the lion but a short distance when his attention was
called to the figure of a man lowering himself laboriously from the
roof of a building upon the east side of the thoroughfare. Tarzan's
curiosity was aroused.

Chapter XXI

In the Alcove

As Smith-Oldwick realized that he was alone and practically defenseless
in an enclosure filled with great lions he was, in his weakened
condition, almost in a state verging upon hysterical terror.
Clinging to the grating for support he dared not turn his head in
the direction of the beasts behind him. He felt his knees giving
weakly beneath him. Something within his head spun rapidly around.
He became very dizzy and nauseated and then suddenly all went
black before his eyes as his limp body collapsed at the foot of
the grating.

How long he lay there unconscious he never knew; but as reason
slowly reasserted itself in his semi-conscious state he was aware
that he lay in a cool bed upon the whitest of linen in a bright
and cheery room, and that upon one side close to him was an open
window, the delicate hangings of which were fluttering in a soft
summer breeze which blew in from a sun-kissed orchard of ripening
fruit which he could see without--an old orchard in which soft,
green grass grew between the laden trees, and where the sun filtered
through the foliage; and upon the dappled greensward a little child
was playing with a frolicsome puppy.

"God," thought the man, "what a horrible nightmare I have passed
through!" and then he felt a hand stroking his brow and cheek--a
cool and gentle hand that smoothed away his troubled recollections.
For a long minute Smith-Oldwick lay in utter peace and content
until gradually there was forced upon his sensibilities the fact
that the hand had become rough, and that it was no longer cool but
hot and moist; and suddenly he opened his eyes and looked up into
the face of a huge lion.

Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick was not only an English
gentleman and an officer in name, he was also what these implied--a
brave man; but when he realized that the sweet picture he had looked
upon was but the figment of a dream, and that in reality he still
lay where he had fallen at the foot of the grating with a lion
standing over him licking his face, the tears sprang to his eyes
and ran down his cheeks. Never, he thought, had an unkind fate
played so cruel a joke upon a human being.

For some time he lay feigning death while the lion, h