ruck the limb on which Tarzan had been, Tarzan was no
longer there.

Instead he perched lightly upon a smaller branch twenty feet above the
raging captive. For a moment Sabor hung half across the branch, while
Tarzan mocked, and hurled twigs and branches at her unprotected face.

Presently the beast dropped to the earth again and Tarzan came quickly
to seize the rope, but Sabor had now found that it was only a slender
cord that held her, and grasping it in her huge jaws severed it before
Tarzan could tighten the strangling noose a second time.

Tarzan was much hurt. His well-laid plan had come to naught, so he sat
there screaming at the roaring creature beneath him and making mocking
grimaces at it.

Sabor paced back and forth beneath the tree for hours; four times she
crouched and sprang at the dancing sprite above her, but might as well
have clutched at the illusive wind that murmured through the tree tops.

At last Tarzan tired of the sport, and with a parting roar of challenge
and a well-aimed ripe fruit that spread soft and sticky over the
snarling face of his enemy, he swung rapidly through the trees, a
hundred feet above the ground, and in a short time was among the
members of his tribe.

Here he recounted the details of his adventure, with swelling chest and
so considerable swagger that he quite impressed even his bitterest
enemies, while Kala fairly danced for joy and pride.

Chapter IX

Man and Man

Tarzan of the Apes lived on in his wild, jungle existence with little
change for several years, only that he grew stronger and wiser, and
learned from his books more and more of the strange worlds which lay
somewhere outside his primeval forest.

To him life was never monotonous or stale. There was always Pisah, the
fish, to be caught in the many streams and the little lakes, and Sabor,
with her ferocious cousins to keep one ever on the alert and give zest
to every instant that one spent upon the ground.

Often they hunted him, and more often he hunted them, but though they
never quite reached him with those cruel, sharp claws of theirs, yet
there were times when one could scarce have passed a thick leaf between
their talons and his smooth hide.

Quick was Sabor, the lioness, and quick were Numa and Sheeta, but
Tarzan of the Apes was lightning.

With Tantor, the elephant, he made friends. How? Ask not. But this
is known to the denizens of the jungle, that on many moonlight nights
Tarz