f at full length, he drummed with his bare toes upon
the thick hide, and as his fingers scratched the more tender surfaces
beneath the great ears, he talked to Tantor of the gossip of the jungle
as though the great beast understood every word that he said.

Much there was which Tarzan could make Tantor understand, and though
the small talk of the wild was beyond the great, gray dreadnaught of
the jungle, he stood with blinking eyes and gently swaying trunk as
though drinking in every word of it with keenest appreciation. As a
matter of fact it was the pleasant, friendly voice and caressing hands
behind his ears which he enjoyed, and the close proximity of him whom
he had often borne upon his back since Tarzan, as a little child, had
once fearlessly approached the great bull, assuming upon the part of
the pachyderm the same friendliness which filled his own heart.

In the years of their association Tarzan had discovered that he
possessed an inexplicable power to govern and direct his mighty friend.
At his bidding, Tantor would come from a great distance--as far as his
keen ears could detect the shrill and piercing summons of the
ape-man--and when Tarzan was squatted upon his head, Tantor would
lumber through the jungle in any direction which his rider bade him go.
It was the power of the man-mind over that of the brute and it was just
as effective as though both fully understood its origin, though neither
did.

For half an hour Tarzan sprawled there upon Tantor's back. Time had no
meaning for either of them. Life, as they saw it, consisted
principally in keeping their stomachs filled. To Tarzan this was a
less arduous labor than to Tantor, for Tarzan's stomach was smaller,
and being omnivorous, food was less difficult to obtain. If one sort
did not come readily to hand, there were always many others to satisfy
his hunger. He was less particular as to his diet than Tantor, who
would eat only the bark of certain trees, and the wood of others, while
a third appealed to him only through its leaves, and these, perhaps,
just at certain seasons of the year.

Tantor must needs spend the better part of his life in filling his
immense stomach against the needs of his mighty thews. It is thus with
all the lower orders--their lives are so occupied either with searching
for food or with the processes of digestion that they have little time
for other considerations. Doubtless it is this handicap which has kept
them from ad