sides as they closed in rapidlyupon their quarry. The man who had called them steppedback, his teeth bared in a mirthless grin.

It was then that Tarzan first noticed that the fellow's uppercanines were unusually long and exceedingly sharp. It wasjust a flashing glimpse he got of them as he leaped agilelyfrom the ground and, to the consternation of both the lionsand their master, disappeared in the foliage of the lowerterrace, flinging back over his shoulder as he swung rapidlyaway: "I am Tarzan of the Apes; mighty hunter; mightyfighter! None in the jungle more powerful, none more cun-ning than Tarzan!"

A short distance beyond the point at which they had sur-rounded him, Tarzan came to the trail again and sought forthe spoor of Bertha Kircher and Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick.He found them quickly and continued upon his search for thetwo. The spoor lay directly along the trail for another half-mile when the way suddenly debouched from the forest intoopen land and there broke upon the astonished view of theape-man the domes and minarets of a walled city.

Directly before him in the wall nearest him Tarzan saw alow-arched gateway to which a well-beaten trail led fromthat which he had been following. In the open space betweenthe forest and the city walls, quantities of garden stuff wasgrowing, while before him at his feet, in an open man-madeditch, ran a stream of water! The plants in the garden werelaid out in well-spaced, symmetrical rows and appeared tohave been given excellent attention and cultivation. Tinystreams were trickling between the rows from the main ditchbefore him and at some distance to his right he could seepeople at work among the plants.

The city wall appeared to be about thirty feet in height,its plastered expanse unbroken except by occasional em-brasures. Beyond the wall rose the domes of several struc-tures and numerous minarets dotted the sky line of the city.The largest and central dome appeared to be gilded, whileothers were red, or blue, or yellow. The architecture of thewall itself was of uncompromising simplicity. It was of acream shade and appeared to be plastered and painted. Atits base was a line of well-tended shrubs and at some distancetowards its eastern extremity it was vine covered to the top.

As he stood in the shadow of the trail, his keen eyes takingin every detail of the picture before him, he became aware ofthe approach of a party in his rear and there was borne tohim the scent of the man and the lions whom he had soreadily escaped. Taking to the trees Tarzan moved a shortdistance to the west and, finding a comfortable crotch at theedge of the forest where he could watch the trail leadingthrough the gardens to the city gate, he awaited the return ofhis would-be captors. And soon they came -- the strange manfollowed by the pack of great lions. Like dogs they movedalong behind him down the trail among the gardens to thegate.

Here the man struck upon the panels of the door with thebutt of his spear, and when it opened in response to his signalhe passed in with his lions. Beyond the open door Tarzan,from his distant perch, caught but a fleeting glimpse of lifewithin the city, just enough to indicate that there were otherhuman creatures who abode there, and then the door closed.

Through that door he knew that the girl and the man whomhe sought to succor had been taken into the city. What fatelay in store for them or whether already it had been metedout to them he could not even guess, nor where, within thatforbidding wall, they were incarcerated he could not know.But of one thing he was assured: that if he were to aid themhe could not do it from outside the wall. He must gainentrance to the city first, nor did he doubt, that once within,his keen senses would eventually reveal the whereabouts ofthose whom he sought.

The low sun was casting long shadows across the gardenswhen Tarzan saw the workers returning from the eastern field.A man came first, and as he came he lowered little gates alongthe large ditch of running water, shutting off the streams thathad run between the rows of growing plants; and behind himcame other men carrying burdens of fresh vegetables in greatwoven baskets upon their shoulders. Tarzan had not realizedthat there had been so many men working in the field, butnow as he sat there at the close of the day he saw a processionfiling in from the east, bearing the tools and the produce backinto the city.

And then, to gain a better view, the ape-man ascended tothe topmost branches of a tall tree where he overlooked thenearer wall. From this point of vantage he saw that the citywas long and narrow, and that while the outer walls formeda perfect rectangle, the streets within were winding. Towardthe center of the city there appeared to be a low, whitebuilding around which the larger edifices of the city had beenbuilt, and here, in the fast-waning light, Tarzan thought thatbetween two buildings he caught the glint of water, but ofthat he was not sure. His experience of the centers of civiliza-tion naturally inclined him to believe that this central areawas a plaza about which the larger buildings were groupedand that there would be the most logical place to search firstfor Bertha Kircher and her companion.

And then the sun went down and darkness quickly en-veloped the city -- a darkness that was accentuated for theape-man rather than relieved by the artificial lights whichimmediately appeared in many of the windows visible to him.

