urning
SPAHIS. At last the valley was submerged in shadow Tarzan was too
proud to go back to camp until he had given the detachment ample time
to return to the valley, which he thought was to have been their
rendezvous. With the closing in of night he felt safer from attack,
for he was at home in the dark. He knew that none might approach him
so cautiously as to elude those alert and sensitive ears of his; then
there were his eyes, too, for he could see well at night; and his nose,
if they came toward him from up-wind, would apprise him of the approach
of an enemy while they were still a great way off.

So he felt that he was in little danger, and thus lulled to a sense of
security he fell asleep, with his back against the tree.

He must have slept for several hours, for when he was suddenly awakened
by the frightened snorting and plunging of his horse the moon was
shining full upon the little valley, and there, not ten paces before
him, stood the grim cause of the terror of his mount.

Superb, majestic, his graceful tail extended and quivering, and his two
eyes of fire riveted full upon his prey, stood Numa EL ADREA, the black
lion. A little thrill of joy tingled through Tarzan's nerves. It was
like meeting an old friend after years of separation. For a moment he
sat rigid to enjoy the magnificent spectacle of this lord of the
wilderness.

But now Numa was crouching for the spring. Very slowly Tarzan raised
his gun to his shoulder. He had never killed a large animal with a gun
in all his life--heretofore he had depended upon his spear, his
poisoned arrows, his rope, his knife, or his bare hands. Instinctively
he wished that he had his arrows and his knife--he would have felt
surer with them.

Numa was lying quite flat upon the ground now, presenting only his
head. Tarzan would have preferred to fire a little from one side, for
he knew what terrific damage the lion could do if he lived two minutes,
or even a minute after he was hit. The horse stood trembling in terror
at Tarzan's back. The ape-man took a cautious step to one side--Numa
but followed him with his eyes. Another step he took, and then
another. Numa had not moved. Now he could aim at a point between the
eye and the ear.

His finger tightened upon the trigger, and as he fired Numa sprang. At
the same instant the terrified horse made a last frantic effort to
escape--the tether parted, and he went careening down the canon toward
the dese