on the carcass
of his kill, raised his voice in the victory cry of the bull ape.

Like an answering challenge came suddenly to the ears of the
ape-man the thunderous roar of a lion, a hideous angry roar in which
Tarzan thought that he discerned a note of surprise and terror. In
the breast of the wild things of the jungle, as in the breasts of
their more enlightened brothers and sisters of the human race, the
characteristic of curiosity is well developed. Nor was Tarzan far
from innocent of it. The peculiar note in the roar of his hereditary
enemy aroused a desire to investigate, and so, throwing the carcass
of Bara, the deer, across his shoulder, the ape-man took to the
lower terraces of the forest and moved quickly in the direction
from which the sound had come, which was in line with the trail he
had set out upon.

As the distance lessened, the sounds increased in volume, which
indicated that he was approaching a very angry lion and presently,
where a jungle giant overspread the broad game trail that countless
thousands of hoofed and padded feet had worn and trampled into a
deep furrow during perhaps countless ages, he saw beneath him the
lion pit of the Wamabos and in it, leaping futilely for freedom
such a lion as even Tarzan of the Apes never before had beheld. A
mighty beast it was that glared up at the ape-man--large, powerful
and young, with a huge black mane and a coat so much darker than
any Tarzan ever had seen that in the depths of the pit it looked
almost black--a black lion!

Tarzan who had been upon the point of taunting and reviling his
captive foe was suddenly turned to open admiration for the beauty
of the splendid beast. What a creature! How by comparison the
ordinary forest lion was dwarfed into insignificance! Here indeed
was one worthy to be called king of beasts. With his first sight of
the great cat the ape-man knew that he had heard no note of terror
in that initial roar; surprise doubtless, but the vocal chords of
that mighty throat never had reacted to fear.

With growing admiration came a feeling of quick pity for the hapless
situation of the great brute rendered futile and helpless by the
wiles of the Gomangani. Enemy though the beast was, he was less an
enemy to the ape-man than those blacks who had trapped him, for
though Tarzan of the Apes claimed many fast and loyal friends among
certain tribes of African natives, there were others of degraded
character and bestial habits that he