n. He has carried off Teeka."

Taug and the other bulls commenced to roar and threaten; but they did
nothing. Had the stranger bull been within sight they would have torn
him to pieces; but it did not occur to them to follow him.

"If the three bulls had been watching around the tribe this would not
have happened," said Tarzan. "Such things will happen as long as you
do not keep the three bulls watching for an enemy. The jungle is full
of enemies, and yet you let your shes and your balus feed where they
will, alone and unprotected. Tarzan goes now--he goes to find Teeka
and bring her back to the tribe."

The idea appealed to the other bulls. "We will all go," they cried.

"No," said Tarzan, "you will not all go. We cannot take shes and balus
when we go out to hunt and fight. You must remain to guard them or you
will lose them all."

They scratched their heads. The wisdom of his advice was dawning upon
them, but at first they had been carried away by the new idea--the idea
of following up an enemy offender to wrest his prize from him and
punish him. The community instinct was ingrained in their characters
through ages of custom. They did not know why they had not thought to
pursue and punish the offender--they could not know that it was because
they had as yet not reached a mental plane which would permit them to
work as individuals. In times of stress, the community instinct sent
them huddling into a compact herd where the great bulls, by the weight
of their combined strength and ferocity, could best protect them from
an enemy. The idea of separating to do battle with a foe had not yet
occurred to them--it was too foreign to custom, too inimical to
community interests; but to Tarzan it was the first and most natural
thought. His senses told him that there was but a single bull
connected with the attack upon Teeka and Gazan. A single enemy did not
require the entire tribe for his punishment. Two swift bulls could
quickly overhaul him and rescue Teeka.

In the past no one ever had thought to go forth in search of the shes
that were occasionally stolen from the tribe. If Numa, Sabor, Sheeta
or a wandering bull ape from another tribe chanced to carry off a maid
or a matron while no one was looking, that was the end of it--she was
gone, that was all. The bereaved husband, if the victim chanced to
have been mated, growled around for a day or two and then, if he were
strong enough, took another mate wit