levels. Here he again approached Teeka
only to be again greeted with bared fangs and menacing growls. He
sought to placate her; he urged his friendly intentions, and craned his
neck to have a look at Teeka's balu; but the she-ape was not to be
persuaded that he meant other than harm to her little one. Her
motherhood was still so new that reason was yet subservient to instinct.

Realizing the futility of attempting to catch and chastise Tarzan,
Teeka sought to escape him. She dropped to the ground and lumbered
across the little clearing about which the apes of the tribe were
disposed in rest or in the search of food, and presently Tarzan
abandoned his attempts to persuade her to permit a close examination of
the balu. The ape-man would have liked to handle the tiny thing. The
very sight of it awakened in his breast a strange yearning. He wished
to cuddle and fondle the grotesque little ape-thing. It was Teeka's
balu and Tarzan had once lavished his young affections upon Teeka.

But now his attention was diverted by the voice of Taug. The threats
that had filled the ape's mouth had turned to pleas. The tightening
noose was stopping the circulation of the blood in his legs--he was
beginning to suffer. Several apes sat near him highly interested in
his predicament. They made uncomplimentary remarks about him, for each
of them had felt the weight of Taug's mighty hands and the strength of
his great jaws. They were enjoying revenge.

Teeka, seeing that Tarzan had turned back toward the trees, had halted
in the center of the clearing, and there she sat hugging her balu and
casting suspicious glances here and there. With the coming of the
balu, Teeka's care-free world had suddenly become peopled with
innumerable enemies. She saw an implacable foe in Tarzan, always
heretofore her best friend. Even poor old Mumga, half blind and almost
entirely toothless, searching patiently for grubworms beneath a fallen
log, represented to her a malignant spirit thirsting for the blood of
little balus.

And while Teeka guarded suspiciously against harm, where there was no
harm, she failed to note two baleful, yellow-green eyes staring fixedly
at her from behind a clump of bushes at the opposite side of the
clearing.

Hollow from hunger, Sheeta, the panther, glared greedily at the
tempting meat so close at hand, but the sight of the great bulls beyond
gave him pause.

Ah, if the she-ape with her balu would but come just a