Tarzan had noticed that the roofs of most of the buildingswere flat, the few exceptions being those of what he imaginedto be the more pretentious public structures. How this cityhad come to exist in this forgotten part of unexplored Africathe ape-man could not conceive. Better than another, herealized something of the unsolved secrets of the Great DarkContinent, enormous areas of which have as yet been un-touched by the foot of civilized man. Yet he could scarcebelieve that a city of this size and apparently thus well con-structed could have existed for the generations that it musthave been there, without intercourse with the outer world.Even though it was surrounded by a trackless desert waste, ashe knew it to be, he could not conceive that generation aftergeneration of men could be born and die there without at-tempting to solve the mysteries of the world beyond theconfines of their little valley.

And yet, here was the city surrounded by tilled land andfilled with people!

With the coming of night there arose throughout the junglethe cries of the great cats, the voice of Numa blended withthat of Sheeta, and the thunderous roars of the great malesreverberated through the forest until the earth trembled, andfrom within the city came the answering roars of other lions.

A simple plan for gaining entrance to the city had occurredto Tarzan, and now that darkness had fallen he set about toput it into effect. Its success hinged entirely upon the strengthof the vines he had seen surmounting the wall toward theeast. In this direction he made his way, while from out ofthe forest about him the cries of the flesh-eaters increased involume and ferocity. A quarter of a mile intervened betweenthe forest and the city wall -- a quarter of a mile of cultivatedland unrelieved by a single tree. Tarzan of the Apes realizedhis limitations and so he knew that it would undoubtedlyspell death for him to be caught in the open space by one ofthe great black lions of the forest if, as he had already sur-mised, Numa of the pit was a specimen of the forest lion of thevalley.

He must, therefore, depend entirely upon his cunning andhis speed, and upon the chance that the vine would sustainhis weight.

He moved through the middle terrace, where the way isalways easiest, until he reached a point opposite the vine-cladportion of the wall, and there he waited, listening and scenting,until he might assure himself that there was no Numa withinhis immediate vicinity, or, at least, none that sought him. Andwhen he was quite sure that there was no lion close by in theforest, and none in the clearing between himself and the wall,he dropped lightly to the ground and moved stealthily out intothe open.

The rising moon, just topping the eastern cliffs, cast itsbright rays upon the long stretch of open garden beneath thewall. And, too, it picked out in clear relief for any curiouseyes that chanced to be cast in that direction, the figure of thegiant ape-man moving across the clearing. It was only chance,of course, that a great lion hunting at the edge of the forestsaw the figure of the man halfway between the forest and thewall. Suddenly there broke upon Tarzan's ears a menacingsound. It was not the roar of a hungry lion, but the roar ofa lion in rage, and, as he glanced back in the direction fromwhich the sound came, he saw a huge beast moving out fromthe shadow of the forest toward him.

Even in the moonlight and at a distance Tarzan saw thatthe lion was huge; that it was indeed another of the black-maned monsters similar to Numa of the pit. For an instanthe was impelled to turn and fight, but at the same time thethought of the helpless girl imprisoned in the city flashedthrough his brain and, without an instant's hesitation, Tarzanof the Apes wheeled and ran for the wall. Then it was thatNuma charged.

Numa, the lion, can run swiftly for a short distance, but helacks endurance. For the period of an ordinary charge hecan cover the ground with greater rapidity possibly than anyother creature in the world. Tarzan, on the other hand, couldrun at great speed for long distances, though never as rapidlyas Numa when the latter charged.

The question of his fate, then, rested upon whether, withhis start he could elude Numa for a few seconds; and, if so,if the lion would then have sufficient stamina remaining topursue him at a reduced gait for the balance of the distanceto the wall.

Never before, perhaps, was staged a more thrilling race,and yet it was run with only the moon and stars to see. Aloneand in silence the two beasts sped across the moonlit clearing.Numa gained with appalling rapidity upon the fleeing man,yet at every bound Tarzan was nearer to the vine-clad wall.Once the ape-man glanced back. Numa was so close uponhim that it seemed inevitable that at the next bound he shoulddrag him down; so close was he that the ape-man drew hisknife as he ran, that he might at least give a good account ofhimself in the last moments of his life.

But Numa had reached the limit of his speed and endurance.Gradually he dropped behind but he did not give up thepursuit, and now Tarzan realized how much hinged upon thestrength of the untested vines.

If, at the inception of the race, only Goro and the stars hadlooked down upon the contestants, such was not the case atits finish, since from an embrasure near the summit of thewall two close-set black eyes peered down upon the two.Tarzan was a dozen yards ahead of Numa when he reachedthe wall. There was no time to stop and institute a searchfor sturdy stems and safe handholds. His fate was in thehands of chance and with the realization he gave a final spurtand running catlike up the side of the wall among the vines,sought with his hands for something that would sustain hisweight. Below him Numa leaped also.