Tarzan the Untamed | Page 9

panther.
In the man's hand was the hunting knife of his long-dead father--the
weapon that had first given him his real ascendancy over the beasts of
the jungle; but he hoped not to be forced to use it, knowing as he did
that more jungle battles were settled by hideous growling than by
actual combat, the law of bluff holding quite as good in the jungle as
elsewhere--only in matters of love and food did the great beasts
ordinarily close with fangs and talons.
Tarzan braced himself against the bole of the tree and leaned closer
toward Sheeta.
"Stealer of balus!" he cried. The panther rose to a sitting position, his
bared fangs but a few feet from the ape-man's taunting face. Tarzan
growled hideously and struck at the cat's face with his knife. "I am

Tarzan of the Apes," he roared. "This is Tarzan's lair. Go, or I will kill
you."
Though he spoke in the language of the great apes of the jungle, it is
doubtful that Sheeta understood the words, though he knew well
enough that the hairless ape wished to frighten him from his
well-chosen station past which edible creatures might be expected to
wander sometime during the watches of the night.
Like lightning the cat reared and struck a vicious blow at his tormentor
with great, bared talons that might well have torn away the ape-man's
face had the blow landed; but it did not land--Tarzan was even quicker
than Sheeta. As the panther came to all fours again upon the little
platform, Tarzan un-slung his heavy spear and prodded at the snarling
face, and as Sheeta warded off the blows, the two continued their horrid
duet of blood-curdling roars and growls.
Goaded to frenzy the cat presently determined to come up after this
disturber of his peace; but when he essayed to leap to the branch that
held Tarzan he found the sharp spear point always in his face, and each
time as he dropped back he was prodded viciously in some tender part;
but at length, rage having conquered his better judgment, he leaped up
the rough bole to the very branch upon which Tarzan stood. Now the
two faced each other upon even footing and Sheeta saw a quick
revenge and a supper all in one. The hairless ape-thing with the tiny
fangs and the puny talons would be helpless before him.
The heavy limb bent beneath the weight of the two beasts as Sheeta
crept cautiously out upon it and Tarzan backed slowly away, growling.
The wind had risen to the proportions of a gale so that even the greatest
giants of the forest swayed, groaning, to its force and the branch upon
which the two faced each other rose and fell like the deck of a
storm-tossed ship. Goro was now entirely obscured, but vivid flashes of
lightning lit up the jungle at brief intervals, revealing the grim tableau
of primitive passion upon the swaying limb.
Tarzan backed away, drawing Sheeta farther from the stem of the tree
and out upon the tapering branch, where his footing became ever more

precarious. The cat, infuriated by the pain of spear wounds, was
overstepping the bounds of caution. Already he had reached a point
where he could do little more than maintain a secure footing, and it was
this moment that Tarzan chose to charge. With a roar that mingled with
the booming thunder from above he leaped toward the panther, who
could only claw futilely with one huge paw while he clung to the
branch with the other; but the ape-man did not come within that
parabola of destruction. Instead he leaped above menacing claws and
snapping fangs, turning in mid-air and alighting upon Sheeta's back,
and at the instant of impact his knife struck deep into the tawny side.
Then Sheeta, impelled by pain and hate and rage and the first law of
Nature, went mad. Screaming and clawing he attempted to turn upon
the ape-thing clinging to his back. For an instant he toppled upon the
now wildly gyrating limb, clutched frantically to save himself, and then
plunged downward into the darkness with Tarzan still clinging to him.
Crashing through splintering branches the two fell. Not for an instant
did the ape-man consider relinquishing his death-hold upon his
adversary. He had entered the lists in mortal combat and true to the
primitive instincts of the wild--the unwritten law of the jungle--one or
both must die before the battle ended.
Sheeta, catlike, alighted upon four out-sprawled feet, the weight of the
ape-man crushing him to earth, the long knife again imbedded in his
side. Once the panther struggled to rise; but only to sink to earth again.
Tarzan felt the giant muscles relax beneath him. Sheeta was dead.
Rising, the ape-man placed