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witch-doctor, Rabba Kega, until Tarzan had stolen it from the village.
With this he made his way back through the jungle toward the village of the blacks, stopping to hunt and
feed upon the way, and, in the afternoon, even napping for an hour, so that it was already dusk when he
entered the great tree which overhung the palisade and gave him a view of the entire village. He saw that
Numa was still alive and that the guards were even dozing beside the cage. A lion is no great novelty to a
black man in the lion country, and the first keen edge of their desire to worry the brute having worn off,
the villagers paid little or no attention to the great cat, preferring now to await the grand event of the night.
Nor was it long after dark before the festivities commenced. To the beating of tom-toms, a lone warrior,
crouched half doubled, leaped into the firelight in the center of a great circle of other warriors, behind
whom stood or squatted the women and the children. The dancer was painted and armed for the hunt
and his movements and gestures suggested the search for the spoor of game. Bending low, sometimes
resting for a moment on one knee, he searched the ground for signs of the quarry; again he poised,
statuesque, listening. The warrior was young and lithe and graceful; he was full-muscled and
arrow-straight. The firelight glistened upon his ebon body and brought out into bold relief the grotesque
designs painted upon his face, breasts, and abdomen.
Presently he bent low to the earth, then leaped high in air. Every line of face and body showed that he
had struck the scent. Immediately he leaped toward the circle of warriors about him, telling them of his
find and summoning them to the hunt. It was all in pantomime; but so truly done that even Tarzan could
follow it all to the least detail.
He saw the other warriors grasp their hunting spears and leap to their feet to join in the graceful, stealthy
"stalking dance." It was very interesting; but Tarzan realized that if he was to carry his design to a
successful conclusion he must act quickly. He had seen these dances before and knew that after the stalk
would come the game at bay and then the kill, during which Numa would be surrounded by warriors, and
unapproachable.
With the lion's skin under one arm the ape-man dropped to the ground in the dense shadows beneath
the tree and then circled behind the huts until he came out directly in the rear of the cage, in which Numa
paced nervously to and fro. The cage was now unguarded, the two warriors having left it to take their
places among the other dancers.
Behind the cage Tarzan adjusted the lion's skin about him, just as he had upon that memorable occasion
when the apes of Kerchak, failing to pierce his disguise, had all but slain him. Then, on hands and knees,
he crept forward, emerged from between the two huts and stood a few paces back of the dusky
audience, whose whole attention was centered upon the dancers before them.
Tarzan saw that the blacks had now worked themselves to a proper pitch of nervous excitement to be
ripe for the lion. In a moment the ring of spectators would break at a point nearest the caged lion and the
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victim would be rolled into the center of the circle. It was for this moment that Tarzan waited.
At last it came. A signal was given by Mbonga, the chief, at which the women and children immediately
in front of Tarzan rose and moved to one side, leaving a broad path opening toward the caged lion. At
the same instant Tarzan gave voice to the low, couching roar of an angry lion and slunk slowly forward
through the open lane toward the frenzied dancers.
A woman saw him first and screamed. Instantly there was a panic in the immediate vicinity of the
ape-man. The strong light from the fire fell full upon the lion head and the blacks leaped to the conclusion,
as Tarzan had known they would, that their captive had escaped his cage.
With another roar, Tarzan moved forward. The dancing warriors paused but an instant. They had been
hunting a lion securely housed within a strong cage, and now that he was at liberty among them, an
entirely different aspect was placed upon the matter. Their nerves were not attuned to this emergency.
The women and children already had fled to the questionable safety of the nearest huts, and the warriors
were not long in following their example, so that presently Tarzan was left in sole possession of the village
street.
But not for long. Nor did he wish to be left thus long alone. It would not comport with his scheme.
Presently a head peered forth from a near-by hut, and then another and another until a score or more of
warriors were looking out upon him, waiting for his next move waiting for the lion to charge or to
attempt to escape from the village.
Their spears were ready in their hands against either a charge or a bolt for freedom, and then the lion
rose erect upon its hind legs, the tawny skin dropped from it and there stood revealed before them in the
firelight the straight young figure of the white devil-god.
For an instant the blacks were too astonished to act. They feared this apparition fully as much as they
did Numa, yet they would gladly have slain the thing could they quickly enough have gathered together
their wits; but fear and superstition and a natural mental density held them paralyzed while the ape-man
stooped and gathered up the lion skin. They saw him turn then and walk back into the shadows at the far
end of the village. Not until then did they gain courage to pursue him, and when they had come in force,
with brandished spears and loud war cries, the quarry was gone.
Not an instant did Tarzan pause in the tree. Throwing the skin over a branch he leaped again into the
village upon the opposite side of the great bole, and diving into the shadow of a hut, ran quickly to where
lay the caged lion. Springing to the top of the cage he pulled upon the cord which raised the door, and a
moment later a great lion in the prime of his strength and vigor leaped out into the village.
The warriors, returning from a futile search for Tarzan, saw him step into the firelight. Ah! there was the
devil-god again, up to his old trick. Did he think he could twice fool the men of Mbonga, the chief, the
same way in so short a time? They would show him! For long they had waited for such an opportunity to
rid themselves forever of this fearsome jungle demon. As one they rushed forward with raised spears.
The women and the children came from the huts to witness the slaying of the devil-god. The lion turned
blazing eyes upon them and then swung about toward the advancing warriors.
With shouts of savage joy and triumph they came toward him, menacing him with their spears. The
devil-god was theirs!
And then, with a frightful roar, Numa, the lion, charged.
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The men of Mbonga, the chief, met Numa with ready spears and screams of raillery. In a solid mass of
muscled ebony they waited the coming of the devil-god; yet beneath their brave exteriors lurked a
haunting fear that all might not be quite well with them that this strange creature could yet prove
invulnerable to their weapons and inflict upon them full punishment for their effrontery. The charging lion
was all too lifelike they saw that in the brief instant of the charge; but beneath the tawny hide they knew
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