Tarzan the Terrible | Page 8

he opened
his eyes he saw that his companion was also astir, and glancing around quickly to
apprehend the cause of the disturbance, the ape-man was astounded at the sight which
met his eyes.
The dim shadow of a colossal form reared close beside the tree and he saw that it was the
scraping of the giant body against the branches that had awakened him. That such a
tremendous creature could have approached so closely without disturbing him filled
Tarzan with both wonderment and chagrin. In the gloom the ape-man at first conceived
the intruder to be an elephant; yet, if so, one of greater proportions than any he had ever
before seen, but as the dim outlines became less indistinct he saw on a line with his eyes
and twenty feet above the ground the dim silhouette of a grotesquely serrated back that
gave the impression of a creature whose each and every spinal vertebra grew a thick,
heavy horn. Only a portion of the back was visible to the ape-man, the rest of the body
being lost in the dense shadows beneath the tree, from whence there now arose the sound
of giant jaws powerfully crunching flesh and bones. From the odors that rose to the
ape-man's sensitive nostrils he presently realized that beneath him was some huge reptile
feeding upon the carcass of the lion that had been slain there earlier in the night.
As Tarzan's eyes, straining with curiosity, bored futilely into the dark shadows he felt a
light touch upon his shoulder, and, turning, saw that his companion was attempting to
attract his attention. The creature, pressing a forefinger to his own lips as to enjoin silence,
attempted by pulling on Tarzan's arm to indicate that they should leave at once.
Realizing that he was in a strange country, evidently infested by creatures of titanic size,
with the habits and powers of which he was entirely unfamiliar, the ape-man permitted
himself to be drawn away. With the utmost caution the pithecanthropus descended the

tree upon the opposite side from the great nocturnal prowler, and, closely followed by
Tarzan, moved silently away through the night across the plain.
The ape-man was rather loath thus to relinquish an opportunity to inspect a creature
which he realized was probably entirely different from anything in his past experience;
yet he was wise enough to know when discretion was the better part of valor and now, as
in the past, he yielded to that law which dominates the kindred of the wild, preventing
them from courting danger uselessly, whose lives are sufficiently filled with danger in
their ordinary routine of feeding and mating.
As the rising sun dispelled the shadows of the night, Tarzan found himself again upon the
verge of a great forest into which 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