search of meat.
She found Taug, though, and told him what the others were planning, and
the great bull stamped upon the ground and roared. His bloodshot eyes
blazed with wrath, his upper lip curled up to expose his fighting
fangs, and the hair upon his spine stood erect, and then a rodent
scurried across the open and Taug sprang to seize it. In an instant he
seemed to have forgotten his rage against the enemies of his friend;
but such is the mind of an ape.

Several miles away Tarzan of the Apes lolled upon the broad head of
Tantor, the elephant. He scratched beneath the great ears with the
point of a sharp stick, and he talked to the huge pachyderm of
everything which filled his black-thatched head. Little, or nothing,
of what he said did Tantor understand; but Tantor is a good listener.
Swaying from side to side he stood there enjoying the companionship of
his friend, the friend he loved, and absorbing the delicious sensations
of the scratching.

Numa, the lion, caught the scent of man, and warily stalked it until he
came within sight of his prey upon the head of the mighty tusker; then
he turned, growling and muttering, away in search of more propitious
hunting grounds.

The elephant caught the scent of the lion, borne to him by an eddying
breeze, and lifting his trunk trumpeted loudly. Tarzan stretched back
luxuriously, lying supine at full length along the rough hide. Flies
swarmed about his face; but with a leafy branch torn from a tree he
lazily brushed them away.

"Tantor," he said, "it is good to be alive. It is good to lie in the
cool shadows. It is good to look upon the green trees and the bright
colors of the flowers--upon everything which Bulamutumumo has put here
for us. He is very good to us, Tantor; He has given you tender leaves
and bark, and rich grasses to eat; to me He has given Bara and Horta
and Pisah, the fruits and the nuts and the roots. He provides for each
the food that each likes best. All that He asks is that we be strong
enough or cunning enough to go forth and take it. Yes, Tantor, it is
good to live. I should hate to die."

Tantor made a little sound in his throat and curled his trunk upward
that he might caress the ape-man's cheek with the finger at its tip.

"Tantor," said Tarzan presently, "turn and feed in the direction of the
tribe of Kerchak, the great ape, that Tarzan may ride home upon your
head without walking."

The tusker turned and moved slowly off along