e lion. The effect of the noise upon Numa seemed but to
enrage him further, and with a horrid roar he sprang for the author
of the new and disquieting sound that had outraged his ears.

Simultaneously Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick vaulted nimbly
out of the cockpit on the opposite side of his plane, calling to
the girl to follow his example. The girl, realizing the futility
of leaping to the ground, chose the remaining alternative and
clambered to the top of the upper plane.

Numa, unaccustomed to the idiosyncrasies of construction of an
airship and having gained the forward cockpit, watched the girl
clamber out of his reach without at first endeavoring to prevent
her. Having taken possession of the plane his anger seemed suddenly
to leave him and he made no immediate move toward following
Smith-Oldwick. The girl, realizing the comparative safety of her
position, had crawled to the outer edge of the wing and was calling
to the man to try and reach the opposite end of the upper plane.

It was this scene upon which Tarzan of the Apes looked as he
rounded the bend of the gorge above the plane after the pistol shot
had attracted his attention. The girl was so intent upon watching
the efforts of the Englishman to reach a place of safety, and the
latter was so busily occupied in attempting to do so that neither
at once noticed the silent approach of the ape-man.

It was Numa who first noticed the intruder. The lion immediately
evinced his displeasure by directing toward him a snarling countenance
and a series of warning growls. His action called the attention of
the two upon the upper plane to the newcomer, eliciting a stifled
"Thank God!" from the girl, even though she could scarce credit the
evidence of her own eyes that it was indeed the savage man, whose
presence always assured her safety, who had come so providentially
in the nick of time.

Almost immediately both were horrified to see Numa leap from the
cockpit and advance upon Tarzan. The ape-man, carrying his stout
spear in readiness, moved deliberately onward to meet the carnivore,
which he had recognized as the lion of the Wamabos' pit. He knew
from the manner of Numa's approach what neither Bertha Kircher nor
Smith-Oldwick knew--that there was more of curiosity than belligerency
in it, and he wondered if in that great head there might not be a
semblance of gratitude for the kindness that Tarzan had done him.

There was no question in Tarzan's mind but