had stolen the
bow. Up into a great tree he clambered, higher and higher until he
stood swaying upon a small limb which bent low beneath his weight.
Here he had a clear and unobstructed view of the heavens. He saw Goro
and the inroads which the hungry Numa had made into his shining surface.

Raising his face to the moon, Tarzan shrilled forth his hideous
challenge. Faintly and from afar came the roar of an answering lion.
The apes shivered. Numa of the skies had answered Tarzan.

Then the ape-man fitted an arrow to his bow, and drawing the shaft far
back, aimed its point at the heart of Numa where he lay in the heavens
devouring Goro. There was a loud twang as the released bolt shot into
the dark heavens. Again and again did Tarzan of the Apes launch his
arrows at Numa, and all the while the apes of the tribe of Kerchak
huddled together in terror.

At last came a cry from Taug. "Look! Look!" he screamed. "Numa is
killed. Tarzan has killed Numa. See! Goro is emerging from the belly
of Numa," and, sure enough, the moon was gradually emerging from
whatever had devoured her, whether it was Numa, the lion, or the shadow
of the earth; but were you to try to convince an ape of the tribe of
Kerchak that it was aught but Numa who so nearly devoured Goro that
night, or that another than Tarzan preserved the brilliant god of their
savage and mysterious rites from a frightful death, you would have
difficulty--and a fight on your hands.

And so Tarzan of the Apes came back to the tribe of Kerchak, and in his
coming he took a long stride toward the kingship, which he ultimately
won, for now the apes looked up to him as a superior being.

In all the tribe there was but one who was at all skeptical about the
plausibility of Tarzan's remarkable rescue of Goro, and that one,
strange as it may seem, was Tarzan of the Apes.

End of Project Gutenberg's Jungle Tales of Tarzan, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN ***

***** This file should be named 106.txt or 106.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/106/

Produced by Judith Boss. HTML version by Al Haines.

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(an